our team
Soumya palreddy, phd
Soumya (pronunciation: SOH-myuh, she/her) is an anti-bias anti-racism educator in progress, licensed psychologist, and trainer. Bringing warmth and energy, she provides training and promotes transformative change in the areas of health care inequities, centering anti-racism, leadership development, and supervision. Her journey facilitating changes in communities started with planning and implementing prevention programming at a rape crisis center. Currently, Soumya is a National Trainer for Mental Health First Aid (teen, youth, adult) and most recently, was a medical consultant for the Social Security Administration. In addition to being a National Trainer, Soumya was instrumental in the rewrite of Adult MHFA 2.0, Youth MHFA 2.0, and the associated train-the-training programs. Furthermore, she has provided consultation to organizations and schools to center and cultivate equity. Prior to consulting, Soumya served as an Associate Director at University Health Services at UW- Madison, sitting on the leadership team for the mental health division.
ian lowe, ma
Ian (pronunciation: EE - uh n, he/him) is a Wisconsin-based educator with 15 years of classroom teaching experience. As a teacher and student advisor, Ian mentors students and staff on how to center justice and equity through course and project design. These projects are grounded in essential questions which contain multiple avenues for teachers and learners to access knowledge, develop new skills and demonstrate learning. As a school-based Restorative Justice practitioner, he developed and sustained a partnership with the YWCA (in Madison, WI), weaving Restorative Practices into myriad aspects of the teaching and learning environments throughout the school. Ian’s pedagogical approach is also heavily influenced by his experience with interdisciplinary instruction and project-based learning. His work in developing collaborative, interdisciplinary, and project-based work with students was captured in Wisconsin Public Radio’s Classroom Frequency, which aired in June 2019 and was awarded a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Education.