Who We Are

Aurora Commons is a strategy, leadership, and liberation hub with over 30 years of experience in power building and transformation and a combined 15 years in programming and arts-based education that weaves liberation for all beings. 

We are a BIPOC, queer, and woman-owned organization. We are a constellation of folx, each with a history in movement-building with unique approaches in consulting, organizing, networks and coalitions, policy-making, philanthropy, and culture creation.

  • Susan Misra

    Susan Misra

    PRINCIPAL & FOUNDER

    Susan (she/her) is a South Asian "social doula committed to helping birth a society premised on the integration and oneness of the planet, other-than-human kin, and people as a pathway to racial equity, justice, and liberation.

  • Marcela Torres

    Marcela Torres

    PROGRAM MANAGER

    Marcela (they/them) is an educator, organizer, and artist who considers how innate generational memories can spark contemporary tools of care, investigations of conflict, and relation to ethnobotany.

  • Morgane Garnier

    Morgane Garnier

    PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR

    Morgane Garnier (they/she) is a community organizer and transnational being who believes in the wholeness of people and the planet as one organism.

  • Kristin Jordan

    ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

    Kristin Jordan is an author, organizer, and abolitionist mental health and housing advocate who deeply believes in the power of radical love for all beings.

Our Network

  • Aisha Shillingford

    Aisha Shillingford

    INTELLIGENT MISCHIEF

    Aisha Shillingford (she/her) is the Artistic Director of Intelligent Mischief and a multi-disciplinary artist, world builder, designer, and cultural strategist originally from Trinidad & Tobago.

  • Ananda Valenzula

    Ananda Valenzula

    ANANDA VALENZUELA LLC

    Ananda Valenzuela (any pronouns) is an independent consultant engaged in professional interim executive director work and organizational development facilitation, with a particular focus on equitable self-management and liberatory practices. Ananda grew up in Puerto Rico and slowly made her way across the United States, holding a variety of consultant, governance, and activist roles along the way.

  • Chad Jones

    Chad Jones

    Chad Jones (he/him) is Black and a father who believes in dignity, nonviolence, and freedom. Factors influencing his facilitation skills and nonverbal communication are built on being a Taurus, a Coro Fellow in pre-9/11 New York, an ABFE Fellow, a legal observer, and a baker. He has organized money for the Movement for Black Lives and organized people for the Immigrant Worker Freedom Rides.

  • Chandra Larsen

    Chandra Larsen

    VISUALIZING CHANGE

    Chandra Larsen (she/her) uses the power of art and creativity to ignite transformative experiences for people and organizations. For over 20 years, she has worked with people committed to tackling pervasive social issues resulting from systems of oppression and violence.

  • Dara Silverman

    Dara Silverman

    Dara (she/her) is a white, queer, Jewish consultant, somatic coach, and trainer with over 20 years in organizations and movements for social, racial, economic, and gender justice. Dara partners with trainers of color to lead organizational change, community organizing, and leadership development initiatives centering racial justice, equity, and liberation.

  • Latonya Slack

    Latonya Slack

    SLACK GLOBAL CONSULTING

    Latonya Slack (she/her) is the principal and founder of Slack Global Consulting, which specializes in facilitating and assisting senior-level leaders and organizations with visioning, planning, navigating critical decisions, and creating effective strategies for success.

  • Tamitha Walker-McKinnis

    Tamitha Walker-McKinnis

    CHANGE ELEMENTAL

    Tamitha partners with movement-building, philanthropic, postsecondary, community, and faith-based organizations to build the capacity of leaders, organizations, and networks to realize justice, joy, and equity.