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 you as you dare to go inside, shine your light of awareness on your blind spots related to differences (race, religion, class, culture, fender, disability, sexual orientation, and politics), power-up, light up YOUR mission, let no one stand alone, and become & 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 Model and Assessment 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
I was raised in my Latino/Indigenous family and church community, where my uncle was the minister and my mom was the only Anglo person. When I was four, I met my Anglo grandfather for the first time, in California, and moved to hug him hello. He stuck his hand out instead and said, roughly, "men shake hands." Where I came from, men embraced each other. I was confused, protective of my family, angry, scared — and I chose to hide inside.
My father died the next year. Grief and that first lesson in hiding arrived almost together, and I carry them that way still.
Soon after, I started kindergarten in an Anglo school, where so many of the rules I'd grown up with were turned on their head. I remember the shock of realizing people seemed to experience themselves as individuals — where I came from, everyone was part of the same organism, kids always in others' laps, hands always resting on others' shoulders.
For much of my life, I felt misunderstood and unseen: alone, angry, afraid, sad. I wanted to change the world — not out of altruism or love, if I'm honest. I wanted it to be a place I felt safe in, wanted to live in, where I felt I mattered. I think I created The Sum because it looked heroic to me, not because I was a hero, but because I needed and wanted attention. I'm still unwinding that from the work, even as I've come to love it for its own sake.
And in this process, I learned I was not alone in feeling alone. So many people I've met along the way have also felt unseen or misunderstood, like something was wrong with them, like they didn't matter — because of the color of their skin, a disability, their religion, their gender or sexual orientation, their size, the language they spoke at home, the holidays their family kept.
Ultimately, The Sum intends to be a place where we can tell these truths and honor the parts of us that learned to hide — give them voice, learn to listen, hear each other's stories — and let go of the barriers that have kept us from living big, connected lives, with ourselves and with each other.
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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