Congratulations to the newest cohort of Certified Collaborative Discussion Coaches, who completed the Interactivity Foundation’s Collaborative Discussion Coach Training held in Pittsburgh, PA on Aug 21, 2026!
Over the course of a full day, this group of educators, government and philanthropic leaders, non-profit executive directors, and therapists explored how collaborative discussion can strengthen classrooms, communities, and workplaces. We are proud to welcome them to our growing network of Certified Collaborative Discussion Coaches.
Meet Our Newest Coaches
Brandon Blache-Cohen – President & CEO of AllPeopleBeHappy (formerly Amizade), has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit, service-learning, and international development sectors and has collaborated on over 200 community development projects, impacting hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.
Jasmine Cho – Collaborative Discussion Project Coordinator at Interactivity Foundation, art therapist, and author. Known internationally for using portrait cookies to elevate representation of historically marginalized stories, she hopes to use her platform to expand joy and creativity, and advocate for diverse modalities of healing.
Darla Cravotta – a community strategist who retired after 35 years in local government and nonprofit work, Darla is a community-focused, innovative, purposeful professional with extensive experience working across sectors with people, municipalities, and organizations.
Monica Cwynar – Social worker at UPMC Children’s Hospital and therapist at Thriveworks,, with more than 25 years of experience, her work spans healthcare, education, child welfare, geriatrics, criminal justice, and community outreach, giving her a broad perspective on mental health and human connection.
Courtney Ehrlichman – Executive Director of CONNECT (the Congress of Neighboring Communities), a coalition of 39 local governments across Southwestern Pennsylvania, leads CONNECT as a policy-innovation organization that helps municipalities solve shared problems together, at a scale none of them could take on alone.
Fran Flaherty – Assistant Professor of Digital Art and Emerging Media and the Director of Fablab at Carlow University, is a first-generation immigrant mother from the Philippines and a Deaf artist whose work explores themes of migrant family relations, maternal feminism, disability aesthetics, and social work.
Nick Grimes – Senior Impact Manager at AllPeopleBeHappy (formerly Amizade), served two tours in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division and spent several years working in various aspects of the non-profit sector, from serving meals to home-bound seniors to hosting a podcast focused on the intersection of veterans and social issues and facilitating community conversations around difficult subjects.
Teya Kamel – A licensed Registered Nurse and Nurse Educator at Carlow University. Using a collaborative team approach, she co-created the perinatal and perioperative student internships addressing workforce needs and has published articles and art in nursing and narrative medicine journals.
Ray Miles – Founder of 412 Work and a licensed social worker, entrepreneur, and author. Ray’s career has spanned corrections, behavioral health, higher education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship, giving him a unique perspective on the relationship between people, purpose, and performance.
Susheela Nemani-Stanger – Executive Director of Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, has built her career in community and economic development and leads with a disciplined commitment to translating vision into action, anchored in collaboration, strategic growth, and measurable community impact.
Richard Smith – Vice President of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, with more than 15 years of leadership experience in nonprofit healthcare and behavioral health, he has extensive expertise in planning, grantmaking, public health, organizational development, workforce leadership, and community engagement.
Jennifer Snyder-Duch – Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs and Labor Relations at Frostburg State University, with more than 25 years of experience across public, private, and community college settings, she has advanced relational teaching, advising, and student success.
Learning by Doing
Participants immersed themselves in the Interactivity Foundation’s Collaborative Discussion Toolkit—a free collection of more than 50 ready-to-use discussion activities and lesson plans designed to strengthen collaborative discussion skills and mindsets.
The toolkit is organized into five modules: Introduction, Creative, Critical, Culturally Responsive, and Civic Collaborative Discussion. Participants had the opportunity to experience a variety of the activities firsthand before reflecting on how to facilitate them in their own settings.
The Interactivity Foundation’s President Shannon-Wheatley Hartman co-led this training with Director of Education, Jes Friedrichs, at the beautiful downtown offices of The Pittsburgh Foundation.
Reflections From the Cohort
“I really enjoyed the day. To be quite honest, I was apprehensive that it would be another training where you get a little bit of value but mostly filler. I was wrong. The fast paced nature of quickly moving from one activity to the next was incredibly refreshing. I look forward to our future gatherings!”
“This was energizing; gave me hope and a new network of beautiful people!”
“This was a fabulous day that provided me with enrichment, and deeper insight into regional professional challenges.”
“I found it valuable to understand that there are actual tactics involved in collaboration. I felt like I had been given the tools to actually collaborate, rather than collaboration being a catch all concept!”
“I think every institution needs to have IF training! We would be so much more efficient, productive, kind, and fun!”
The participants left the training with plans to reconnect regularly through quarterly meetups to build on the energy and momentum in the room. IF will be sharing information about these meetups in the future for anyone in the Pittsburgh region who’d like to join.
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