Meet the Team

Hayley is a multi-passionate-always-curious graphic artist and upcycling designer based in the north of England.

She loves the outdoors, and having worked in the environmental sector for 15 years, she made the leap over to embrace life as a full-time artist and creative in 2022.
Passionate about creative expression and using art as a tool to inspire positive social change, her mission is to raise awareness on important issues by creating art that connects people on an emotional level, encouraging curiosity, conversation and collective action.

Hayley thrives on collaboration and is super excited to continue her creative adventure as part of the Start the Wave team.

Em is a white queer creative and curious soul, drawn to the transformative power of music, nature, and creativity as tools for healing, connection, and building a more equitable world. She believes in showing up for social justice, nurturing solidarity, and learning to live in deeper respect and collaboration with Mother Earth.

She will be working with Start the Wave on French translation and helping maintain connections with the funded projects. She loves reading, singing, writing, and observing and spending time in nature, which she see as one of our greatest teachers. She’s here to keep learning, creating, connecting, and contributing to a world rooted in care, justice, and collective liberation.

Charlotte is a senior web developer & a WordPress specialist. She is jumping on anything that is tech-based and her goal is to make the life of her fellow wavemarkers easier so they can keep saving the world making waves.

Born and raised in France, Charlotte loves spending time outside with her girlfriend and their pets. She is a fan of hiking and karaoke.

Li is a first generation immigrant from Colombia who moved to the United States in 2003. After graduating from college with a BA in languages and education, and after doing a short stint as a teacher, Li discovered her passion was languages. For the past 17 years, Li has worked and volunteered with a variety of nonprofits whose work revolves around justice issues (immigration, domestic violence, workers rights, economic inequality, health access, LGBTQIA+ issues, and others.) in Western North Carolina. Li currently works for a local county government, is a contract translator and interpreter for a language justice cooperative based in NC, and will be furthering her education as a translator with UMass Boston in the fall.

As a new member of STW, Li is focusing on providing interpretation and translation, with the long-term aim of developing a language justice approach inside the organization, to support STW’s goal of building an inclusive global community that empowers change-makers from all walks of life. Li is looking forward to becoming more familiar with the organization to provide support in other areas.

In her spare time, Li enjoys hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, sharing meals with friends along with quite a lot of dancing, reading, and learning to play the ukulele.

Dom is a queer, gender fluid, activist and artist.

They are best known for their role in Syfy’s TV show – Wynonna Earp, where they played a bisexual young woman coming into her sexuality and personal power.

With a huge passion for growth and healing as well as dance and music, they are exploring the intersection of these practices, using creativity as a vehicle for transformation.

They profoundly believe that we all have magic inside of us and when we listen deeply to our hearts calling, let go of our systematic conditioning, and find the courage to follow our purpose, amazing things can transpire.

One of their greatest joys is to support wavemakers in their important work of bringing in a brighter tomorrow.

The individuals and projects that Start the Wave has collaborated with are a huge source of inspiration for Dom and they feel honoured to continue growing this movement alongside such an amazing community.

With over ten years of administrative work under her belt, Chan brings a wealth of experience in growing and supporting strong nonprofit organizations by bolstering their operations. They have a breadth of training working with and supporting various sized organizations to develop robust internal systems. Like with the pronunciation of her name, pinning down their pronouns is sometimes a challenge.

Ever since she was seven years old, singing along to Rhythm Nation 1814 and reading every Black history book she could find at the library, social justice and service have been at the forefront of their work and their life. Chan’s wish is to continue that life’s calling at Start the Wave.

When she’s not dreaming of ways to streamline operations, Chan can be found hiking around town searching for the best vegan soul food, browsing the aisles of their local comic book shop, or imploring movement leaders to truly rest. Chan lives in Northern California, where she tends to her goats and cats that they lovingly call her dummies.