Our Team

David Campt is a nationally recognized expert in dialogue facilitation, audience polling, and anti-racism allyship. With a career spanning over two decades, he has helped organizations, government agencies, and communities navigate difficult conversations around race, equity, and inclusion through innovative methods that foster understanding and connection.

Known for his engaging and research-driven approach, Dr. Campt has pioneered techniques such as the White Ally Toolkit, empowering individuals (particularly white allies) to effectively engage in conversations that challenge racism and promote social justice. His work integrates real-time audience feedback tools and inclusive dialogue strategies to create transformative experiences that drive meaningful change.

Todd Erickson is a Collaborative Engagement Strategist with over 30 years of experience designing and facilitating inclusive dialogue processes. Todd has supported more than 2,000 meetings for government, corporate, and community organizations, tackling complex issues from climate resilience to community well being.

His approach combines appropriate engagement technology with proven facilitation methods and deep listening skills, helping groups move from fragmentation to collective wisdom and coordinated action. Todd's expertise spans the full arc of collaborative work: stakeholder mapping, engagement strategy, meeting design, network collaboration stewardship, and capacity building. He creates conditions where every voice is valued and collective solutions emerge, whether facilitating a 50-person town hall or supporting a multi-year statewide network.

Bernardo M. Ferdman is a leading expert in inclusive leadership, group dynamics, and dialogic processes with over 40 years of experience facilitating meaningful conversations across differences. A Distinguished Professor Emeritus and seasoned consultant, he brings deep expertise in designing and leading participatory engagements that foster trust, equity, and collective insight.

Among his experiences as an AmericaSpeaks associate, Bernardo served as lead co-facilitator for CaliforniaSpeaks, a statewide conversation on health care reform and in various other roles for other large-scale engagement efforts. Bernardo's academic rigor, practical wisdom, and inclusion expertise help organizations and communities navigate complexity and create spaces where every voice counts.

Laura Gramling is an expert in designing and facilitating large-scale, multi-stakeholder convenings, bringing 100 to 1,000s of people together to collaborate, align, and act. Laura and her team design high-impact meetings that surface diverse perspectives and translate them into clear, shared commitments.

Grounded in a strengths-based approach, she creates the conditions for inclusive dialogue, faster decisions, and momentum that lasts. With 20+ years as a change, leadership, and performance consultant, Laura has helped organizations from diverse industries including higher education, pharma and technology. Her expertise spans organizational performance, meeting design and facilitation, and navigating complex change.

Susanna Haas Lyons, M.A., is a public engagement specialist who develops strategy and provides training for better conversations between the public and decision makers. She has 20+ years international leadership experience in designing, facilitating, managing and evaluating complex civic engagement efforts.

Bridging online and face-to-face methods, Susanna has helped build alignment on challenging policy topics including land use, energy, healthcare, emergency management, and housing. For ten years, Susanna was a judge for the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Canada's annual Core Values awards that recognize excellence and innovation in public participation. She is also an instructor for Simon Fraser University's Dialogue and Civic Engagement certificate program.

Greg Keidan has worked as a public engagement practitioner and researcher with AmericaSpeaks, The Institute for Local Government, and U.C. Davis, with a focus on inclusive & deliberative approaches to civic engagement. He supported 13 AmericaSpeaks engagement projects in a variety of roles including table facilitator, lead facilitator, recruiting and training table facilitators, participant outreach, and researching and summarizing strategies to increase Latino participation.

His research including "A Local Official's Guide to Immigrant Civic Engagement" has been published by The League of California Cities, The National Civic Review, Western Cities Magazine, and the California Journal of Politics & Policy. Greg is also an experienced emcee who has organized, promoted and presented hundreds of live music events.

Kim Sescoe is an expert in public engagement and project management. She has broad experiences in the Washington, D.C. region organizing programs with government agencies, non-profit organizations, institutions and businesses.

Her areas of expertise include project management, budget development, work plan supervision, event management, client relations, community outreach and engagement, and program design support.

William Zybach has witnessed a universal truth across four decades of work at the intersection of governance, innovation, and human development: communities thrive when people can see, sense, and shape the systems that shape them.

As author of Syngineering: Building Agility into Any Organization and co-creator of AI for Good in Organization Development, William's career has focused on making the hidden visible—bringing structure to complexity, humanity to technology, and collaboration to governance. He has designed a range of participatory systems that help governments, businesses, and communities navigate uncertainty through methods that combine systems thinking, archetypal intelligence, and now, responsible AI.