As we cross multiple thresholds in collapsing planetary & social health, our ways of inhabiting the planet must change. To build relationships of interdependence. To restore and regenerate what has been damaged and lost. To treat the health of Human & ALL species, land, and water as essential to the well-being of all.
TOO IMPORTANT TO FAIL
Solvable guides the fields of education and finance towards equitable and regenerative futures. Our work dives into the cultural narratives and worldviews that are often at odds with social and planetary health. The Solvable team facilitates groups inside and across organizations to do the deep work together of building resilience, conviction, and actions to accelerate desired futures. As senior leaders, our strength is being able to work fluidly across organizations with the tools and science-based methods for catalyzing contextual sustainability individually and collectively.
OUR (Intentionally) Small TEAM
We are four senior practitioners with experience and a deep commitment to designing and facilitating spaces of change. By enabling others to sense into themselves, their teams, their organizations, and larger systems, we seek to accelerate the emerging future while simultaneously letting go of modernity’s culture of extractionism, separation, and individualism.
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Adam is the Founder of Solvable. He spent much of his career as a strategist in graphic and industrial design studios exploring design as innovation in worldmaking after a first career in arts and humanitarian philanthropy. He holds an MBA with specializations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Texas, and an undergraduate degree in History from Colorado College. Born in Memphis where his environmental justice roots descended, Adam lives as a newcomer on the unceded and traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations colonially known as Vancouver, Canada. He spends time on the land jogging, mountain biking, snowboarding, hiking, and sitting with good books.
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Anna is a Brazilian designer centering her practice on regenerative interventions that staunchly reveal and strategically demolish toxic narratives perpetuated by the colonial cultural hegemony, a.k.a the status quo. She believes decolonial justice is the only way to achieve real planetary regeneration, and is creatively experimenting on interventions that foster cultures of fostering through facilitated dialogues and co-learning journeys. Anna has an undergrad in Civil Engineering and a masters degree in Cultural Landscapes and Sustainability, both from Federal University of Santa Maria, as well as practice as illustrator, visual and strategic designer.
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The question driving my work continues to be, “how can I help heal the relationship between people and planet?,” which has guided me to study and apply human change theories and cultural ontologies that support a healthy planet. My path took me from becoming a professional certified coach through The Coaches Training Institute, to years as an executive coach in San Francisco while pursuing my master’s degree in psychology from The California Institute of Integral Studies, and most recently to a Business Sustainability Management Certificate through Cambridge University. I’ve found my home at Solvable where we facilitate and design spaces for corporate leaders to increase their capacity for planetary impact through personal transformation.
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Anthony is a native of Memphis, TN. He has a Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee State University (TSU), a Master’s of Arts Degree in Civic Leadership from Lipscomb University and a Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law. Anthony is a member of the Wisconsin State Bar. He has dedicated his professional and personal time nurturing, coaching and mentoring youth and he has developed an expertise in youth empowerment and service-learning initiatives. Anthony believes providing access to opportunities designed to produce equity is the most efficient way to address the adverse cumulative effects of disparity. Anthony works with communities to disrupt inequitable institutional practices and cultural patterns. He strongly believes that we need to invest in creating a network of individuals with the skills and dedication to resist the balkanization of societal issues. Anthony is an experienced and gifted facilitator on issues of race, diversity, privilege and inclusiveness. Also, Anthony is certified as an expert in Service Learning, a graduate of the Social Justice Training Institute, qualified as a personal success True Colors facilitator and a Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitator.
OUR COLLABORATORS
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Growing up on a farm instilled my reverence for the land and nature. My studies in cultural anthropology nurtured my curiosity to learn about culture and human behaviour. For the past 30 years I have designed and hosted dialogues around the world, that help teams and communities, to connect, engage and mobilize in support of desired futures. My career has involved administrative and teaching roles at a number of Canadian and Saudi Arabian universities as well as collaborating on the establishment of different learning organizations: The Academy for Systems Change, The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Eduction, and The Learning Strategies Group. My interest is helping groups to see possibilities for what they might create together, to acknowledge, but not be constrained by pasts, and to explore opportunities for working in collaboration to create better futures.
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Maryam is a former human rights lawyer, serial social entrepreneur and social innovation evangelist. Her work and research centers ‘dialogues of wisdoms’ and explorations around alternate ways of knowing, doing and being to decolonize systems change. Maryam believes in enabling innovators to trigger transformative change in themselves and their communities, and through that process co-create more equitable, regenerative systems.
Maryam previously co-founded the Social Innovation Lab, a social innovation ecosystem builder in South Asia and Daftarkhwan, a series of co-working spaces in Pakistan, alongside starting a number of impact focused initiatives over the last decade. She was also the Vice Secretary general of the International Muslim Jewish conference from 2015-2017 and has a decade of peace-building work under her belt. She is an Acumen Fellow, an International Youth Foundation Laureate Global Fellow, and holds a LL.M. in International Law from the University of California, Berkeley and PhD in Sustainability Management from the University of Waterloo.
Maryam’s more recent work as a Senior Fellow at Social Innovation Canada centered on creating a decolonial “pedagogy of flipping” in social innovation lab design and practice for housing affordability. As a Senior Consultant at the Center for Social Innovation, Maryam has co-led the creation of CSI’s education strategy, program design and curricula.
Maryam is currently a Post-Doctoral fellow at McMaster University and the University of Waterloo where she works to promote decolonial approaches to Social Innovation and Finance that center justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility for all. Maryam is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Waterloo, where she teaches discrimination and human rights law and at OCAD university, where she teaches social innovation and business.