Our Team
In our self managed structure, each Habitus team member has a set of roles and responsibilities for which they have full decision making authority. In addition to internal roles, team members provide our core client services of training, facilitation, coaching, mediation, and blended learning.
Nupur is the Business Development and Outreach Manager at Habitus. She also serves as a trainer, mediator, and coach. Nupur’s main roles at Habitus include designing and leading trainings, managing clients, and doing business outreach to discover new opportunities for collaboration. This ensures that we are able to fulfill Habitus’ mission of making our content accessible and available to organizations doing meaningful work in the areas of climate action and social justice. She also serves as a trainer for our negotiation, difficult conversations, and meeting design trainings. Nupur has also served on the teaching team at the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. Alongside her role as a Habitus trainer, Nupur also serves as a mediator. She has mediated small claims, summary process, and civil dispute cases in the United States as well as in India. Nupur holds a Bachelor of Science in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. She is fluent in Hindi and Gujarati.
Dr. Kathy Gonzales is the Chief Learning and Development Officer at Habitus. Dr. Gonzales is in charge of the Fellowship for Diversity in Negotiation, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution which Habitus runs in collaboration with several partners. Kathy also serves with Justin and Kelsa on the Habitus strategy circle which is responsible for high level strategic decision making and transformation at Habitus. Dr. Gonzales entered the field of conflict engagement after practicing for several years as a civil litigation attorney, primarily in the area of Family Law, in the Supreme Court of Trinidad & Tobago. After completing graduate studies in Dispute Resolution in the United States, she joined the Western Justice Center Foundation in Pasadena, California, a non-profit organization which specialized in the design of conflict management programs. As their Director of Community Engagement Programs, she oversaw the implementation of the Pasadena Police Department/Pasadena Community Mediation & Dialogue Program and was involved in the development of other programs for schools and the broader community. Dr. Gonzales went on to set up her own conflict management consultancy through which she provided mediation, facilitation, system design services to and trainings for the Supreme Court of Trinidad & Tobago, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Government of Trinidad & Tobago, and many private organizations in the Caribbean region. Dr. Gonzales holds a Master of Laws in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University School of Law as well as a Doctor of Philosophy in Conflict Analysis & Resolution from Nova Southeastern University. She is a former Assistant Professor at Creighton University where she designed and taught various courses in the Negotiation & Conflict Resolution Program including Mediation Process, Systems Thinking in Conflict and Dynamics of Conflict.
Ashmita is the Senior Operations and Research & Development Manager at Habitus. Her main roles include managing internal systems, working with Habitus trainers to provide seamless delivery, and developing and implementing R&D projects and processes. Her work ensures that Habitus is able to remain responsive to the needs of both its internal staff and its external clients while fulfilling its mission to remain human-centered.
Ashmita brings her background as a stage manager in the Greater Boston and Providence area to her work at Habitus, as well as her experience in operations management and development at an award winning, Boston-local, nonprofit theater. She is certified in Community Leadership and Social Change by the Institute of Nonprofit Practice and Tufts University, and was honored to be a 2022 Community Leaders Fellow at INP. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Stage and Production Management from Emerson College and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Salve Regina University.
She has been published in Midway Journal, Witness Magazine, and was a 2017 winner of the Mass Poetry Festival’s “Migration” Poetry Contest.
Kelsa is the Chief Operating and Impact Office at Habitus. She also serves as a Habitus facilitator, trainer, mediator, and coach. Kelsa’s main roles at Habitus include managing our internal systems including supporting our self management structure. She focuses on long term strategic planning as well as day to day operations. Kelsa also leads our impact strategy and measurement – managing our B Corp Impact Assessment and philanthropic relationships.
In her facilitation work, Kelsa focuses on multi-party decision making processes, especially in the sustainability and mission driven business space. Recent clients include the MIT Office of Sustainability, Darn Tough Vermont, Seventh Generation, and the B Corp Climate Collective. As a trainer, Kelsa specializes in teaching teams to design and run effective meetings – focusing on inclusivity and equitable processes.
Before joining the Habitus team, Kelsa worked as a sustainability consultant for small businesses. She specializes in the B Corp Impact Assessment – helping companies navigate the assessment, certify as B Corps, and use their B Corp certification as a framework for success across the triple bottom line. Kelsa also has a background in higher ed, having served as the assistant director at Marlboro College Graduate and Professional Studies and faculty in their MBA program. Kelsa holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Politics and an MBA in Managing for Sustainability. She is fluent in German.
Narissa is a facilitator and trainer at Habitus. Her main roles at Habitus include designing and leading trainings, workshops, and facilitations.
Narissa is a trained mediator, and she brings her background in environmental advocacy and strategic planning to her work at Habitus. She has developed multiple statewide coordinated campaigns to advance clean energy, and has expertise in climate and environmental justice policy; creating and implementing specialized policy campaign plans; facilitating large multi-stakeholder discussions; issue briefings; press conferences; opinion-editorials; special events; and public education and outreach events.
Narissa holds a B.S. in Natural Resources and Recreational Tourism from the University of Georgia, and an M.A. in Climate and Society from Columbia University. She was proud to be an inaugural fellow of the Habitus and CBI Fellowship in Negotiation, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution.
Justin Wright is the CEO of Habitus, a certified B Corporation. His work at Habitus focuses on facilitating complex decision-making processes and coordinating collaboration between multiple stakeholders to empower collective action. Justin has worked with organizations including PolicyLink, the Other and Belonging Institute, MIT Office of Sustainability, and the B Corp Climate Collect to further their commitments to social justice, racial equity, and environmental sustainability. Justin seeks out this kind of work because of his Quaker commitment to peace, equality, and stewardship.
Justin also serves as lead designer for negotiation, difficult conversation, and meetings design/facilitation training. Past clients include, Danone North America, Cabot Creamery, Yale School of the Environment, and Netflix.
In 2018 Justin co-created with Alicia Agnew and Katie Lee the Habitus Fellowship for Diversity in Negotiation, Mediation and Conflict Resolution now run by Dr. Kathy Gonzales. This program’s goal is to strengthen the field of negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution by increasing the diversity of practitioners.
One of Justin’s primary focuses right now is to develop online content that can support the spread of skills to change makers. Justin is co-author of the book Finding a Job that Loves You Back which equips job hunters with the collaborative negotiation skills to land their dream job.
Justin is happily married to Moni, a brilliant biologist, with whom he climbs mountains and social dances in their spare time. He has lived across Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.
Lesley Foster is the co-founder and served as Chief Operating Officer of Habitus Incorporated from it’s founding until 2018. Lesley is an experienced negotiation trainer and mediator. As a negotiation trainer, Lesley has coordinated, designed and co-led trainings for students, activists and professionals. During her time as Habitus Incorporated’s COO, she provided strategic oversight and management of Habitus’ services and offerings, with the goal of achieving the organization’s vision and maximum impact for clients. Lesley’s mediation practice areas include Divorce, Harassment Prevention Order Cases, and Summary Process and Small Claims volunteer mediations referred by the Massachusetts and New Jersey District Courts. This experience earned her positions as a Mediation Trainer, Coach and Guest Lecturer at the New England School of Law. She has also assisted in coordinating and conducting mediation, negotiation, and difficult conversations trainings at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the UMASS Dartmouth School of Law.