board

Ada Volkmer

Ada was born in Brownsville, TX and raised in Matamoros, Mexico.  Her mother is a native of Matamoros and her father was born in Germany and immigrated to Mexico when he was seven years old. Every week when she was growing up, she would cross the US-Mexico border dozens of times – to go to school, come back home, or visit family and friends. When she was 18, she moved to the United States. Fifteen years later, her beloved and she have made their home in Asheville, NC.

Ada began working with other immigrants as a Immigration Specialist, helping families navigate the complicated (and racist) US immigration system. In 2007, she began coordinating the Coalición de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas (COLA), a regional coalition of Latino and immigrants rights organizations. Her work includes supporting local Latino leaders and organizations, facilitating and planning local retreats and gatherings, and supporting new leaders in the immigrants’ rights movement. She was a founding member of Nuestro Centro, Asheville’s first Latino center and a key organizer of the May 1, 2006 march in Asheville. In 2009, she participated in a Soul Sanctuary program at The Stone House and has returned to Mebane to participate in several trainings and for personal retreat. Being at The Stone House reminds her of the importance of silence and of her love for long walks, hot days and good food.

Chad U. Jones (Chair)

Chad is Executive Director of the Community Investment Network, which inspires, connects and strengthens African-Americans and people of color to leverage their collective resources to create the change they wish to see. Over the past decade, he has worked with multiple foundations nationally supporting economic justice, movement building and immigrant rights. In 2001, he was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. In 2008, he was an ABFE Fellow.  He served on the boards of Resource Generation, and the 2009 Endorsement Committee of the Freelancers Union PAC.

Two transformative moments in his life were: being 8 blocks from the twin towers on 9/11, and being a White House intern for 7 weeks in the scandalous summer of 1998. Since then he has been reminded of the significance of electoral politics, food and interdependence by reading Gary Rivlin’s Fire on the Prairie, Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, and Octavia Butler’s sci-fi slavery classic, Kindred. Chad has spoken about storytelling, people and possibilities at Making Money Make Change, the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders, the International Human Rights Funders Group, and GoodWork among others.

Chad supports community supported agriculture for the fresh onions and other veggies, public libraries for the book borrowing, and drinking fountains since there is no bottle afterwards. He studied Economics and History at Macalester College in the Twin Cities. Chad’s been on the board since November 2008, spending his time weeding, tweeting and eating in The Stone House gardens, under the grape vines or in the kitchen.

Claudia Horwitz (ex-officio)

Claudia has been a leader in national efforts to integrate the power of spiritual practice and the work of social justice. In 1995 she founded stone circles after some years of community organizing around economic justice issues and finding a bit of peace through meditation and yoga. Her book The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World (Penguin Compass 2002) is a practical guide to individual and social transformation through spirit and faith.

Claudia has a master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University and was a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow.  She currently serves on the board of the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation and the Education as Transformation project based at Wellesley College.  Trained as a yoga teacher in the Kripalu tradition, she follows a yogic path on and off the mat.  Her greatest loves are citrus, her beloved friends and family, sitting quietly with others and swimming in the pond. Claudia lives on the land at The Stone House with Zak the dog.

Corita Brown

Corita Brown is a fourth generation social justice activist.  Over the years she has worked as a trainer, consultant, facilitator, curriculum developer, yoga teacher, and trapeze swinger.  In 2001, Corita moved to Barcelona, Spain where she founded a community based center for healing arts.  She moved back to the states in 2008, and lived for a year in Durham, NC where she met and fell in love with stone circles.  These days you can find Corita in Philadelphia where she coordinates Communities for All Ages, an intergenerational community change initiative housed at The Intergenerational Center at Temple University.   In this capacity she provides training, coaching and technical assistance to 2o intergenerational, cross-sector coalitions, and presents nationally on intergenerational leadership and community building.  Corita comes to Communities for All Ages with a background in leadership development, youth organizing, adult learning, team work, community building and organizational change.  She holds a Masters in Organizational Psychology and Adult Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and works in both English and Spanish.

Lisa Garrett, Secretary

Elisabeth E Garrett (Lisa) is a leadership consultant and coach with 15+ years of experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Lisa started gMoxie consulting and coaching to strengthen the way individuals and organizations relate to their power; and by doing so, better understand the impact of their power in creating lasting change.  Lisa is a faculty member at the Institute for Life Coach Training where she co-designed and instructs the Coaching for Social Action Course. She is a co-founder of the Coaches of Color Consortium, C3, a national consortium of coaches committed to maintaining integrity of coaches and the coaching field to best serve communities of color.  Drawing from her experience as an accomplished martial artist and certified fearlessYOGA instructor, Lisa works with various practices to bring awareness to how we truly “embody” our commitment to change. As part of her vision to cultivate healthy and sustainable leaders and organizations, she also offers yoga by request at retreats nationally and at thirdroot community health center in Brooklyn, New York.

Michelle Johnson

Michelle received her undergraduate degree in Psychology with a minor in Art from the College of William and Mary.  In 1998 Michelle graduated from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a Masters in Social Work.   Michelle is a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Carrboro, NC where she specializes in working with survivors of sexual violence, people who have experienced trauma, identity work, and people who have eating disorders.

She has worked in several community agencies in the area including, the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, the Mental Health Association, Counseling and Wellness Services at UNC-Chapel Hill, and she served as the director for Heirs to a Fighting Tradition.  She is a core trainer with Dismantling Racism Works, dRWorks, and has learned invaluable lessons from working with institutions on developing an analysis of institutional and cultural racism.   Michelle is a yoga teacher as well and loves weaving social justice and healing into her yoga work.  She loves engaging in projects that feed her soul, speak truth to justice, and serve the community.  She works as a community organizer, bringing all of herself to her work, organizations, and her community.  She lives in Carrboro with her lovely partner Jeff, and her cute dog Bella. Michelle joined the Board in 2011.