Ellen Sprenger

Co-CEO at Spring

Guide

Ellen Sprenger founded Spring in 2004 and is committed to making space for more complexity and humanity in collaborations for social and climate justice. She is a believer — especially in human potential and our collective ability to address the problems of our time. Her areas of expertise include multi-actor conference facilitation, future-scenario development, financial innovation and resilience for justice organizations globally, and executive coaching.

Previously she held several management positions at Oxfam-Novib and was the Executive Director of Mama Cash, a feminist foundation based in Amsterdam. Ellen holds a master's degree in Development Studies, an MBA from Erasmus University, and is an Integral Master Coach™ and Certified Integral Facilitator™. She is a member of the Board of 350.org, a movement working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.

Currently based in Toronto, Ellen is from the Netherlands and Canada and has lived in Tanzania, South Africa, and the United States. She is a curious and creative optimist, an espresso enthusiast, and an avid meditator.

Archana Deshpande

Co-CEO at Spring

Guide

Archana is a creative rights advocate, strategist, communicator, and singer with over 15 years of experience supporting a wide range of human rights and social justice initiatives. At Spring, she leads the design and implementation of virtual and in-person financial resilience, facilitation, and leadership development programs. In recent years, she has overseen the successful delivery of capacity-strengthening programs for hundreds of rights and justice leaders, organizations, and networks globally.

Previously, Archana led the creation and expansion of OpenGlobalRights — a multilingual, global forum that explores human rights policies and strategies as well as managed and conducted research on human rights organizations and public perceptions of human rights in India, Mexico, and Morocco. She has co-authored various publications on the resource mobilization challenges and opportunities for human rights groups in the Global South and is passionate about finding innovative ways to sustain and expand social and climate justice initiatives.

Archana holds a master's degree in International Affairs and is an accredited Integral Master Coach™. She is based in Toronto, Canada, and speaks English, Spanish, French, and Gujarat. She gets her creative juices flowing through dancing with her daughter, painting, and singing.

Erin Blanding

Spring Leadership Fellow

Guide

Erin Blanding is a facilitator, leadership coach, and organizational change strategist whose work is rooted in trauma-aware, anti-oppressive, and land-connected approaches to leadership and community care.

She began her journey as a teenage activist organizing against child labour and exploitation, finding belonging and purpose in young people building collective power. This early experience sparked a now 23-year career across grassroots organizing, nonprofit leadership, and global social justice and nature-based initiatives.

Known for her creativity, resourcefulness, and entrepreneurial spirit, Erin brings a generative, build-from-what’s-here approach to the people and communities she serves.

Erin is Spring’s Leadership Fellow. She also serves as Chief People and Learning Officer at MakeWay, a Canadian national charity that builds partnerships and solutions to help nature and communities thrive together.

Erin lives in what is colonially known as Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, where you’ll find her learning from watersheds, digging and singing in her garden, forest romping with her dog Tuck, hosting canning parties for friends, crushing a CrossFit workout, making music, and finding magic in day-to-day wonder.

Márcia Kodama

Spring Coaching Lead

Guide

Márcia is a Japanese Brazilian Integral Master Coach™ and Certified Integral Facilitator™ with more than two decades of experience supporting social and climate justice leaders as a consultant and coach. She is an intensely curious student of human nature and is passionate about supporting changemakers to gain more self-awareness, make change when change feels impossible, and become fully themselves in the most healthy and sustainable way.

Drawing on her background as an engineer and systems thinker, alongside her work in human development, Márcia supports individuals and teams to integrate inner and outer dimensions of leadership and work with multiple perspectives. Her approach focuses on cultivating wholeness, expanding awareness, and navigating complexity with presence. She is energized by supporting leaders to align purpose, embodiment, relationships, and systems, fostering more adaptive and regenerative ways of leading and collaborating.

At Spring, Márcia leads the coaching program and she has also been a part of the Integral Coaching Canada faculty since 2014. As an ordained Zen Buddhist monk, Márcia’s personal and professional life is deeply informed by her Zen practice which supports her to be fully present in her coaching. She’s also a life-long learner of human development, having built a rich knowledge base of how people learn, develop and evolve.

She lives in São Paulo, Brazil, with her son and two cats, and speaks Portuguese, English, Japanese and Spanish. Márcia is also trying to learn Korean and is a swimmer, immersive traveler and avid reader of books on all topics — from economics and Buddhism to psychology and Tarot.

Sisonke Msimang

Guest Teacher

Guest Teacher

Session #1 (November 5)

Sisonke Msimang is a writer, storyteller and speaker who has spent much of her life using her voice to challenge injustice and inequality, and helping others find and use their own.

She has spoken on stages from Johannesburg and Amsterdam to Sydney and Denver, delivering keynote addresses, facilitating conversations and interviewing leaders across sectors. As a storytelling and public speaking trainer, she works with individuals and groups to develop the confidence, skills and clarity to tell stories that connect, challenge and move people.

Sisonke works with universities, social change organizations and private sector partners, including the Centre for Stories and Bloom Centre for Youth Innovation, with a particular commitment to amplifying underrepresented and emerging voices.

Earlier in her career, Sisonke held senior leadership roles in social justice organizations. She served as a gender advisor with UNAIDS, Executive Director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, and later held a senior policy role with Sonke Gender Justice, working across HIV/AIDS, women’s rights, gender equality and social justice.

Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, among other publications. She is the author of Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela.
Across her work, Sisonke brings together storytelling, social justice and a deep belief in the power of voice to question dominant narratives, create connection and open up new possibilities.

Denise Williams

Guest Teacher

Guest Teacher

Session #1 (November 5)

Denise Williams is a prominent leader, advocate, and innovator dedicated to advancing Indigenous governance, education, and economic well-being. A member of the Cowichan Tribes, she has consistently championed the empowerment of Indigenous communities through equitable access to opportunities and resources.

Denise is best known as the former CEO of the First Nations Technology Council, where she has led transformative initiatives to bridge the digital divide for Indigenous communities across British Columbia. Under her leadership, the council implemented ground-breaking programs that focus on digital skills training, capacity building, and ensuring Indigenous voices are at the forefront of conversations about technology and innovation. Her work aims to foster self-determination and sovereignty by equipping First Nations peoples with the tools and knowledge to thrive in the digital era.

A passionate advocate for dialogue and relationship building, Denise has also been instrumental in driving collaborations between Indigenous organizations, governments, and industry. She is recognized for her strategic vision and ability to build bridges across sectors, ensuring that Indigenous perspectives and rights are respected and integrated into broader societal frameworks.

Denise holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Simon Fraser University and has received numerous accolades for her contributions to Indigenous leadership and social innovation. She frequently speaks at national and international forums on topics such as digital inclusion, conscious leadership, self-determination and economic well-being.

Beyond her professional achievements, Denise is deeply committed to mentorship and community development, often working to inspire and support the next generation of Indigenous leaders. Her dedication to creating systemic change rooted in cultural values and traditions underscores her vision of a more inclusive and equitable future for all.

Joanna Kerr

Guest Teacher

Guest Teacher

Session #2 (November 19)

Joanna Kerr is a sought-after leadership coach and strategist as a former global NGO executive who has spent more than three decades trying to change systems — and learning, sometimes the hard way, what leadership actually requires.

Over almost 25 years as an executive leader, Joanna served as President and CEO of the MakeWay Foundation, Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, Chief Executive of ActionAid International, and Executive Director of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID). A queer feminist, environmentalist and committed Indigenous ally, she has spent her career challenging concentrations of power and working toward more just, regenerative and joyful ways of organizing our cultures, economies and communities.

Today, Joanna is now a “free radical”, running NutHatch, whose coaching and advisory practice brings her alongside an extraordinary mix of CEOs, philanthropists, foundations and social change organizations around the world. She is helping leaders make sense of complexity, navigate transformation and, importantly, figure out what they might build next. She is also a Master Certified Integral Coach.

Joanna believes this moment calls for more deep systems thinking, curiosity, love and courage — and a lot more fun imagining, experimenting with and building what comes next. And in the interests of full disclosure: Joanna is married to Spring Strategies’ Ellen Sprenger. So you can decide for yourself how she landed this gig.

Pramada Menon

Guest Teacher

Guest Teacher

Session #2 (November 19)

Pramada Menon is a queer feminist who has been working on issues of gender, sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, disability and mental health, livelihoods, philanthropy and organisational change management for four decades.

She is a Co-founder of CREA (www.creaworld.org) and on the Advisory of a number of grant making organizations.

Pramada is an independent consultant and works as an Advisor to Human Capability Foundation and The Greencliffe Foundation, both UK based grant making charities.

Lucia Nader

Guest Teacher

Guest Teacher

Session #2 (November 19)

Lucia is a Brazilian activist, researcher, board member and independent consultant working at the intersection of human rights, democracy and social justice. For 30 years, she has been working with activists, NGOs and philanthropy across different countries.

She researches Regenerative Activism, exploring enablers to renew, restore and revitalize individual, collective and ecosystemic power in civil society. She is co-author of Resilience with 4Cs: Complexity, Context, Cultivation and Care, a study that approaches resilience as a dynamic, relational and context-sensitive practice, grounded in an understanding of power relations.

Lucia was a Facilitating the Feminine Fellow with the Be The Earth Foundation, exploring
women’s roles in creating a regenerative society, and received a Collective Imagination
Practice Fund seed grant for the “Circle of Power and Imagination” initiative. She is an
Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs Fellow and was an Open Society Foundations Fellow, where
she developed “Solid Organizations in a Liquid World.”

Formerly Executive Director of Conectas Human Rights (Brazil), she currently serves on the boards of Olabi (Brazil), Artigo 19 Brazil and South America, and Article 19 International, and is an emeritus board member of the Fund for Global Human Rights.