About One Square World

One Square World (1SW) is a non-profit organization systems that build healthy, and prosperous lives and futures.

We design and facilitate place-based collaborations between stakeholders to build shared vision and action toward community-led solutions.

 

THE ORIGIN

“We know that people are invested in their own communities and are the most impacted by whatever happens there. When we incorporated One Square World in 2014, alongside former board member Cyndy Carlson, we wanted to support community members to have the power to shape their realities. To do that, we need to understand deeply the places that we live in and the systems that overlap and impact those places: natural, economic, and social systems.

The name started with the idea that we were going to build with the people that were doing work within their one square mile of their home or their community. People that were invested in their ‘place’. The one square mile or one square kilometer in many cases is people’s immediate reality. That’s your world, right? A one square world. And to engage in that world, it’s important to understand all the systems that happen there and to own your participation in that one square world. Then, we had this idea of many different ones square worlds coming together.”

Andrea Atkinson, Founder

OUR MISSION

 

One Square World provides community-centered planning and policy development, facilitation, and cultural strategy for people-driven solutions. Our team of experienced facilitators and culture bearers works with communities, coalitions, and municipalities to build people-led solutions that improve the quality of life of all people. We design and facilitate coalitions, cohorts, and group processes that center that support people to become confident decision-makers in policies that affect their lives and communities. Our goal is to create systems that build healthy, and prosperous lives and futures.

Photo by Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection

THE TEAM

Photo by Erin X. Smithers

Brandy Brooks

  • Brandy Brooks (she/her) is an Afro-Latina organizer, educator, facilitator, and designer who has spent more than 15 years working on social and environmental justice. She focuses on community organizing and power-building; community-based design and land use planning; and food justice and food sovereignty. She was the founding executive director of the Community Design Resource Center of Boston and has worked in senior management roles with the Rudy Bruner Foundation (Cambridge, MA), The Food Project (Boston, MA), the Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness, and Dreaming Out Loud (Washington, DC). Throughout Brandy’s career, she has been committed to supporting the right to self-determination for urban communities of color and communities with low income levels, by advocating for equitable representation, meaningful participation, and community-led decision-making on projects and policies that affect community members’ lives. Brandy is able to converse and read in both English and Spanish. She served as Co-Director of One Square World alongside founder Andrea Atkinson for several years , later became part of the Board of Directors, and served as Interim Executive Director in 2024. Today, Brandy serves as a key steward of 1SW’s community and partner relationships across New England.

Aaron Jaehnig

  • Aaron Jaehnig (he/him) is a parent, coach, musician, event planner, community organizer, former political candidate, and general mischief maker with a long history of organizational management in both private business and the nonprofit sector.  Throughout his career Aaron has worked to build community and transform systems of power by both, creating inclusive spaces often centering music and artistic expression, and also working within existing and emerging movement spaces to ensure they are accountable to the most impacted individuals in campaigns for justice.  Aaron is a strong believer in non-violent direct action and has supported and participated in many actions related to fossil fuel divestment and indigenous people’s land rights.  

    As Executive Committee Chair with RI Chapter of Sierra Club, Aaron led the transformation of a traditional conservation and sustainability group into one focused on environmental justice; building strong coalitions and taking bold action to promote the health and safety of the communities most impacted by environmental racism, while also ensuring those actions were directly accountable to BIPOC leadership in partner organizations.

    Additional leadership roles include, Manager/Booking Agent for the legendary Providence music venue The Living Room, Co-Founder of Providence music venue and community event space The Parlour, NoLNGinPVD (now People’s Port Authority) Organizing Committee and Board of Directors, Steering Committee member with RI Jobs with Justice, Elmhurst Youth Baseball Board of Directors, and positions with several local and national electoral campaigns.   

Photo by One Square World

Vatic Tayari Astahili Kuumba

  • Vatic Tayari Kuumba (he/him) is an educator, theatermaker, and a father of three children. Vatic is deeply committed to strengthening the work of frontline community workers in environment, housing, health, and related movements. He does so by using art and cultural strategy as essential tools for program and policy design, civic engagement, and popular education. Vatic is the co-chair of the Sustainability Commission of the City of Providence. He is a co-founder of the Racial and Environmental Justice Committee (REJC) of the City of Providence, through which he served as key collaborator for the City of Providence’s Climate Justice Plan and the Environmental Racism Resolution passed by Providence City Council in 2020. For this work, Vatic became a recipient of the EPA’s Environmental Merit Award in 2021. He is an Undoing Racism facilitator and has supported various cultural and environmental organizations, groups, and coalitions through processes that center equity and justice.

    Vatic is also an artist and theatremaker. Through 2024-25, he was Playwright-in-Residence at Brown University’s Rites and Reason Theatre. In 2024, he was Artist-in-Residence at Providence Housing Authority, working with residents of Chad Brown Housing Community for One Nation One Project’s Arts for Everybody national campaign on art, health, and wellbeing. Vatic is also co-director and lead writer of MoralDocs (2020-2021), an abolitionist transmedia project and virtual reality film for health justicce. He was Artist-in-Residence for the State Association of Arts Agencies in 2019; recipient of the 2018 RISCA Fellowship for Theater and 2017 RISCA Playwright Merit Fellowship. Vatic debuted his first theatrical production A Furtive Movement in 2016, as part of a Live Arts Residency at AS220, Providence, RI.

Photo provided by Lily Xie

Lily Xie

  • Lily Xie (she/her) is a Chinese-American artist, educator, and cultural strategist. In collaboration with grassroots organizers and BIPOC residents, she facilitates creative projects with a focus on public space, housing, and racial justice. Lily's work is grounded in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, where she previously worked as the Community Programs Manager with Asian Community Development Corporation, and as an artist collaborating with community organizers through the mediums of animation and print media. In 2022, Lily was selected as an Artist-In-Residence with the City of Boston; previously, she was a member of the inaugural cohort of Radical Imagination for Racial Justice, and has been awarded grants for her collaborations and solo work from The Boston Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, and MIT's Transmedia Storytelling Initiative. Lily also brings her experience in research and data science, as a former researcher at MIT's Community Innovators Lab (CoLab), Data + Feminism Lab, and Center for Constructive Communication. She has a Masters in City Planning from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, where her research focused on the intersection between art, repair, and spatial justice.

Photo by Shey Rivera Ríos

Andrea Atkinson

  • Andrea Atkinson (she/her) is a Latinx facilitator and Just Policy designer working at the intersection of our environment and liberation from oppressive systems. Andrea’s global experience extends from the US, to Haiti, to Bolivia and beyond. She has facilitated diverse constituents - always centering the leadership of grassroots, BIPOC community members -  in leadership development, education, policy development and other action around racial, social, economic and environmental issues facing communities at the local and global scale. She has co-facilitated processes such as the Climate Justice Plan in Providence, RI with the Racial and Environmental Justice Committee; Climate Justice Alliance Energy Democracy Working Group, leadership and staff processes; Barr Foundation’s DEI philanthropic strategy, the development of Green Justice Zones in Providence, Rhode Island with Racial and Environmental Justice Committee, and the development of an equitable Building Emissions Performance Standard in Boston with Alternatives for Community and Environment. Andrea is bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish.

Team Member Qualifications

We are local leaders in our respective communities in New England, demonstrating our connection and ability to represent and engage with communities on the ground. We are culture bearers, artists, designers, facilitators, community organizers, educators, project leaders and organizational administrators. Together, our collective knowledge and experience is multi-faceted, deep, rich, and expansive.

Facilitators have been trained on 1) Just Transition Framework, 2) Community Engagement to Ownership Spectrum, a collaborative governance model that we use in our work, described here by the Movement Strategy Center, and 3) Undoing Racism through The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond.

We are also a part of the National Association of Climate Resilience Planners. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Sharmon Lebby

Treasurer, Board of Directors

  • Sharmon Lebby (She/Her) is the Founder & CEO of Blessed Designs Consulting, a nonprofit and small business consulting agency dedicated to helping social and environmental impact organizations thrive. She brings over 20 years of experience working with mission-driven initiatives, offering strategic guidance to help organizations grow with intention. Sharmon began her career as a Neuroscience Research Associate before shifting her focus to ethical fashion, where she advocated for sustainability and transparency in the industry. Now, she uses that same systems-based thinking to help purpose-driven organizations build strong foundations and long-term impact. Her work centers community-led solutions and emphasizes collaboration over competition. When she’s not writing, speaking, or advising, you’ll find her chasing after her dog, Teddy, and consuming concerning amounts of vegan nachos.

    “In my consulting work at Blessed Designs, I guide purpose-driven organizations through governance, strategic growth, communication, and marketing. I’m especially dedicated to supporting organizations centered on equity and sustainability for marginalized communities, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide range of stakeholders, from garment factories to environmental advocates. Through these experiences, I’ve developed a practical understanding of coalition-building and bring a collaborative spirit that aligns with each board’s goals. I remain deeply committed to organizations that reflect my values and I believe environmental and social impact organizations have a unique role in creating meaningful change. I’m passionate about supporting them in fully embodying their missions and maximizing their impact.”

Dr. Frances Roberts Gregory

  • Dr. Frances Roberts-Gregory (she/her) is a Gender and Climate Justice Policy Strategist, Ecowomanist Storyteller, and Performance Artist (dancer and cosplayer). She leads environmental education, climate advocacy, and youth engagement projects for BIPOC, queer, abolitionist, and feminist organizations committed to grassroots community solutions, translocal organizing, and intersectional environmental, energy, and climate justice. Trained as an environmental scientist, climate anthropologist, and community geographer, Dr. Roberts-Gregory researches the role and political priorities of U.S. Afrodiasporic communities, BIPOC youth, and women’s organizations at United Nations climate negotiations as well as Black and Indigenous women’s everyday strategies of resistance to environmental violence and state-corporate crime. Her postdoctoral feminist activist research likewise supports capacity-building for ecofeminist and pan-African transnational coalitions through the Feminist Agenda for a Green New Deal, the UNFCCC Women and Gender Constituency, and the Global Afro-Descendants Climate Justice Collaborative. Dr. Roberts-Gregory earned a BA in Environmental Science, Sociology, and Anthropology from Spelman College and a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. She later completed postdoctoral fellowships at Northeastern University and the Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE) at the Salata Institute for Climate & Sustainability. Dr. Roberts-Gregory additionally served as a Climate Justice Program Officer at the Foundation for Louisiana and as a Program Director of Leadership Development at the Northeastern University Initiative for Energy Justice. Past and current partners include the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ), Black in Environment, the Green Leadership Trust, and the HBCU Green Fund.

Jayson Maurice Porter

Board Chair, Board of Directors

  • Dr. Jayson Maurice Porter (Ph.D., Northwestern 2022) was born in Maryland like his great-grandmother Winona Christina Spencer Lee (1909-2012), who worked family farm land on the Eastern Shore until the early 2000s. He is an environmental historian of Latin America and Black Environmental History at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research specializes in environmental justice and politics, science and technology studies, food systems, agrochemicals, and racial ecologies in Mexico and the Americas. He is also an editorial board member of the North American Congress for Latin America (NACLA) and Plant Perspectives: An Interdisciplinary Journal. You can read his work in the Washington Post, Distillations, the Organic Center, Environmental Humanities, and more. Outside of academia, he loves to connect with other black environmental educators, write creative non-fiction stories, and design environmental-literacy curricula for broader audiences of all ages. He most recently co-designed and co-facilitate the Environmental Justice Freedom School with the Chicago Teachers Union in June 2023.

Erin Coates-Connor

Secretary, Board of Directors

  • Erin Coates-Connor (she/they) is a queer scientist, nature enthusiast, data nerd, and pleasure activist. As a systems thinker and experimenter, Erin thrives on understanding the intricate threads that connect systems, and is always seeking to translate ideas into actionable plans. She has a particular interest in ecological restoration and its intersections with environmental justice and community engagement with citizen science. Erin holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development from Mount Holyoke College, as well as a MSc in Environmental Conservation from UMass Amherst, where she studied the effectiveness of different management approaches on controlling invasive plant species and restoring native species diversity. Currently in her work life, she channels her analytical skills as a Health and Safety Analyst in the construction industry. Erin has previously worked as an Admin and Research Assistant in energy-efficiency program evaluation with consulting firm NMR Group. Based in the coastal town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Erin is a member of the town's Open Space Committee where she advocates for increasing access to open space lands. She maintains a deep connection with nature, and can often be found exploring beaches, hiking forested trails, and paddling along the riverbanks. Erin is also deeply committed to fostering sexually liberated cultures and creating environments for healing from sexual trauma. Through this work, she holds spaces for people to explore embodied senses of liberation and pleasure, empowering them to seek their own paths to safety and power in intimate relationships.

Vick Mohanka

  • Vickash Mohanka (he/they) is currently the Chapter Director at the Massachusetts Sierra Club. Prior to joining Sierra Club, he worked as the Transformational Climate Finance Manager for The Chisholm Legacy Project, a national environmental and climate justice nonprofit centered in the frameworks of Just Transition and Black Liberation. He has experience consulting companies and nonprofits to support innovative solar justice and economic development projects. He was an organizer and advocate for Clean Water Action, supporting BIPOC communities with the Green Justice Coalition, leading the largest environmental coalition in Massachusetts with Mass Power Forward, and running the Clean Water electoral program which endorsed progressive candidates and issues statewide. Before organizing, he was a legislative staffer writing energy policy at the Massachusetts State House. Throughout the last decade, he has worked with many communities, activists, academics, and politicians across Massachusetts to further climate and economic justice. An experienced public speaker, he enjoys educating youth and has developed trainings to introduce the energy system and environmental justice to various audiences. He holds a B.A. in Economics from UMass Amherst and an M.S. in Climate Science and Policy from Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy. 

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