Core Team

Kazu Haga
Born in Japan, Kazu has been engaged in social change work since participating in the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage at 17 years old. He has over 20 years of experience in nonviolence, training and organizing work and has been trained by elders such as Dr. Bernard Lafayette and Rev. James Lawson. He has been a Kingian Nonviolence trainers since 2009, is a restorative justice facilitator and core member of the Ahimsa Collective and sits on the board of PeaceWorkers. He is the author of the upcoming book, Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm.

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Chris Moore-Backman
Chris is the author of The Gandhian Iceberg: A Nonviolence Manifesto for the Age of the Great Turning and producer of Bringing Down the New Jim Crow, a radio documentary series, has worked with a variety of human rights, peace, and social justice organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Christian Peacemaker Teams, and has served on international peace teams in Colombia and Palestine. Chris is a father, a musician, and an avid soccer player.

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Board Members

Toni Battle
Toni is a native San Franciscan, is the founder of The Legacy Project which documents the legacy of lynchings in the United States and brings healing and reconciliation to those whose ancestry is directly impacted by it, and is a leader of Coming to the Table, a national organization working with descendants of slaves and of slave owners around racial recognition issues. She has a passion for supporting incarcerated young women and in healing ancestral trauma.

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Theresa Guy Moran
After spending much of her adult life enhancing her left brain capabilities, Theresa Pualei Guy rather illogically leaned right into listening to her intuitive heart. Educated as an attorney she is grateful for the opportunity to continue to teach Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation with the East Point Peace Academy as a founding member. Together with her East Point cohorts, Theresa leads the Sitting in the River meditation group inside San Bruno County jail, which focuses on Dr. King’s work for guidance. Often perceived by others as a “culturally ambiguous” person, Theresa has a lifelong interest in our multicultural reality and the resulting social justice imperative.

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Aaron Nakai
Aaron is a critical educator who has served as a trainer, mentor, and youth development specialist in a variety of community and education spaces for the past 13 years. He is currently the Program Director of Health Equity and Community Engagement at the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational and Environmental Design (I-SEEED). His work includes designing health and environmental equity curriculum, implementing community-based action research projects, and co-teaching early college/model high school classes in urban ecology, ethnic studies and environmental justice. He is an expert facilitator who trains youth and youth-serving adults to develop a range of projects for low-income youth of color, their families, and their communities.

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Sierra Pickett
Sierra is a long-time Coordinating Committee member of the People Of Color Sangha at the East Bay Meditation Center and currently sits on the Programming Committee for EBMC at large. A recent addition to Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s board of directors, Sierra is a web weaver who sees networking as an intentional act of love connecting us together in reciprocal support. ​An American Sign Language interpreter, Sierra loves expanding linguistic and cultural accessibility within a social justice framework. Easily spotted in bright colors, she will greet you with an infectious smile.

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Community Trainers

East Point’s Community Training Team

Aaron Nakai, Assistant Trainer
Bill Bank, Level I
Chris Van Breen, Level II
Lil De’Consuelo Izquierdo-Lopez, Assistant Trainer
Chris Moore-Backman, Assistant Trainer
Cynthia Gutierrez, Assistant Trainer
Rev. Deborah Russell, Assistant Trainer
Hadley Greswold, Assistant Trainer
Hakusho Ostlund, Assistant Trainer
Irene O’Connell, Assistant Trainer
Jamilah Bradshaw, Assistant Trainer
Jay Bhukhan, Assistant Trainer
Jenny Huston, Assistant Trainer
Jeremiah Daffin, Level I
Jose Antonio Ramos Pritchett, Level I
Joyce Nash, Assistant Trainer
Julia Jalalat, Assistant Trainer
Julia Rose Golomb, Assistant Trainer
Leah Pearlman, Assistant Trainer
Kate Dunn, Assistant Trainer
Kazu Haga, Level III
Kimiko Schell, Assistant Trainer
Melissa Crosby, Assistant Trainer
Mica Stumpf, Level I
Mike Tinoco, Level II
Nathan Kleban, Level I
Oak Hallet, Assistant Trainer
Peijman Kouretchian, Level I
Rish Sanghvi, Assistant Trainer
Roger Cunningham, Assistant Trainer
Sierra Pickett, Assistant Trainer
Sima Savdharia, Assistant Trainer
Stephanie Chin, Level I
Theresa Guy Moran, Level II
Toni Battle, Assistant Trainer

Inmate Trainers

We have a growing team of trainers inside the country’s criminal justice system who work to educate their peers as well as community members. For a profile of one of our trainers, click here.

Training team in San Bruno County Jail