Aviva comes to us along winding roads that span cities, forests, gardens, and university classrooms. She found her way to deep nature connection from a seed in her childhood spent running with her father along the Mahicantuck/Hudson River in New York City, where she grew up learning to make sense of her surroundings through the lens of her bilingual and bicultural family. Not originally identifying as a “nature person”, Aviva consciously discovered later in her life that the wild lives everywhere, and now interweaves lessons from Nature into her work acting as a resource for social sector leadership development and non-profit board and staff evolution. Aviva lives out her deep practices of resilience within her personal and professional work and embodies authentic leadership that crosses cultures and embraces diversity– and we are honored to have her as part of the Wildwood team! Aviva joins us as a guest mentor on wilderness programs and works with us offering consulting and training to leaders and teams who want to increase diversity, nature connection, and living systems thinking capacity in their work.
Aviva also serves as the Faculty Director for the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, where she brings her experience facilitating dialogue, creating generative workplace culture and weaving relationships among diverse stakeholders. Prior to joining INP, Aviva directed Harvard University’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations where she managed global civil society research teams and taught courses on strategic financial management, collaborative team design, and fundraising. We know she will keep offering her gifts to the world in ever-changing ways and we’re thrilled to work with her!