About
Our Mission
Co-Creating Inclusion guides organizations through trauma-informed transformation processes that address the root causes of workplace harm. We surface what's already shifting, slow it down just enough to see clearly, and steer it, collectively, toward equity through individual insight and collective impact.
CCI
Our Vision
Organizations where psychological safety, shared power, and belonging aren't theoretical, they're lived. Everyone is resourced, valued, and empowered to contribute fully— sparking innovation, building trust, and creating the conditions where collaboration flourishes, innovation expands, and all are aligned to the mission.
Meet the Team
Click on a team member’s button to view their bio.
Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick (she/her)
Founder, Director of Strategy & Design
The Person
Alethea founded Co-Creating Inclusion in 2019 with a vision to create transformational change that's bigger than any one person. With nearly 20 years as an architect managing workplace strategy for global companies like MTV, Nokia, and Disney Publishing, she brings an architect's brain to organizational transformation—seeing connections others miss and thriving in the messy, uncertain conditions of change. A British-born Chinese American and daughter of immigrants, she found home in NYC's diversity and energy after high school, earned her Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute, and has called Brooklyn home ever since. She's an external processor who's currently practicing the art of slowing down to make her big-picture thinking more accessible, and her favorite people are the ones she can laugh with while doing this work.
The Impact
Alethea leads the work to understand where organizations are and collaborates with staff to imagine and realize transformational change through integrated strategy design and implementation. She's skilled at uncovering obstacles and next steps that others struggle to see, helping leaders get unstuck and create the results they want. Her signature approach leverages her ability to deal with ambiguity while driving work forward—identifying patterns, making unexpected connections between disparate elements, and developing theory and practice concurrently. She thrives on iterating across projects and clients in service of healing and meaningful organizational change.
Karyn Kelbaugh (she/her)
Director of Research & Operations
The Person
Jack of all trades, Karyn has boundless curiosity and the rare ability to not just learn things but truly master them. With a Master's of Social Work from University of Texas at Arlington and over 14 years working with nonprofits in mental health, housing, literacy, and children's services, she specializes in quantitative and qualitative research, ethical survey design, and qualitative interviewing. A woman raised on an Ohio farm with work ethic and communal accountability baked in, she now lives in Texas with her husband and two boys. She turned the whole CCI team into researchers through her enthusiasm for data integrity and ethical research practices, and she's always asking "How's it going with...?"—a question that creates space for the whole experience, good and challenging alike.
The Impact
Karyn leads the work to incorporate research into every aspect of CCI's methodology while creating operational systems that make everyone's work easier. "Data driven" is easy to claim but harder to practice—Karyn does the work to make it real through compelling analytics and streamlined processes. She's a master of the strategic rabbit hole who captures context through width rather than depth, then coalesces insights into practical tools that bridge the gap from "what" to "how." Her compassion is an operations tool: she identifies what systems need next, matches challenges with particular research methodologies and operational solutions, and often builds custom tools based on data patterns or a colleague's workflow friction. She creates room for systems and people as they are, room to evolve, and room to be imperfect—making space for the deep work.
LaVoya "V" Woods (ve/ver)
Interim CEO, Director of Trauma-Informed Methodology
The Person
A trauma-informed scholar-practitioner, V develops innovative methodologies that transform how organizations approach structural inequity and healing. With a Master's of Social Work from UNC Chapel Hill, certifications as a Behavioral Health Coach, Reiki practitioner, and 200-hour yoga teacher, plus 18+ years developing culturally responsive frameworks, V brings a multi-sensory approach where intuition meets rigor. A Black, genderqueer, neuro-expansive healer born in Queens and now rooted in Durham, V is an Air Force veteran, published researcher, and international keynote speaker whose work spans trauma-informed care, decolonizing methodologies, and systemic healing. After years as an entrepreneur creating authentic pathways to change, V found home at CCI—an organization that allows for deep integration of intuition, community wisdom, and evidence-based practice. V is fascinated by the ecosystems of work and care, always getting to the root of motivation and needs to support mutual thriving.
The Impact
V guides CCI's methodology evolution through a trauma-informed, culturally literate, therapeutic lens, supporting teams in building resilience while doing justice-centered work—including finding ways to grow even in hostile soil. V turns rabbit holes into insight by recognizing that seemingly tangential stories contain the most important data about systemic patterns, blending neuroscience and somatic awareness with systems thinking to help teams see the psychological and relational matrices they're operating within. Through "scaffolded vulnerability"—creating safety first, then inviting deeper transformation—V uses embodied practices, metaphorical processing, and strengths-based coaching to support folks in hostile environments. V develops thought leadership that bridges scholarly research with practical application, helping organizations distinguish between what they can control and what they cannot while building sustainable transformation infrastructure. Known for disarming people in an energizing way, V helps them access their own wisdom while building the necessary tools to sustain transformation.
Malaika Aaron-Bishop (she/her)
Director of Methodology & Learning
The Person
Master of inquiry who nurtures complexity into clarity, Malaika has the rare gift of asking questions that make everyone in the room think "this is the point"—the kind of inviting, strategic questions that help teams move from auto-response to considered response. With 15+ years across higher education, television production, and community organizing focused on racial justice, she brings movement language and concepts to organizational transformation. A Black woman born in Guyana and raised across the Caribbean before emigrating to the US, Malaika has lived in nine states with Brooklyn feeling most like home. At her core, she's an explorer—until liberation and justice abound, she feels a duty as a world citizen to spend her energy in pursuit of liberation for us all.
The Impact
Malaika serves as critical advisor for turning theory into practice in leadership strategy, always asking "What are we solving for?"—a deceptively simple question that gets to the root of the thing. She guides CCI's methodology toward holding nuance and complexity without sacrificing clarity or action, reframing how we understand progress itself—moving beyond linear metrics to recognize the complex, sometimes contradictory signals of genuine organizational transformation. Her strategic inquiries direct conversations toward overarching alignment, helping teams navigate complexity without dismissing anyone's perspective, and she's the one who keeps everyone in the room—gently tugging threads to ensure all voices contribute to co-creation. Her facilitation creates space for learning while improving engagement and connection, asking questions that bring teams back into necessary complexity as an antidote to shallow solutions.
Lori Sims (she/her)
Administrative Coordinator
The Person
Lori joined the CCI team in 2023 with an innate desire to make others' work easier and more effective, bringing wisdom from the demanding political sphere to help the team do their best work. With a Master of Science in Psychology with a Forensic Psychology concentration—reflecting her deep passion for understanding human complexities—she brings methodical problem-solving and practical persistence to everything she does. An African American woman born in New Orleans and raised with rich cultural heritage shaped by the Deep South's racial dynamics, she exhibited a natural inclination toward difficult racial conversations from middle school onward, fostering open dialogue to address systemic inequalities. Her work is energized by her belief system: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might"—working diligently because her hard work benefits both herself and the individuals around her.
The Impact
Lori serves as the team's shield from administrative chaos, coordinating complex logistics with multiple internal and external stakeholders across different communication styles, needs, and time zones. She brings essential calm and emotional regulation to high-pressure situations, known for asking the right logistical questions that slow down reactive processes—clarifying actual need, urgency, timeline, and expected outcomes. This methodical approach helps the team distinguish between real urgency and anxiety-driven urgency, and when she says no to a request, the team knows she's literally tried every possibility. Her passion for supporting people translates into being the calm center that keeps complex coordination flowing smoothly, ensuring CCI's operations run seamlessly.
Janice Plado Dalager (she/her)
Operations Partner
The Person
Master of gentle magic and anticipatory insight, Janice has the rare gift of cutting to the core of gaps and barriers with a smooth touch that's disarming without being disruptive. She manages a team of virtual assistants specializing in entrepreneur and small business support, providing operations and systems support to CCI and other clients. A US-born daughter of Filipino immigrants currently living in Arizona with her husband and teenage child, she's the team's "de-urgencifier"—creating calm in the storm while ensuring everything gets done. As multiple CCI teammates have said: "I want to be Janice when I grow up."
The Impact
Janice creates the seamless operational foundation that enables CCI's deep work to happen, leading a well-oiled machine that handles day-to-day operations so consultants can focus on their zone of genius. She provides exceptional executive function support with holistic caretaking that adapts to the team's evolving needs, partnering with CCI to develop and maintain systems that scale with organizational growth. Her approach combines anticipatory insight with gentle, compassionate execution—she's the master of the perfectly-timed, judgment-free reminder that keeps the operations engine running smoothly. She understands that no one is perfect—not the tools, not herself, not the team—but creates space where imperfection is okay and needs still get met.
Rita McWaters (she/her)
Director of Reporting & Analytics
The Person
Master of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure design who puts the human being back into data, Rita has the gift of colorful, unexpected sayings that add dimension to what others find two-dimensional work. With an MS in Social Work from UT Arlington and a BA in Anthropology from UT Austin, plus over 20 years in organizational development and evaluation consulting across health, education, human services, and leadership development, she's on a personal crusade to prove that evaluation can be used for good when you care. A white woman with deep Texas roots who grew up in a small town where she often stuck out, books and encyclopedias sparked the boundless curiosity that drives her work today. When she says "there's a few ways we could go about this," you know the door is about to open on exciting possibilities—fractals of insight that somehow always lead to exactly what you need.
The Impact
Rita builds evaluations with the end in mind: who will use this data and how? She transforms CCI's approach to feedback through "Rita-style questions" that get to the truth of things rather than just gathering numbers, using data as truth-telling to help clients get to their own truths. After her first presentation out of college bored audiences who couldn't relate to statistical jargon, she made it her life's work to collect and present data that is understandable and usable—no more reports collecting dust in drawers. She views evaluation as an ongoing conversation that starts with curiosity and never really ends, pulling studies out of her back pocket while staying focused on meaning and through-lines rather than getting caught up in numbers. Responsive to the needs behind every data ask, she advocates fiercely for best practices while making teammates' data dreams come true by synthesizing expertise into new tools that serve evolving needs.