Our Team

Sheella helps individuals and organizations design structures, processes, and relationships for creative collaboration. She supports her clients aligning goals, policies, & operations throughout their organization; setting up collaborative structures & processes to make policy decisions; accessing their group’s collective intelligence; and designing their relationships for collaboration and productivity. She works on multiple levels, from organizational to interpersonal, empowering clients to address the challenges they face. Her passion is to create joyful, productive relationships and workplaces, where everyone’s voice matters.

Sheella draws on broad experience as a teacher, business trainer, facilitator, and organizational consultant. Initially trained as a biophysicist, she became skilled at fostering collaborative teamwork in both research and classroom environments and has published articles on highly interactive methods of teaching in academic and business settings. After a career in science, she shifted from laboratory research to the people skills that deeply impact the outcomes of scientific ventures.

Originally focused on people skills for the workplace, Sheella incorporated sociocracy into her consulting practice, Mierson Consulting, as the most effective method for making decisions and for creating organizational cultures that support strong collaborative skills. She is a partner in Blueprint of We California. She has worked with clients across several continents in the pharmaceutical, insurance, financial, apparel, service, and health care industries, as well in higher education, government, and the nonprofit sector.

Education, credentials, awards

• PhD in Biophysics from the University of Michigan.
• Certified Facilitator for the Blueprint of We Collaboration Document, used to build trust, creativity, effortlessness, and resilience into relationships.
• Hall of Fame member, North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO).
• Extensive training in counseling skills, organizational change, leadership, conflict resolution, facilitation, diversity, workshop design, and sociocracy.

Gina has been interested in the way people organize themselves since spending a year on an Antarctic Base in 1985. She has gravitated towards experiences of working in groups to achieve goals on wilderness adventures, scientific expeditions, living in a Quaker community in Alaska, and in contributing to an ecovillage development project.

Gina has been learning about and working with the Sociocratic method since 2004. In 2006 she initiated the formation of the Australasia Training Circle for Sociocracy which adopted the approach of “using the method to promote the method.” In 2007 this resulted in the group hosting the first training event in Australia after which Gina, under the mentorship of Tena Meadows O’Rear, consulted to the first Australian business to trial Sociocracy. In April 2008 Gina became a certified trainer in Sociocracy through Sociocratisch Centrum Nederland. In May 2008 she worked alongside Tena to present training to the Sydney Coastal EcoVillage and at the Business Leaders Forum on Sustainability, Parliament House, Canberra. In September 2008 she gave her first solo training in Fairbanks, Alaska.

In July 2009 Gina completed a Certificate of Coaching with Coach School, Bentley, and brings a coaching approach to her work with individuals and organizations. Since then she has conducted a number of seminars, introductory evenings and further trainings. In teaching and promoting Sociocracy, Gina continues to develop approaches that provide opportunities for individuals to learn by doing.

Education and credentials

• Certified Trainer in Sociocracy, Sociocratisch Centrum Nederland, 2008
• Certificate of Coaching, Coach School, Bentley Western Australia, 2009
• Certificate III in Permaculture, Eltham College, Victoria, 2011
• PhD - Upper Atmosphere Physics in the Auroral Zone, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1989

English version

Francine habite sur le territoire du Traité n° 4, c'est-à-dire dans les prairies de l'Ouest canadien en Saskatchewan. Elle y vit avec son mari dans un petit ranch, qui fait partie du Treaty Land Sharing Network. Parlant couramment le français et l'anglais, elle fait facilement le pont entre ces communautés culturelles et linguistiques, tant au travail que dans ses loisirs.

Deux valeurs fondamentales rayonnent dans l'engagement et la contribution de Francine : le service et la connexion. Cela explique sa passion pour contribuer au bien-être des individus, des organisations et des communautés. En intégrant la sécurité psychologique dans son approche, elle croit fermement que les organisations se développent mieux lorsque les individus éprouvent un sentiment d'appartenance, tout en se faisant réellement entendre.

Francine a commencé à pratiquer la méthode de gouvernance organisationnelle collaborative basée sur la sociocratie en 2007, dans le cadre de son mandat de formatrice interne à l'Université de Regina en Saskatchewan. Cela lui a ouvert la porte au monde de l'autogestion, des organisations circulaires, du leadership distribué, du pouvoir partagé, de la prise de décision collaborative et de l'équivalence.

Depuis sa certification en tant que consultante organisationnelle sociocratique en 2011, Francine a formé une variété d'individus et soutenu l'implantation de la sociocratie dans les secteurs de l'éducation et des organismes à but non lucratif, dans les deux langues.

Facilitatrice chevronnée, l'approche de Francine est enrichie par l'intégration de divers apprentissages, dont la négociation raisonnée, l'enquête appréciative, l'intelligence émotionnelle, la sécurité psychologique, les premiers soins en santé mentale, le tout encadré du bon sens.

On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur ; l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

Formation, diplômes et prix

• 2011-2019 Consultante en organisation sociocratique, Sociocratisch Centrum
• 2020-2023 Consultante en sociocratie, International Sociocracy Certification Board
• 2019 Médaille du souverain pour les bénévoles

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Francine’s home base is on Treaty #4 territory, encompassing southern Saskatchewan on the Canadian prairies. There she lives with her husband on a small ranch, part of the Treaty Land Sharing Network. Proficient in French and English, she easily bridges these cultural linguistic communities in both work and play.

Two basic values radiate through Francine’s engagement and contribution: service and connection. This explains her passion to contribute to the well-being of individuals, organizations and communities. Weaving psychological safety in her approach, she strongly believes organizations thrive best when individuals experience a sense of belonging while truly having their voices heard.

Francine started to practice the Sociocratic Circle-organization Method in 2007 through her mandate as in-house trainer at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan.This opened the door to the world of self-management, circular organizations, distributed leadership, shared power, collaborative decision-making and equivalence.

Since her certification as a sociocratic organizational consultant in 2011, Francine has trained a variety of individuals and supported sociocracy implementation in the educational and non-profit sectors, in both languages.

A seasoned facilitator, Francine’s approach is enriched with the integration of various learnings including interest-based negotiation, appreciative inquiry, emotional intelligence, psychological safety and first aid for mental health, all framed with common sense.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Education, credentials and awards

• 2011-2019 Sociocratic Organizational Consultant, Sociocratisch Centrum
• 2020-2023 Consultant in Sociocracy, International Sociocracy Certification Board
• 2019 Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers

John is a whole systems design consultant, teacher, and facilitator for cultural and ecological systems for a variety of public, private, and nonprofit clients. Since 1996, he has studied, worked, taught and published in the realms of human relatings, governance and decision-making systems, appropriate technology and ecological design. He applies his wide-ranging observations of and experience with cultural and ecological systems to all aspects of his practice.

As TSCG’s western states and Hawai'i-Pacific regional representative, John brings to bear awareness and integration of existing cultural patterns in his inclusive approach to Sociocratic organizational design and facilitation.

The methods, tools and techniques that John offers invite clients to maximize clarity, honesty, and integrity while also enhancing individual and group efficiency and effectiveness - in other words, to get things done and have more fun! He helps organizations recognize that success for people who want to accomplish something together is determined by how well they work, play, and make decisions together.

Education and credentials

• Master's Degree in Whole Systems Design, with a focus on cultural and ecological designing

Erin Young uses nature wisdom to activate leaders and organisations with balance, creativity and collaboration to create a more beautiful world. She works with individuals in life and leadership coaching based on the design principles of social permaculture. She also helps organisations to be adaptive, responsive and effective by consulting in collaborative decision-making and governance, based in sociocracy. Facilitation, training and mediation are equally stocked in her skills toolkit.

A creative from a non-creative background, Erin holds a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering (Hons) with Brisbane’s Griffith University (2004). She first studied regenerative ecologically-based design by attaining her first Permaculture Design Certificate in Portugal in 2010. Originating in Brisbane, Erin is now based near Eumundi on the Sunshine Coast, South East Queensland, Australia where she hikes, forest baths and ogles at nature.

Education and credentials

• Human Potential coach-in-training (2021)
• Sociocracy training, consultation & coaching (2012)
• Dynamic Groups Facilitation (2012)
• Mediation and Conflict Transformation (2017)
• Graphic Recording and Facilitation training (2019)
• Permaculture Design Certificate (2010)
• Bachelor of Environmental Engineering (Hons) (2004)

Diana is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities  and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (New Society Publishers, 2003, 2007), and former editor of Communities magazine. She teaches sociocracy for ecovillages, cohousing communities, and other kinds of intentional communities in North America and internationally.

Diana has the ability to make complex issues simple and clear, both in teaching and in writing. She plans for her Communities magazine article series on sociocracy for intentional communities to become a booklet on sociocracy for communities.

Diana became a sociocracy trainer by taking workshops, then assisting workshops, then co-leading workshops with other TSCG members, including John Buck, Sheella Mierson, Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, and Gina Price. Additional learning came from writing her Communities magazine article series on sociocracy with feedback from sociocracy experts including John Schinnerer, John Buck, Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, UK trainer James Priest, and We the People co-author Sharon Villines.

Diana lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina, USA.

Jote (they/them) is a Training Associate with TSCG, and is passionate about creating communities of practice where we can develop skills for large scale collaborations and culture shift. They are using sociocracy to organize Our Anatomy, an art and research project creating better models and materials for teaching sexual education. They also co-founded and co-directed a forest school called Five Creeks in Berkeley, California that was governed by sociocracy. They offer business consulting and sociocracy implementation to organizations and communities who want to develop an inspiring and efficient culture of collaboration.