Welcome. I’m Kaia. Thank you for reading.

I am a mother, daughter, sister and auntie as well as an advisor, educator, and author.

Some things not in my bio:

I was born on 168th street in Manhattan. I waited tables in trendy New York City restaurants for more than ten years and learned more about humanity serving people that in any seminar at Harvard Divinity School. I dropped out of law school after three hours inspired by laws that cannot be written. I was introduced to transformative education in a prison classroom. Students, whether they are in jail, prison, or at Harvard University inspire me. I love people and have been a doula for birth and death which, to me, feel like sacred passages.

Vital conversations with people who have vastly different lived experiences are essential to my work. What has sustained me while working across Harvard University for the last twenty years (in the Law School, College, Kennedy School of Government, Divinity School, and now Graduate School of Education) are the partnerships that I have built beyond the university. Whether among artists or academics, faith leaders, funders or sheriff’s departments, people who work in prisons or those condemned to them, community-based organizations or the Department of Justice, I am committed to bridge building and dialogue.

Attention is my praxis. Connecting people, I have been told, is my superpower. While I am ordained as an interfaith minister, that very language seems anemic. Intergenerational conversations and collaborative work feel like medicine right now. I welcome facilitating difficult conversations, and holding space for grief, ritual, and joy. I love talking about eye contact and free will and am particularly concerned about technology and young people’s mental health. My most recent workshops focus on Origin Stories and How We Create Community. Currently Brooklyn based, I love to gather people and share resources for collective justice and healing.

For a partial list of organizations that I have advised/consulted, please see below: