Leadership & organizational development from the inside out.

Rootwise Leadership coaches social change leaders and organizations towards healing, transformation, and impact using a combination of ancient wisdom and innovative leadership development theories.

Meet Perry

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Rootwise Leadership

HI, I’M PERRY!

My full name is Cyra Perry Dougherty (she/her). In 2018, I founded Rootwise Leadership, and I’ve served as the lead coach, consultant, and facilitator since then. I’m also an Instructor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Buddhist practitioner, spiritual director, and ordained interspiritual minister.
I bring more than 15 years of experience working with global executive teams in the entrepreneurial, public, and social sectors. I have a passion for connecting the dots between different sectors, fields, and ideas. I carry a deep understanding of the relational practices of team-building and communications as well as the contemplative practices of awareness, discernment, and creativity. For me, mindfulness and compassion are both means and ends in the work of leadership development for social change.
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The Rootwise Leadership Team

Rootwise Leadership brings together transformational facilitators, coaches, teachers, administrators, and thinkers to meet our clients’ needs. Some of our current collaborators are:
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Imani Bentham
Imani (she/her) is the Operations Manager at Rootwise Leadership. Imani is a systems & operations consultant for service-minded and spiritually-led entrepreneurs and businesses who focus on personal transformation as the heart of sustainable social impact. She has over seven years of experience in operations and administrative support, project management, and strategic planning with C-Suite executives. She has previously worked in customer success aligning customer and business priorities and developing long-term partnerships for companies in the nonprofit, tech, and government relations industries. Imani is a New York native and graduated with a B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University. She is currently living in Atlanta, GA with her pup, Simi.

Sharon (she/her) is an organizational development consultant with more than 25 years of experience and the founder of Bueno Consulting. She has worked in every major industry in both the public and private sectors. She is a certified executive coach and a trained mediator with extensive group and process facilitation experience. In pursuit of creating healthy, high-functioning organizations and communities, Sharon offers consulting services in the areas of leadership development, diversity and inclusion, organizational change, team dynamics, cultural competence, and cross-cultural dynamics. Sharon’s practice is global. She has consulted to a wide array of clients, from more than 35 countries. Sharon speaks Spanish conversationally, grew up in New York City, and now lives in Boston.

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Sharon Bueno Washington
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Akwése Nkemontoh

Akwése (she/her) is a transformative leadership coach and facilitator passionate about the holistic development of global social change makers. She is the Founder and CEO of Leading Whole and has worked across five continents implementing programming, facilitating workshops, leading outreach initiatives, and supporting organizational development efforts for a variety of NGOs. Akwése holds an MSW in Social Innovation and Leadership, with a focus on Global Practice from Boston College. She is currently based in SE Asia where she’s spent the last two years developing the leadership of mission driven individuals across the region.

Kruger (he/him) is a leadership development coach and facilitator. He is currently a PhD researcher working with the Stockholm Resilience Center with a focus on building green-blue water resilience for sustainable development in Africa. He has worked as a Policy Analyst with United Nations in Bonn, Germany; Innovations Program specialist with One Acre Fund Malawi; and leadership coach at World Peace Revolution in Thailand. He is also a co-founder of two organizations: Global Hope Mobilization and Information Knowledge Labs (i-klabs). Kruger was a 2014-2015 GHC fellow at Dignitas International in Malawi, and during his fellowship year, he organized multiple leadership development bootcamps for aspiring global health leaders. He holds a Masters Degree from Uppsala University in Sweden. Kruger is from Malawi and currently living in Sweden.
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Eliza Ramos

Eliza is a leadership and organizational development coach and consultant. Eliza is the Founder and CEO of Circles International (CI). Eliza launched CI in 2017 to begin building a movement for emotional health and wellbeing amongst leaders and organizations working toward peace and social justice. During a previous career as a social worker and global health practitioner, Eliza witnessed a high rate of fatigue and burnout. Eliza realized a direct link between the wellbeing of leaders and organizations and the impact they were either able or not able to make in their communities. Eliza holds an M.P.H. from Harvard University, an M.S.W. from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California. Eliza is a certified Professional Coach by the International Coach Federation and holds additional certifications in mediation and conflict resolution, wilderness emergency medicine, and Reiki. Eliza resides in Oakland, California, and enjoys being part of the Bay Area’s arts, healing, and activism communities.

Doris Ferrer Roach, J.D., P.C.C., (she/her) is an executive coach and consultant with a dynamic background working as an attorney and higher education instructor with 21 years of experience serving both the nonprofit and public sectors. Bringing an expertise in board and leadership development, team building and strategic planning, Doris is adept at creating results-oriented processes to support effective leadership and sustainable change. She ensures her client is the star of the story. Doris’ strong ability to facilitate the discovery of strengths and opportunities for growth take people where they want to go. She has worked across a wide variety of industries: community development, education, government, healthcare, housing, human services, philanthropy and social justice advocacy.

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Doris Roach
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Lauren Spahn
Lauren Spahn (she/her) is an organizational development consultant, facilitator, and spiritual companion, and strategy specialist with 15 years experience in non-profit healing organizations. Lauren is also yoga teacher, birth doula, and writer. She is an avid reader, lifelong learner, world traveler, language enthusiast, and a “my home is your home”-style hostess. Lauren received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Spanish with a minor in Women’s Studies. In 2015, after eight years of full-time non-profit work, she began teaching yoga and supporting justice-based non-profits as a facilitator, spiritual companion, operations strategist, and writer. She stays tethered to her call to bring people together through shared dialogue and practice, and in doing so, she has discovered the healing and transformative power of community.
Brett Turner (he/him) is a consultant on the Rootwise Leadership team. He works with non-profits, health care organizations, and municipal leaders to use data to inform strategy and to bring accountability, performance management, and person-centered design to policy and service delivery. He has experience bringing data to strategy in fields ranging from mental healthcare, to homeless services, education and business, and is committed to leveraging this work to address health and social inequities, and to drive inclusion in strategy and policymaking. Brett holds a BA in Psychology and a Masters degree in Data Analytics from the City University of New York, and is a Doctor of Public Health Candidate at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
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Jacqueline Kennedy

Jacqueline Kennedy (she/her) is a consultant on the Rootwise Leadership team. As a public service professional with over a decade of experience in the field of community development and community engagement, she brings expertise as a project manager, content area expert, and engagement strategist. Jacqueline’s interest in community development began in her own neighborhood in Southeast San Diego, CA, where she interned for a non-profit serving her community. In 2009, Jacqueline relocated to NYC for graduate school and served at a Brownsville Brooklyn based non-profit coordinating community outreach and engagement strategies and projects. Earning a trusted place in the Brownsville community and a leader within the initiative, Jacqueline stepped into the role of Interim Director of the Brownsville Partnership initiative in 2015 before leaving in 2016 to join the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as the Director of Community Partnerships at the newly formed Center for Health Equity. After 5 years in that role, Jacqueline joined the NYC Racial Justice Commission in June of 2020 as the Public Engagement Director. Jacqueline worked with Commissioner and other city staff members in hosting public input sessions virtually and in person to hear from New Yorkers most impacted by systemic racism before leaving city government to work as an independent consultant.Jacqueline is committed to equity for communities of color, advancing racial equity globally, Black liberation, Black women’s health and joy. She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego and an MPA in Nonprofit Management and Policy from NYU Wagner School of Public Service.

Janis Gonsales (she/her) is responsible for the overall administrative support at Rootwise Leadership. She is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil and has received her BA in marketing from Mackenzie University in Brazil and holds an MBA from Florida International University. She has over 12 years of eclectic work experience with Marketing for International Business and International Exchange and Travel Programs. She also works as Translator and Interpreter for Public Schools, facilitating the communication within the Brazilian community. Janis lives in the Boston area and enjoys spending quality time with her husband, her two kids, and her dog.
Janis Gonsales

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