Geo is a life-long activist, a consultant, and a coach who grounds clients in unconditional support, opening up resources of creativity to explore new possibilities, approaches and solutions. As a white person dedicated to racial and economic justice, Geo partners with clients who are interested in building their capacity for using an intersectional lens to navigate power and privilege across race, class, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and other dimensions.
Geo’s theory of change for consulting clients is that deep work with individuals, groups and teams–combined with whole-system culture change work–creates transformational results and helps to close the gap between an organization’s espoused values and their everyday actions and behaviors.
Geo brings trauma-informed and somatic awareness based approaches and works with clients to develop resiliency practices and rituals to support a lifetime of leadership and activism.
Geo brings more than 30 years of experience working with grassroots organizers, activists and movement leaders towards achieving their goals. Geo has worked on organizing, legislative and electoral campaigns and has held senior director roles in national and local organizations. For many years Geo ran an internal organization development department for an international social justice organization where they led a leadership development program and designed equity and inclusion initiatives for small to large local chapters that ranged from 20 – 450 staff members. Geo has led culture change initiatives to bring culture and systems into alignment with values and anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, anti-bullying policies. In 2014, Geo designed and led the organization’s first-ever 1000+ activist gathering dedicated to dismantling anti-Black structural racism.
Geo was born in Long Beach, California and grew up in Southern California and New Orleans. Geo lived in Los Angeles and Oakland before moving to Washington, DC in 2008. Now Geo splits their time between DC and New York.
Geo opened their own consulting practice in 2020 to partner with mission-driven clients to advance social justice. They work with non-profits, foundations and organizations to build more equitable and inclusive processes, practices and culture. Geo Bowersmith Consulting is a trans-owned and operated business.
Education
Bachelor of Arts: Interdisciplinary Studies
California State University Long Beach
Organizational Consulting and Change Leadership
Georgetown University
Presence-Based Coaching | Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
International Coaching Federation
The Power of Embodied Transformation
Coaches Rising + The Strozzi Institute
Institutional Review Board Professional
Practicing Non-Violent Civil Disobedience
Rev. James M. Lawson
Leading White Affinity Spaces
Dr. Kathy Obear | Center for Transformation and Change
Healing from Internalized Whiteness
Sandra Kim | Re-Becoming Human
Before We Were White
White Awake
White Affinity Study Group Facilitator
Showing Up for Racial Justice