Our team
The Faces Behind Our Success
Ashley Carter (she/hers)
Founder/CEO
Ashley Carter is the founder and CEO of ASX Consulting, where she addresses structural inequities by refining processes, policies and programs that support inclusive work environments. Given her intersecting identities (Black/woman/mother), Ashley has experienced privilege, and been subject to the stings of stigma in work settings. With experience effectively leading and managing multiple operations and human resource departments, Ashley has successfully designed and initiated results- oriented DEI focused processes, plans, trainings, and discussions for senior leaders, people managers and staff that encourage learning, reflection, awareness and understanding, ultimately inspiring organizational growth and progress.
Ashley helps clients make strategies work in complex business structures and reinvigorates organizational designs, while improving leadership and team effectiveness.
Abby Giaquinto (she/hers)
HR & Operations Consultant
Abby Giaquinto is no stranger to Management and Leadership both in the non-profit and private sectors. Her Master’s in Management and Leadership and BS in Psychology coupled with over sixteen years in operations, attributes towards her conscious mindset in policy development as it directly relates to how it impacts employees; ultimately creating a positive shift in organizational operations and workplace culture.
Abby has led multiple program start-ups under Federal and State guidelines and regulations, developed and monitored efficacy and quality of systems, as well as established communication protocols that foster and maintain successful relationships. Having a strong sense of self-awareness, empathy, foresight and commitment to growth, are some of the guiding principles that are at the core of who Abby is as a leader.
Doris Quintanilla (she/hers/ella)
Executive Director &
Co-Founder,
The Melanin Collective
Doris Quintanilla is on a mission to revolutionize the lived experiences of womxn of color through holistic community, facilitated institutional healing, and authentic partnerships as the co-founder and Executive Director of The Melanin Collective. Doris has led community health education programming in the United States and abroad focusing on the health and development of women and young people of color. She has over a decade of experience in empowering marginalized communities living at the many intersections of identity and oppression. Through her work in sexual and reproductive healthcare, she has helped establish communities of practice which are thriving today and conducted healthcare-related surveys and qualitative research.
Doris believes that when womxn of color’s power and worth are actualized and institutional, then we will achieve a truly prosperous world in our lifetime.
Patty Branco (she/hers/ela)
Gender & Race Equity Consultant
Patty Branco has been a social justice advocate for over 20 years. Most of her work has been in the gender-based violence movement. She has extensive experience providing technical assistance to a broad-based constituency including, but not limited to, domestic and sexual violence advocates, allied professionals, survivors, students, and the general public. Patty has also engaged in resource development, having edited, authored, or co-authored various publications, including peer-reviewed papers, fact sheets, blog posts, and training tools, on a wide range of subjects and issues as they relate to gender-based violence.
Drawing upon her lived experiences as an Afro-Latina immigrant, her work is informed by an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. Her background includes anti-violence work in Brazil at the intersections of anti-Blackness, poverty, and police brutality. Following the wisdom of Black feminists such as Audre Lorde, Patty is passionate about practices that promote wellness and survivor-centered workplaces for advocates and activists as tools of resistance and social change.
She has a Master’s in Community Psychology and Social Change from Pennsylvania State University. Her favorite titles, however, are Tia and Godmother.
Jaana Kelley (she/hers)
Leadership & Organizational Development Consultant
Upholding the principle of the quote “Nothing changes, if nothing changes”, Jaana is a Leadership and Development professional with more than 15 years’ experience building teams, developing and delivering training programs, managing projects, designing competency metrics and implementing process improvement strategies. Along with a master’s degree in Social Work and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, she has extensive organizational change management experience, including leading organizational design/realignment, restructuring and process change initiatives; and, providing thought leadership and change coaching for C-level executives and senior management teams. Additionally, Jaana exudes a unique passion for streamlining processes and increasing operating efficiencies with an employee-centric experience, understanding that a large part of what makes any organization successful is its people.
Jaana’s consistent leadership, commitment to excellence, and solutions-oriented problem-solving allows her the opportunity to regularly support business development activities. And anyone who knows Jaana professionally and personally will tell you she is resilient, genuine, witty, and has an incomparable ability to offer thoughtful perspectives, while getting the job done leaving lasting impressions on everyone she interacts with.
Yura Sapi (they/them/elle)
CEO LiberArte
Yura Sapi’ (they/them), After years in corporate diversity at the Actors’ Equity Association and The Public Theater, Yura extends beyond borders and prioritizes anti-racism and decolonization for our globally just futures with their nonprofit LiberArte, serving rural and urban Black, Indigenous, LGBTIQ+, low income and migrant artists across the world. Yura’s facilitation style is described as “centering, calming, and helpful” by participants. Yura is Indigenous Kichwa, with Ecuadorian and Colombian citizenship and a lifelong connection to their birthplace on Manahatta island. They host the Building Our Own Tables Podcast spotlighting founders of color at the intersections of gender, sexuality, disability, and other marginalized identities. Yura holds arts management and theatre degrees from Boston University and CUNY Brooklyn College. Yura is proud to serve on the board of directors of the national Arts Administrators of Color Network as well as Artists Co-Creating Real Equity, a working group of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism Training. Yura is a certified meditation teacher (Dream Bigger Academy), soul purpose coach (Dharma Coaching Institute), shamanic energy worker (MINKA Mystery School), and anti-racist arts facilitator (artEquity). Yura offers a powerful vision of what this world can look like, and their work is making that vision a reality, one step at a time.