Trainer Members
At OASTS Solidarity Collective, our trainers are more than instructors—they’re mentors, collaborators, and changemakers. Each member brings a unique blend of expertise, lived experience, and passion for building stronger communities. Together, they empower individuals and groups with knowledge, skills, and strategies for lasting impact.
patri gonzález ramírez (they/them)
Worker-Owner of Caracol Language
believes in consensus based, non-hierarchical collective structures as a pathway to abundant futures for our people and this planet. patri brings to the TC previous experiences as worker-owner of Caracol Language Coop, staff at collectively-run Paper Tiger Television, and popular education at the Audre Lorde Project. patri was a Media Educator and Program Coordinator for Global Action Project youth media programs, running in-person and online training for young BIPOC in NYC until it closed in 2020. They are a graduate of Democracy at Work Institute’s Líderes Cooperativistas en Acción 2016-2017 program. As a facilitator they are passionate about creating transformative spaces and nurturing practices that allow participants to thrive in their own power. patri is also an established language justice practitioner and trainer, supporting the growth of multilingual capacity in community organizations and national social movements. They bring their language justice lens to all the spaces they facilitate.
Rebecca Lurie
Advisor
is the founder of the Community and Worker Ownership Project at the City University of NY School for Labor and Urban Studies where she also serves as faculty in the Urban Studies Department. She is a founding member of the worker-owned cooperative, New Deal Home Improvement Company. She began her working career as a union carpenter and transitioned into worker education through the union’s apprenticeship program and the construction industry. Using a sector approach for understanding industries and businesses and their employment needs, she has remained dedicated to inclusive community economic development. She serves on the boards of the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative and Democracy at Work Institute. She holds a Master’s in Organizational Change Management from The New School, a certificate in Adult Occupational Education from CUNY and is certified in Permaculture Urban Design. She is a native New Yorker raised with the spirit and passion of dedication to social justice.
Athena Bernkopf (they/them)
is a cross-pollinator tending to the intersecting roots of black and queer liberation, and land, housing, and healing justice. They have worked as a facilitator and organizer across NYC in roles such as worker-owner of a catering coop, tenant rights and anti-displacement advocate at the Legal Aid Society, and core member of The Audre Lorde Project’s 3rd Space Wellness Collective.
Currently they serve as Project Director at the East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust (EHEBCLT), where they work to build out infrastructure for community ownership and tenant-led governance of land and housing. Athena represents EHEBCLT on the coordinating committee of the New York City Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI). They are also a board member of the Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC (CEANYC).
Driven by a vision of cityscapes abundant in ancient trees taller and more common than skyscrapers, they are committed to co-creating urban futures rooted in mutual care, collective stewardship of resources, and being in right relationship with land.
Catherine Murcek
is a worker-owner/ yoga therapist/ community organizer/ advocate/ dance artist/ law student based in New York City. She grew up in Pennsylvania, studied International Economics at Franklin University of Switzerland, and also lived in the Boston area before becoming an honorary New Yorker after over a decade in this beautifully chaotic city.
She fell in love with the worker cooperative community when she joined her co-op, Samamkaya Yoga Back Care and Scoliosis Collective in 2016. In 2017 she was fortunate to be able to participate in the inaugural cohort of CEANYC’s Cooperative Leadership Intensive. In 2018 she was honored to be elected to NYCNoWC’s Advocacy Council where she still serves as a member working on policy initiatives to support co-ops.
She received another great honor in 2021 when she was named by the USFWC as the Cooperative Policy Advocate of the year. Inspired to continue challenging herself and working to support the movement, she started at CUNY School of Law part-time in the Fall of 2022. She is passionate about travel, holistic healing, and societal healing through the democratization of labor, land, and housing.
Cheryl Walker (she/they)
Cheryl is an attorney at TakeRoot Justice who supports community-based organizations and coalitions by providing transactional services to worker cooperatives, not-for-profits and collective, and by supporting policy development and community education efforts.
Prior to TakeRoot Justice, Cheryl obtained a J.D. from CUNY School of Law, M.P.A. from American University, and B.A. from Wesleyan University, where she/they majored in Postcolonial Studies and Classical Civilizations.
Emma Yorra (She/They)
is a bilingual trainer with the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives Training Collective. She is also a bookkeeper and consultant and worker owner at Wholehearted Bookkeeping Cooperative.
Emma worked for three years at A Bookkeeping Cooperative in Brooklyn. She brings 15 years of experience in cooperative development, management and finance as a tool for building power in low income communities at the Center for Family Life and The Working World.
She is passionate about building an economy that works for all and holds a master’s degree in Social Economics and Cooperative Business Management from Mondragon University in Spain.
Félix E. Gardón Rivera ( they,them,ellx)
is an interpreter/actor/artist/activist. Félix is a queer economic justice activist, a language advocate, experienced trainer and facilitator that has held various positions to develop new leadership and trainers in multiple topics and issues such as economic, gender, social, and justice.
Félix was one of the co-founders and co-chair of Queers for Economic Justice, worker/ owner of Caracol Language LLC, and Robert W, Maggs Designs LLC among them. They also worked as Director of Education/Advocacy for SAGE (Services and Advocacy for LGBTQI, Program Coordinator Specialist at University of Medicine and Dentistry where he developed the Standards for Cultural Competency for the Ryan White tittle 1 programs in NJ, and As Member of the SRLP collective provided language access services for legal clinics in NYC for the transgender community.
Felix is also an actor artist and co-founded the Puerto Rican Actors troupe Los Cuatro Gatos and for 15 yrs was a member of the Medicine Show Theatre the oldest experimental theater group. in NYC. They studied with the renowned Greek artist Omiros and has shown his works in various galleries in Philadelphia and NJ. Felix currently runs Coqui Interpretations providing language justice consultancy and interpretation services in Spanish /English.
Patri González Ramírez (they/them)
believes in consensus based, non-hierarchical collective structures as a pathway to abundant futures for our people and this planet. patri brings to the TC previous experiences as worker-owner of Caracol Language Coop, staff at collectively-run Paper Tiger Television, and popular education at the Audre Lorde Project.
patri was a Media Educator and Program Coordinator for Global Action Project youth media programs, running in-person and online training for young BIPOC in NYC until it closed in 2020. They are a graduate of Democracy at Work Institute’s Líderes Cooperativistas en Acción 2016-2017 program.
As a facilitator they are passionate about creating transformative spaces and nurturing practices that allow participants to thrive in their own power.
patri is also an established language justice practitioner and trainer, supporting the growth of multilingual capacity in community organizations and national social movements. They bring their language justice lens to all the spaces they facilitate.
Patricia Alejandro (she/her)
Patricia is a lawyer, educator and community-builder. She is an attorney at TakeRoot Justice, advising worker-owned cooperatives and nonprofits in New York City.
She is also a clinical instructor at the Community Enterprise Project in the Transactional Law Clinics of Harvard Law School.
She started her career working on democracy and human rights, and began focusing on economic justice in law school, seeing sustainable livelihoods as a crucial ingredient of more just and democratic societies. Every now and then, she also teaches workshops and classes on negotiation. She is a board member at NYC NoWC.
Rebecca Lurie
is the founder of the Community and Worker Ownership Project at the City University of NY School for Labor and Urban Studies where she also serves as faculty in the Urban Studies Department. She is a founding member of the worker-owned cooperative, New Deal Home Improvement Company.
She began her working career as a union carpenter and transitioned into worker education through the union’s apprenticeship program and the construction industry. Using a sector approach for understanding industries and businesses and their employment needs, she has remained dedicated to inclusive community economic development.
She serves on the boards of the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative and Democracy at Work Institute. She holds a Master’s in Organizational Change Management from The New School, a certificate in Adult Occupational Education from CUNY and is certified in Permaculture Urban Design.
She is a native New Yorker raised with the spirit and passion of dedication to social justice.