July 2026
Cohort 4 Fellows
Overview
The Acosta Institute Fellowship is a transformative initiative designed to cultivate healing-centered leaders at the confluence of education, business, and technology. Rooted in contemplative science and slow work, this program is a sanctuary for deep personal and professional inquiry. Fellows are invited into a space that values process over productivity, emergence over rigidity, and care over competition-offering them the opportunity to align their impact with their inner truth. The Fellowship serves as a catalytic container, guiding individuals to reconnect with their purpose, while shaping meaningful change in their communities and industries.
Through a intentional blend of master classes, workshops, and certificate programs, the Fellowship, supports professional development, and healing-centered education, leadership, and innovation. The program offers exclusive access to resources, such as the Acosta Institute's digital archive, discounted events, and one-on-one coaching, while fostering a vibrant ecosystem of color, learning and collaboration. Fellows are recognized, not only for their participation before their visionary contributions to evolving fields and for holding space for others' transformation.
More than a program, the Fellowship is a living community-one that embraces the fullness of each participants identity, story, and vision. The spirit of the Fellowship is grounded in playfulness, boldness, and rooted wisdom. With monthly grounding calls, personal roadmap, development, and restorative retreats, the program weaves, structure, and spontaneity, creating space for both rigorous inquiry and joyful connection. Fellows are encouraged to embody care, practice, emergence, and lead with intention, not urgency-cultivating resilience, creativity, and justice and everything they do.
At its heart, the Fellowship is an invitation: to belong, to stretch, to slow down, and to dream collectively. In this shared journey, participants are encouraged to engage, bravely with complexity, navigate tensions with care, and co-create a new paradigm of leadership-one that centers healing as a prerequisite for justice. The Acosta Institute envisions the Fellowship as both a model and a movement, planting seeds for a more compassionate, interconnected, and flourishing world.
Adrianna Menchaca
Alisha Saucedo
Autem Clay
Benjamin Cramer
Betty Arrington
Dr. Felipe Mercado
Dr. Sawsan Jaber
Erica González Jones
Hadar Cohen
Hadar Cohen
Kamau Zuberi Akabueze
Ronisha "Ronnett Shadon" Hayden
Stephanie Knox
Our Programming
Fellows in the Acosta Institute Fellowship engage in a rich tapestry of programming designed to nurture both personal transformation and professional excellence. From demystifying technology in the AI for the Rest of Us and AI in Education programs to exploring purpose-driven entrepreneurship in the Healing-Centered Business Workshops, participants are invited to lead with empathy, strategy, and innovation. Certification offerings such as Healing-Centered Education, Alchemy of Now, and Archaeology of Self deepen reflective practice and healing-centered leadership. Business Masterminds and the culminating Healing-Centered Education International Conference offer spaces for strategic growth, celebration, and collective inspiration—forming a powerful arc of learning and impact throughout the fellowship journey. Below are brief descriptions of our offerings:
AI in Education Certification Program
This program provides a comprehensive look at integrating AI into education while maintaining equity and ethical standards. Participants will gain tools to navigate the evolving landscape of technologyinto education while maintaining equity and ethical standards. Participants will gain tools to navigate the evolving landscape of technology and schools and organizations. It's an essential learning experience for forward-thinking educators.
Alchemy of Now Half-Day Retreat
This program invites you to slow down and reconnect with a present moment as a site of transformation. Through guided reflection, embodiment practices, and facilitated dialogue, you'll explore how awareness, presence, and intention, shape your leadership, and your work.
Archaeology of Self Certificate Program
This program invite participants on the journey of self-discovery, focusing on reflective practices and healing-centered leadership. Through guided sessions and resources, participants will deepen their understanding of self and others. It's designed to empower individuals to lead with empathy and intentionality.
Codeless Immersion: Vibe Coding for Impact
This program introduces participants to no-code building, automation, and AI-assisted workflow as a human-centered, values-driven practice.
Designs for change-makers, the experience emphasizes discernment, ethical design, and purposeful creation-empowering participants to build tools and systems that serve real human and community needs, without writing code.
Collective Intelligence Lab: Making Sense of AI, Together
This free, community-centered workshop invites, participants to slow down and make sense of artificial intelligence beyond the hype-through dialogue, reflection, and guided tool use.
Together, will explore community-centered AI literacy, ethics, power, and practical application applications, grounding our learning in human dignity, collective wisdom, and shared responsibility for the futures, we are shaping.
Healing-Centered Business Workshops
This workshop series explores business as a relational, healing, and purpose-driven practice. Each session blends mindset shifts, somatic practices, and strategic tools to help entrepreneurs and leaders align their work with deeper values. Participants will explore themes like trust, authenticity, and the spirit of their business while engaging with emerging technologies like AI. Designed for those seeking more meaning and impact, this series offers a space to reimagine business as a force for transformation.
Healing-Centered Education International Conference
This conference celebrates a year of growth, transformation, and collective impact. Participants will connect with peers, reflect on their journeys, and gain inspiration for the future. It's a powerful way to conclude the year and reignite the commitment to healing centered education.
Healing-Centered Education Certification Program
This program continues the journey of exploring healing-centered education through life sessions and collaborative learning. Participants will refine their strategies for fostering, inclusion, and resilience in their communities. It's a chance to deepen your impact and connect with peers. And focuses on the dressing, systemic challenges with trauma informed practices. It's a transformative experience for anyone committed to leading with empathy.
Day-Long Healing-Centered Leadership & Education Intensive
This intensive offers a deep dive into healing-centered leadership and education with renowned scholars and practitioners.
Participants will engage in reflective, practice, dialogue, and applied frameworks to explore how healing-centered approaches can support individual vitality, collective care, and transformational leadership in complex and changing contexts.
Fellowship Retreat @ Garrison Institute
This retreat is a yearly in-person gathering where fellows from across cohorts come together to slow down, reconnect, and learn in community. Rooted in healing-censored practices, the retreat create space for reflection, storytelling, honest conversation, and collective exploration around our work and lives.
Vision
We envision a global community of transformative leaders who are not only developing new ideas, programs, organizations, and frameworks, but also learning how to live and lead from a place of care, presence, and relational wisdom.
The Fellowship aims to model a new kind of professional and personal development experience: one rooted in mutual witnessing, collective intelligence, embodied learning, and the belief that our work becomes more powerful when we are deeply connected to ourselves and to one another.
