Riahl O'Malley
Co-founder
Riahl O’Malley is passionate about supporting individuals and teams to find common purpose and achieve remarkable results for their organizations and communities. He has worked with multi-functional teams of all sizes across the United States, Canada, and Nicaragua, supporting partners to design and implement leadership programs that enhance their sustainability and impact.
Riahl enjoys working collaboratively with executives, frontline staff, and subject matter experts to translate complex subjects into clear processes and outcomes. His approach helps teams accomplish their mission by collaboratively designing tools and systems—like templates, guides, and job aides—that capture group wisdom and encourage ongoing learning and application.
Some of his key accomplishments since founding Learning to Transform include:
Aligning leadership teams at a state funder to create an equity-focused Community of Practice for public health workers, supporting grantees in building stronger community partnerships.
Developing a leadership pipeline for a statewide Latino organization, preparing leaders to move up in title and responsibility and equipping volunteers to be organizational ambassadors.
Conducting strategic planning for a higher education team and coaching executive leadership to create clear work plans, including outreach strategies for building partnerships.
Launching The Transformative Trainer, an online bilingual cohort program that has empowered leaders in 18 states and the Global South to design and facilitate trainings for social causes.
Designing a pioneering equity program to build racial solidarity, collaborating with Black leaders to develop a trainer’s guide that is now a key component of the organization’s onboarding process.
Streamlining operations for a financial services organization that provides technical assistance and financial support to Latino-owned businesses, creating sustainable work plans, and ensuring compliance with funding requirements.
Coaching youth workers through the design and implementation of a mental and reproductive health program for BIPOC LGBTQIA+ youth.
Facilitating a participatory budgeting initiative for Black youth helping distribute mini-grants to organizations aligned with their mission and values.
Expanding his team to include highly talented consultants and facilitators.
Riahl’s approach to leadership development is rooted in participatory methods and adult learning best practices, drawing on both the art and science of teaching within nonprofit, public sector, and business contexts. His Master’s in Advocacy and Political Leadership from the University of Minnesota Duluth helps him think about organizational development strategically, guiding groups to get buy-in from stakeholders and create change inside and outside their organizations. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, Indira, and their two amazing children in a Spanish-speaking household. In his spare time, you might find him running or skiing through the woods.
- riahl@learningtotransform.org
- indira@learningtotransform.org
Indira Garmendia
Co-founder
Indira has dedicated her life to defending justice for women, immigrants, workers, and people of color. She is a proud Nicaraguan feminist and organizer who believes in the collective power of everyday people and is here to help you and your team build it.
She was politicized by the Central American feminist movement in her home country of Nicaragua where she quickly went from attending trainings on gender and reproductive justice to organizing and leading them across the country. Alongside her peers she founded a feminist collective that led educational communications campaigns on sexual and reproductive freedom. Later she applied her passion across Central America as a foundation program officer, mentoring newly formed women’s groups run by indigenous, rural, and working class young people.
Since moving to the United States she has been working alongside other immigrants and people of color in the struggle for justice. She worked in the largely immigrant communities of Chelsea and East Boston in Massachusetts for environmental justice and in the promotion and creation of immigrant-owned worker cooperatives. She currently leads a leadership development program for Latinx and African-American low-wage workers within a Minnesota workers center dedicated to racial and economic justice.
In her free time she likes to plant vegetables and flowers, go to new places to hike and explore, and attend marches where she can scream at the top of her lungs for justice. You might catch her on TV in Central America, starring as Jessica in the social issues telenovela “Loma Verde.”
She is pursuing a Masters in Cooperative Enterprise and Social Business Management with the University of Mondragon in Spain and sits on the Advisory Board for Rooted Philanthropic. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her husband Riahl and son, Adrián.
Xochilt Exue Hernandez Leiva
Trainer
Xochilt Exue Hernandez Leiva is a Nicaraguan-Colombian educator, social researcher, and anthropologist with multidisciplinary experience in community development, youth and community leadership, and education. She holds a MPhil of Education, with an emphasis on Educational Leadership and School Improvement, and a Peace Studies diploma. With more than 8 years of experience in formal and non-formal education, she has contributed to research projects focusing on peace education, non-violent strategic action, educational assessment, educational leadership, and entrepreneurship education.
Additionally, she has contributed to international research projects on international education, environmental management, and indigenous rights; and has extensive experience leading organizations and in implementing, monitoring, and evaluating community development projects in Latin America, through a participatory lens.
Ready to use education and training to expand your impact for social change?
