About Equity Allies.

There are many options for training and consulting out there.  Although didactic, lecture-based learning is common, Equity Allies offers a model that goes beyond the average course and ensures long-lasting impact on participating organizations and individuals. 

Instead of lecture-style instruction, Equity Allies offers engaging, activity-based courses that draw upon the wisdom and existing skills present within the group. By prioritizing collaborative learning and incorporating opportunities for small group dialogue, participants are more likely to experience everlasting impact from this multi-sensory approach.

This approach assures that:
A. In addition to intellectual learning, the experience and wisdom of participants is centered, surfaced and honored. The repair process is prioritized while avoiding re-traumatization.

B. The tools for equity become rooted in muscle memory. While exercised interpersonally, this allows the individual to effectively and professionally respond to harmful situations, even through discomfort.

Whether your organization is seeking executive support, Train the Trainer employee learning to ensure effective integration of equity practices, or long-term consulting to develop a lasting culture of belonging, Equity Allies will guarantee that your time is meaningfully spent and that the knowledge gained has enduring effect.

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Team Members.

Marissa Metelica
Founder & Facilitator

Marissa Metelica is a social equity consultant, cultural worker, and expert facilitator working at the intersection of embodied leadership and healing justice. With over a decade of experience, she designs and leads programs and partnerships that cultivate cultures of belonging and support individuals and groups in navigating conflict as a source of learning, growth, and transformation.
Marissa brings a grounded, relational approach to her work, partnering with institutions of higher education, city government, and nonprofits to implement just and sustainable practices that strengthen resilience, deepen empathy, and support accountable development. Central to her work is an embodied methodology she has developed that weaves together somatic group facilitation, applied theatre, and mediation—an approach she integrates across all of her social change efforts.

Jessica Coffey
Facilitator

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Jessica is a Somatic Facilitator with certifications in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, Somatic Parts Therapy, and Anti-Racist Social Justice Embodiment Practices. She is also a certified Clinical & Regression Hypnotherapist through the HypnoRegression Institute (HRI). Jessica’s work is rooted in the understanding that transformation is a political act. She guides others in the deep somatic practice of aligning their 'lived' bodies with their core values, moving beyond individual resilience toward collective liberation. Her mission is to dismantle the impact of systemic oppression and violence where it lives—in our nervous systems—allowing us to reclaim our agency in service of a more just and interdependent world. 

Austin Greene 
Program Developer & Facilitator

 Austin is an artist, graphic designer, educator, activist and organizer. He currently serves as the Director of the DreamYard Art Center in the Bronx. At DreamYard, he previously served as the Social Justice Pedagogy Expert and Lead Teaching Artist for the ACTION Project. ACTION is a four year social justice and creative arts program for Bronx high school students. ACTION participants use visual art, theatre, and poetry to talk back to the world and embody the change they hope to see in society. Austin is from Brooklyn, New York.
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Reyna Bonaparte
Facilitator 

Reyna Erika Bonaparte is a teaching artist, educator, community organizer, facilitator and poet from Harlem, NYC. She earned her Bachelor’s of Art from Bard College and received her Master’s in Applied Theatre from CUNY’s School of Professional Studies. Reyna has been involved in the arts for over 20 years and spent most of that time working at the Harlem Children Zone INC, where she ran multiple writing, media and arts programming for students across the agency’s many middle school and high school sites. For many years, Reyna has been working for People’s Theatre Project as both a facilitator and performer in the company’s Sol ensemble. Reyna is passionate about theatre for social change and activism and sees the work that Equity Allies does as crucial and necessary in order to fight global anti-blackness & oppression everywhere.

Contact Us.

Equity Allies offers many options for engagement. Workshops can be tailored to the needs of your organization. 
Please complete the contact form below for more information about our services. We would be thrilled to create a custom curriculum  for your organization or you can choose from our "off-the-shelf" workshop options.