Our Team
Co-Founder & Lead Trainer, Leonie Smith
P. Leonie Smith is a first-generation Canadian of Jamaican heritage. She is the founder of The Thoughtful Workplace, a consultancy that uses a relational and skill-building approach to coaching, training, and mediation and co-founder of POC4NVC, which offers Nonviolent Communication training for BIPOC. Informed by modalities such as nonviolent communication and Sociocracy, she is dedicated to supporting organisations and individuals to find ways of working that create more space for humanity and generate less harm. She has more than 20 years of experience in senior management positions championing an approach to leadership that supports care and efficiency towards a shared purpose.
Co-Founder & Facilitator, catherine strickland
catherine strickland (she/her) is a white settler living on the unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səlí" lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations in north vancouver, british columbia. catherine spent 20 years as a professional climate change policy analyst and researcher consulting nationally and internationally. In 2015, she shifted her focus to supporting individuals and organisations to learn Nonviolent Communication (NVC) through the lens of power and privilege. She is a Unitarian Universalist and has led anti-racism initiatives in her faith community at the local and national level. catherine is committed to supporting a nonviolent approach to anti-racism, anti-oppression and climate justice.