Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Sally has lived and worked in Madrid, Spain, Washington DC, New York City, Los Angeles, and Lodz, Poland.  After 10 years’ experience as an English language teacher and small stage actor in NYC, Sally moved to LA when, as a first-time writer, she co-won the Short-Play Jury Award at the HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival. In LA, she began volunteering for The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company (USTC), a cutting-edge arts education agency creating theater with incarcerated boys. 

Sally quickly found her stride in nonprofit management as a strategic thinker and fundraiser and was ultimately appointed executive director growing USTC’s budget and programs tenfold, developing multiple community, government and school partnerships to support disenfranchised youth and families, including many first-generation immigrants to the US. While there, she also co-founded the Arts for Healing and Justice Network, a collective impact model creating change in LA’s troubled juvenile justice system. 

Sally has also run the National Foster Youth Institute, a chapter-driven advocacy group bringing former foster youth and their families to the national, state and local policy table to make meaningful child-welfare change. She currently supports Customized Workplace ESL instruction with The Literacy Center of West Michigan, providing literacy and so much more to new Americans working in the manufacturing sector. Sally has a BA in Psychology and an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Michigan.

Chara Anastasia Gladden is a strategic operations leader, certified professional coach, and community advocate with over a decade of experience driving innovation in education and nonprofit sectors. She has managed large-scale operations across New York City, including oversight of 34 afterschool sites as Director of School-Based Operations for New York Junior Tennis and Learning, where she trained 300+ staff in SEL and de-escalation, streamlined compliance systems, and strengthened cross-departmental collaboration.

Anastasia’s career includes leading family and community engagement at Literacy Inc., directing partnerships and multimillion-dollar budgets for NYC community schools, and designing education initiatives in Belize that transformed emergent readers into proficient readers within months. She has also served nationally, coordinating trauma-informed and family-support initiatives under the National Urban Fellows program.

Today, Anastasia leads Gladden Your Mind, her life coaching and consulting practice in Belize, offering personal coaching, restorative mediation, organizational consulting, and professional development workshops for schools, NGOs, and businesses. She blends her expertise in strategy, operations, and wellbeing with her passion for liberation, growth, and community empowerment.

Fatima currently serves as Chief Development Officer for Freedom House in Boston; where she is responsible for the advancement efforts that support the organization’s mission of building economic, racial and social equity for Black, Brown, and Immigrant youth in Boston through education and leadership development. 

She is the co-founder and co-Executive Director of The SHAZH Foundation, a non-profit organization that invests in and supports students in Durban, South Africa in achieving academic excellence by removing socioeconomic obstacles and promoting leadership development opportunities. Before joining Freedom House, Fatima spent 15 years at General Electric, where she held roles in finance, strategy, marketing, and operations across Latin America, Europe; and Africa, where her work focused on advancing the economy inclusively through access to energy, healthcare, and skills development. Fatima's passion for youth advocacy and education began at a young age. As the daughter of an immigrant and a first generation college student, FELT Education’s mission and work hold deep personal meaning for Fatima. Early experiences as a youth mental and sexual health advocate with Planned Parenthood's, and her time as a volunteer teacher in Ghana shaped her view that knowledge resources and education are powerful tools for agency and empowerment. Fatima holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Austin College.

"Education is the most powerful tool we can use to change our lives and the world around us."

Myriam Bounailate is passionate about using business, finance, and education to create positive social impact. She believes that learning opens doors and transforms lives, and she has dedicated her career to helping communities access opportunities and build a better future.

Today, she serves as ESG Manager for Sustainable Development Strategy at ArcelorMittal mining, guiding the company’s responsible growth in Africa, and North America while making a difference for people and the planet. Previously, she worked with the United Nations Capital Development Fund, promoting digital financial inclusion across West and Central Africa and supporting projects that strengthen local communities.

Her career has taken her across Latin America, Asia, and Europe, with roles in consulting and finance at PwC Luxembourg and BNP Paribas, showing how business expertise can drive social good. Along the way, she has contributed to sectors ranging from education and technology to consumer goods, always focusing on creating opportunities and empowering communities.

She holds degrees from EMLyon Business school, East China Normal University and IEP Paris ISMAPP, combining strong academic training with a real-world commitment to impact.

Myriam’s work bridges business, finance, and education turning knowledge and strategy into tools that strengthen communities and help people change their lives.

Rebecca Reed has worked at various levels in the nonprofit space, volunteered in grassroots political campaigns, and has been an outspoken advocate for state and federal adult education, ESOL, and legislative change in Albany and Washington, DC. 

As owner of The Lionheart Company, LLC, Rebecca is passionate about helping nonprofits to build capacity through infrastructure support and works to develop sustainable organizations that stand the test of time. She holds an M.A. in TESOL from The New School for Public Engagement, a Graduate Certificate in Sociology from Appalachian State University, and a Master's of Public Administration in Nonprofit Management from the College of Charleston. 

Rebecca has led outreach initiatives of 5 to 100 volunteers, launched community education programs, and worked on everyday nonprofit needs including development and fundraising, event planning, communications and website management, program coordination, project management, and most recently, operations. She has participated in the Advocacy Institute Educator Pipeline, She Should Run Political Pipeline, served as Vice President of Outreach for the New York State TESOL (NYS TESOL) Executive Board, and joined Felt's Board of Directors in 2022. She served as Board Chair for two consecutive terms (2022-2024) before stepping in as Interim Executive Director in 2024.

Danielle grew up in NJ and completed her Bachelors in Psychology in Phoenixville PA. After moving to the Charleston area, she completed both a Masters in Psychology and Masters in Instructional Systems Performance Improvement.  For the past five years, she  has been working in the field of instructional design in Higher Education.

She loves to study languages and they might be one of her biggest hobbies. One of her favorite things has been to see a smile when someone hears their own language. It’s a unique kind of comfort, knowing you’ve been understood.

Pete is a strategic business developer, startup advisor and mentor.

As a first generation American, he has supported immigrants and refugees by developing emergency food delivery, telecommunications, financial and education solutions for underserved communities.  He led development of cross-border next day food delivery from the US, to West Africa during ebola and served as a founding trustee at Global Community Charter School in Harlem.  While at Columbia Business School he co-founded ODYSSEY, the MBA Games. He also led Cambridge University’s English assessment unit in North America.

Yiyi (she, her, pronounced ee-ee) is a community organizer, artist, and human rights lawyer based in Brooklyn, NY. As a queer immigrant woman of color in this industry, she feels a strong sense of duty to advocate for the development of diverse and supportive communities around games.

She is currently the PR + Community Manager at Heart Machine, an LA-based game studio best known for shipping Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash, and building Hyper Light Breaker and Possessor(s). She is also on the Board of Directors of GUMBO Collective (NYC’s largest collective of indie game developers) and is the Vice President of Arcade Commons (a non-profit building indie arcade cabinets). She is also an advisor on the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Digital Games Industry Council, and runs Women in Games NYC, a professional networking meetup group for women / femme people in the industry.

In her free time, she is a graphic designer for Qweerty Gamers (an LGBTQIA+ games non-profit), and moonlights as an attorney helping asylum seekers and refugees gain safety and status in the United States.