Liza Yanovich is a theater actor and education specialist with more than 15 years of combined experience in government institutions, international organizations, philanthropy, and theater. Her vast international experience includes working with diverse stakeholders across disciplines and sectors to address the world’s most pressing and complex issues. Passionate about advancing opportunities for children and youth through education and the creative arts, she currently works as a teaching artist with Arts for Learning Maryland, Imagination Stage, Educational Theatre Company, and Inspired Child. Liza is a creative and skilled facilitator who builds organizational and individual capacity to collaborate, learn, and adapt. Liza’s belief in the power of communities to drive systems change and in engaging existing government structures and the private sector to catalyze social change is a key driver for her work with IYS. Liza loves to work with children, young adults, and educators, and she has extensive experience building relationships and navigating differences with government officials and private sector representatives globally. She thrives in culturally diverse contexts. Liza has extensive experience working resourcefully yet thoughtfully in hard-to-reach communities in West and Central Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. Liza is fluent in French, Russian, and English.
Lyndi Tsering is a Tibetan-American storyteller, foreign policy researcher, and dialogue facilitator who is motivated by her interest in the future of U.S.-China relations and passion for elevating unique perspectives through both storytelling and policy. She began working with the Lab for Global Performance and Politics while a Master’s student in Asian Studies under Georgetown’s School of Foreign—first as a Student Fellow and later as a dialogue facilitator for the In Your Shoes and U.S.-China Dialogue at Georgetown cohort. Thought the past few years, Lyndi has performed with the House of Sweden, the We Hear You Project, the On Being Podcast and IYS collaboration, and the Theater of War, and has also spoken and facilitated roundtables as a former specialist at the United States Institute of Peace. Her encounters with IYS as both participant and facilitator have been transformative and built mutual understanding that transcended the tides of politics and the complexities of holding mixed identities in a globalized context. Lyndi is currently based in Washington, D.C.
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Mary Hall Surface is a Washington, DC-based playwright, theater director, teaching artist, and museum educator. She strives to uncover complexity, expand perspectives, and deepen understandings within each of us and among one another. Her Helen Hayes award-winning plays for intergenerational audiences have been produced worldwide. A deep believer in the transformative power of the arts, Mary Hall was the founding artistic director of DC’s Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, an all-arts festival designed as a catalyst for connection across all ages and communities. She has published fifteen plays, three original cast albums, a feature article about creative community building in the Journal of Museum Education, and a chapter for an upcoming book, An Empathy-Building Toolkit for Museums. An experienced facilitator, Mary Hall has led drama-based professional development workshops for educators nationally and internationally through the Kennedy Center and at Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom. With the Smithsonian in 2020, she developed an art-inspired writing tool for well-being and resilience that was highlighted in USA Today. She leads art-inspired creative and reflective writing sessions for the National Gallery of Art, Chautauqua Institution, Washington National Cathedral, and Smithsonian Associates to create connection between looking closely at art and toward the resourcefulness of our creativity and imaginations. maryhallsurface.com.
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Sivagami “Shiva” Subbaraman is an experienced multi-modal facilitator, who draws upon varied and evolving traditions in her work. She has been trained in intergroup dialogue (University of Michigan), and ran the intergroup dialogue and facilitator training program for several years at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also trained in Theater of the Oppressed methodology, as well as In Your Shoes. Years of queer, feminist, and race-based academic work inform her approach. She has a great sense of humor, an ability to engage with joy and clarity, and is passionate about the heft and weight of storytelling and story sharing in our world and communities. You can read more about her here:
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RhNbAAK/sivagami-subbaraman Read More Sivagami Subbaraman
Mekala Sridhar (she/her) is a DC-based theatre director, playwright, and producer. Her artmaking is grounded in creating radically inclusive, collaborative work, and building community through theatre is central to her practice.
In the past, she has worked in artistic and producorial capacities at theatres like Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Mosaic Theatre Company, Solas Nua, Studio Theatre, and Baltimore Center Stage to name a few.
Mekala came to IYS through serving as the community organizer for Art of Care and enjoys finding ways to bring together art and activism to collectively dream of better futures. She is especially invigorated by how both theatre and IYS serve as ways for folks to come together and create community while holding space to delve deeply into the questions that are pertinent in our everyday lives, not necessarily with the goal of coming up with “an answer,” but with the idea that this kind of collaborative exploration can help deepen our understanding of ourselves and each other.
Elton Skendaj is a scholar, dialogue facilitator, and leadership coach, who serves as the Director of the Democracy and Governance M.A. Program at Georgetown University. He facilitates workshops on how dialogue can build bridges in polarized and divided societies. He is a leadership coach who helps executives grow in purpose and joy. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Global Governance, Problems of Postcommunism, and Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. Elton brings to IYS his background in facilitating dialogue circles on three continents, and an appreciation for the theatre of the oppressed. He enjoys integrating IYS call-and-response exercise in various dialogue workshops, and he notices the impact of the IYS performances on the audience. Elton believes in the power of IYS to foster empathy and better understanding among individuals and groups. Read More Elton Skendaj
Nick Scrimenti (C‘18) is the director of student programs at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, where he leads student-facing initiatives on interreligious understanding, global citizenship, and dialogue across difference. He also directs international fellowship programs connecting Georgetown and international students through sustained cross-cultural dialogue. Nick is a dialogue facilitator, spiritual director, and educator with experience in higher education, retreat work, and contemplative practice across traditions.
He has been trained in dialogic practices by Resetting the Table and the In Your Shoes™ Research and Practice Center, and has supported IYS implementation with Georgetown students and faculty. He values IYS for its deep listening pedagogy and embodied approach to cultivating empathy, and is especially interested in bringing IYS into interreligious contexts, global education, and spiritual formation.
Nick holds a B.A. in Theology from Georgetown and an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School. He is currently pursuing a certificate in spiritual direction at Loyola University Chicago.
Magdalen (Gigi) Rose Cammaroto is an interdisciplinary artist-muse creating at the intersection of the expressive arts and holistic wellbeing. Though trained as a theatremaker, Gigi also writes poetry & music, practices herbalism, and enjoys creating earth mandalas with natural materials. She is currently founding a healing art collective centered around making art for the Earth and with the Earth (cocrearth.org). Her Big Dream is to bring humankind back into relationship with our green home using the arts. As a community architect at heart, Gigi often needs to pinch herself to believe she is now facilitating some of this life-changing work with In Your Shoes. She finds the universal simplicity yet transformative depth of In Your Shoes particularly captivating, and thus she is especially interested in bringing this work to underserved, neurodivergent, and/or ESL communities. In the future, Gigi would love to weave In Your Shoes with the art she is creating with the Earth. You can find Gigi on Instagram @earthnmuse – she’s always eager to connect!
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Natasha Mirny is a stage director, performer, choreographer, and founder of Happy Theater (happytheater.com). Her background is in pantomime, puppetry, and physical theater. She is also a teaching artist at Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Inspired Child, and Arts for Learning Maryland, where she designs, implements, and coaches arts integration programs across the US. Natasha believes in the healing, uniting, engaging, and community building role of the theater and arts. She is very grateful and excited to be part of the IYS and to bring her theater background and her experience of creating and facilitating workshops for participants of different age groups and backgrounds. Through IYS Natasha is hoping to bring more empathy, peace and the feeling of being seen and heard to different communities. She truly enjoys connecting with people and creating a safe and brave space for them to share their amazing stories.
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Nafisa Isa is a mother, educator, and creative based in Northern Virginia. As an Educational Developer at Georgetown University’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, she works at the intersection of liberatory teaching, innovation, and community building. Her expertise includes engaged arts and humanities, experiential learning, and praxis for sustainable, just futures.
She first encountered In Your Shoes (IYS) as a graduate student and was drawn to its potential for empathy-building and embodied learning—aligning with her lifelong calling to bring people together through creativity and shared learning. She envisions its methods enriching classrooms, arts spaces, and community initiatives around the world.
Previously, Nafisa worked at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, curating programs and exhibitions that reimagined museums as collaborative and socially responsible spaces. Her writing can be found in “Change is Required: Preparing for the Post-Pandemic Museum,” published by Rowman & Littlefield and “APA101: Asian Pacific American History, Art, and Culture at the Smithsonian in 101 Objects,” which recently won the Secretary of the Smithsonian’s Research Prize. Outside of work, she can be found spending time with family, gardening, and DJing as one-half of Shuno Re (@shuno.re), playing all-vinyl sets and showcasing archival sounds from South Asia and beyond.
Jane Fitzpatrick is a Program Associate supporting Student Programs for the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. Jane specializes in researching the interconnections among religious traditions, international affairs, and the arts, and she has become passionate about inclusivity in respectful, open dialogue. Through the In Your Shoes project, Jane hopes to continue building empathy and understanding among students and peers through its uniquely artistic and exploratory expressions. She enjoys the personal bonding that the program creates among its participants and is excited to share that experience with future cohorts. Jane received her master’s degree in international affairs from the Pennsylvania State University and her bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Gettysburg College. Her work has been published by The Interfaith Observer, the London School of Economics Religion and Global Society Blog, Practical Theology Hub, Religion Matters, and more. In her free time, Jane sings opera, visits museums, and learns about wine. Read More Jane Fitzpatrick
Caitlin Frazier (she/her) is an actor, writer, and educator currently based in Chicago. Her plays have been showcased at the Capital Fringe Festival, Abingdon Theatre Company’s Raise the Page, Uplift the Word: A BIPOC Festival of Short Plays, and The Makers’ Ensemble’s Short Play Fest 2025. Her acting credits include School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play at NextStop Theatre Company and Re: Writing at the Capital Fringe Festival. A recent graduate from Georgetown University, she studied English and Theater and Performance Studies. Post-graduation, she has found herself at home in K-12 education, substitute teaching for DC Public Schools, and teaching drama at the Sitar Arts Center and Round House Theatre.
The In Your Shoes process, to me, is about connection for the sake of connecting. Yes, there are various ways to apply this connection, but at the end of the day, it is about giving time and space to other people and to ourselves because everyone deserves a little extra time and space given to them. I have brought some aspects of In Your Shoes to my theater classroom this summer. The students there were ages 5-9, and I am interested in further developing In Your Shoes to serve younger age groups.
