WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO, & WHY
Our Vision
We envision a just and thriving world where no one stands alone, where our differences and our common humanity are seen, honored and celebrated, and where we all are supported to go after what we love, to dream big, and to become everything we feel called to be.
Our Mission
We’re here to give up trying to change the world or people or organizations. We’re here to see you, not to fix you…to honor & support your “heroic journey” as you dare to go inside, face your unconscious patterns, power-up, light up your mission, let no one stand alone, become the person you want to be & inspire the change you want to see in the world.
Our “How”
We go after our mission in two primary ways:
1. Using our groundbreaking Power of Difference Assessment (PDA), related to differences, creating a map of a person’s, or a team’s, assets & learning edges.
2. Using this map, our Power of Difference Certification and coaching support this exploration within ourselves without blame or shame, and in a high feedback environment, with the goal of integrating the assets of all three patterns.
Our Team
Executive Director/Founder: J. Elliott Butler-Cisneros
As a half Indigenous, half Spanish “Hispano” man, Elliott’s father did cross-racial, cross-cultural work, especially with youth, long before Elliott was born! He died when Elliott was 5 and Elliott only learned this a few years ago though he has been called to this work all of his adult life! While Elliott passes for white, being raised in an Hispano extended family, he never understood the “rules” of the Anglo/white world. This created an internal “train wreck”–one that he has long worked to sort out. It’s given him both the ability to shift cultural codes while having an entry point to understanding both his power and privilege and the marginalization of his Latino and Indigenous, brown people and ancestors.
Elliott’s professional work began on the Navajo reservation, where he taught special education. He directed an award-winning community-based transition program serving students with disabilities. He worked as a school principal both at a predominantly Latino elementary school and at a progressive, experiential middle school. He and his wife at the time, raised their daughters in an co-housing community and, later, lived in a multiracial community. Still later, Elliott taught social justice classes at Naropa University and directed the Human Rights Office for the City of Fort Collins. He founded The Sum in 2006 and moved to Charlottesville, in a camper, after the death of Heather Heyer and the Unite the Right Rally in 2017 where he developed a program with Heather’s mom, Susan, called the Heyer Voices program to support are youth to develop their own social justice initiatives. He also created a faith community called the Welcome Circle–based on the sacredness of welcome of all people. He re-married and lives in the largest Habitat for Humanity trailer park redevelopment project in the country.
Board President – Lucero
Lucero Castro-Frederick, originally from Mexico City, is our Board President. She has a Master’s degree in social work and her passion is working in a therapeutic capacity with Latino immigrants, families, and young children. She was voted Woman of the Year for the city of Fort Collins in 2000 and has served her community in the Strengthening Latino Families Program, the Hispanic Latino Leadership Institute, and the Latino Action Task Force for the local school district. She loves dancing, nature and cooking. She has been a Buddhist practitioner for 20 years. Her son, Omar, is 19 years old.
Board Member – Crystal
Crystal Byrd Farmer is a writer and speaker active in the intentional communities movement. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and Russian and worked as an engineer for six years, earning her Six Sigma Green Belt. In 2016 she began working as a diversity trainer and consultant as owner of Big Sister Team Building. She also co-founded Gastonia Freedom School, an Agile Learning Center for children with disabilities. She published The Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Community, in 2020. Crystal was previously the website editor for Black & Poly, a resource promoting healthy polyamorous relationships for Black people. Crystal identifies as autistic, Black, disabled, female, and bisexual, and she draws on her experiences to help others understand and amplify the voices of marginalized people. She has one child and lives in Gastonia, NC.
Board Member – Cathy
Cathy loves connecting with others and herself through her joyful embodiment of movement. She brings her experience as a dancer, mom, actor, player-with-kids, Feldenkrais PractitionerⓇ, Occupational Therapist, and musician to her work as the Sum’s Co-Director in charge of Outreach. She finds deep satisfaction in exploring and combining quiet listening with exuberant expressiveness in celebration of her own and others’ self-discovery in the work (and play) of The Sum…whether it is in problem solving, accountability, project oversight, or collaborative design. Her life as an able-bodied, straight, Anglo woman from a Quaker family with middle and lower class experiences also informs her work as do her early experiences living in Costa Rica.
Board Member – Tamia
Tamia Spells is an educational professional passionate about authenticity, family, liberation, equity, and justice. As a native of Washington DC, Tamia grew up with an interest in and love for policy and government. She attended the SEED School of Washington DC, the nation’s first public college-prep boarding school and went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in Communication from Virginia Tech as a first-generation college student. She joined Teach for America: Miami-Dade’s fight to eliminate educational inequity in 2014 and has since served as a champion for scholars and families who are most often overlooked by our systems.
Tamia enjoys spending time with her daughter, bonding and participating in service and social action activities with her Sorors of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and creating Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and Divine 9 Sorority and Fraternity-inspired apparel for babies and toddlers through her business, The Baby 9.
What are your answers for some of the most critical questions of our time:
“What can I do about issues of race and racism?”
“How can I live in solidarity across our differences?”
“How do I cultivate a workplace, community, or school that is safe for, and honoring of, everyone?”
“How can I ‘Be the change I want to see in the world?’”
Often, we go after change in the world instead of the most important work which is INSIDE each of us! This is where change in the world must begin.
Supporting this internal, challenging, and ultimately joyful journey, is why The Sum exists.
We do this in three main ways:
Rather than some work of this nature that uses shame and blame to address issues of race, gender, etc., Elliott and his team’s approach honors perceptions of both self and others. Before we can dismantle unjust systems and institutions, we must understand ourselves. This work does that.
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