Meet Equip's Staff
Dr. Amer F. Ahmed
CO-FOUNDER
Dr. Amer F. Ahmed is an organizational strategist who helps institutions and leaders address diversity and inclusion, equity, race, and intercultural development through consulting, coaching, group facilitation, and keynote speeches. A frequently requested speaker nationwide, Dr. Ahmed’s approach is grounded in a commitment to inclusive community and excellence. Throughout his career, Dr. Ahmed has worked with large organizations, higher education institutions, nonprofit agencies, schools, and community groups to create understanding and change among key constituents and institutional leaders. Dr. Ahmed has published key opinion pieces and has been featured in media such as MSNBC, documentary film, and other national press outlets for his commentary and critical perspective on news and significant topics in society. He also has keynoted prominent conferences including the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) in Higher Education. Dr. Ahmed is the Founder and CEO of AFA Diversity Consulting, LLC, a consulting practice dedicated to enhancing the development of organizations through efforts around leadership, professional development, assessment, and strategic change. In addition to his consulting work, Dr. Ahmed currently serves as Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Faculty in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration program in the College of Education and Social Services at University of Vermont.
BERT VERCAMER
CO-FOUNDER
Bert has over 20 years of experience in a global and domestic OD, training, facilitation and diversity context, having worked in over 55 countries across four continents. He is proficient in a number of languages including Dutch, English, French, and some rusty German and has experience managing numerous cross-cultural leadership and remote teams. He’s an innovative OD and learning expert and executive/team coach with demonstrated expertise defining organizational vision and strategy, ensuring everyone's voice is included (Human Centered Design), developing large scale (50000 people over 60+ countries) impactful learning solutions/programs, guiding global program development, coaching executives and diplomats, and enabling cultural transformation for global non-profits, government agencies, corporations, and educational institutions. He has two Masters, in both Economics and Intercultural Relations, and received his education at the University of Ghent (Belgium), University of the Pacific (USA), the School of Management and Law in Zurich (Switzerland), University of South Africa, and the Intercultural Institute in Portland (USA). Finally, he is a qualified administrator in the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), certified administrator of the Intercultural Awareness Profile (IAP), the Global Competencies Inventory (GCI) and the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES).
Dr. Shelly Perdomo-Ahmed
Dr. Shelly A. Perdomo is a higher education executive coach and organizational strategist that supports individuals and organizations to strategically shape, operationalize, and integrate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). She has a proven record as a transformative leader with subject matter expertise who brings considerable skill in addressing and responding to complex and nuanced DEIB challenges. As an administrative executive, she has led strategic planning efforts and effectively translated plans into operational priorities. She is a strategic thinker and a catalyst who develops solutions to complex challenges through a relational approach that allows her to build sustained partnerships. As an executive coach, Dr. Perdomo supports leadership teams and administrators in strategic planning, fiscal management, and organizational development to empower staff to discover their potential and share their skills in team-oriented, inclusive environments. Her commitment to coaching, mentoring, supporting, and developing diverse and talented professionals is unparalleled. Dr. Perdomo received her doctorate and Masters in Educational Policy, Research and Administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her Bachelors in Latin American Studies and Cultural Anthropology from Mount Holyoke College. She is also an alum of HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Institute and has a professional certification from the Global Inclusion Program.
Shrouk Hussien
Shrouk is originally from Egypt and based in Spain, holds a degree in Media and Mass Communication and has been involved with the Equip team since 2021, as a Project Manager, and as a Program Coordinator with Global Inclusion. Beyond her work with Equip, She is also the founder and director of Yellow vs. Blue, a non-profit mental health organization, registered in the UK, she works to promote inclusive mental health and wellbeing space through facilitating art therapy, intercultural exchanges, creative lab workshops, and filmmaking. Shrouk is a Certified Erasmus+ Facilitator, Coach, and NLP Practitioner, learning designer who works with various organizations around Europe and the USA in the inclusive cross cultural exchange field. Additionally, she serves as a Lead Mentor with MCW Global in New York, an editor with a UK-based magazine that raises voices of migrants, activists and volunteers, and a Content Coordinator with World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence. Shrouk previously engaged as a Global Side Mentor to promote wellbeing, create a safe, inclusive space among Japanese and global students with HLAB Japan. In recent years, she joined the filming industry by shooting mental health documentaries from time to time, and supporting creating short mental health films through her organization to promote inclusive space for young adults in theatre.
Meet the Production and Design Team
Rahel and Elis from Instituto NOW
Instituto NOW is a Brazil-based social enterprise that supports impact-driven organisations in their development and learning. We are a female/non-binary and quite queer company driven by our values of social justice, sustainability and inclusion.
Our services today include 3 main areas:
Learning Design: creating online / in-person or hybrid learning experiences
Content production: creating audio-visual and written content for learning
Facilitation: guiding group processes, trainings and learning experiences
Our work has allowed us to collaborate with organisations active across different continents focussing on climate justice, bodily autonomy, intercultural education and circular economy, among other topics.
Barbara Miranda
Barbara Miranda is a Brazilian UX Designer and Communicator that focuses on products and services that helps change people’s perspectives and create a more emphatic and hopeful world. She lived abroad twice in Germany and in the US and speaks Portuguese, English, German and Spanish, making intercultural and language studies very important to her. At Equip, she’s responsible for the branding, visual identity of the company as well as the motion design for the educational videos. In Brazil she has a podcast called Outras Mamas.
Leila Ben-Abdallah
Leila Ben-Abdallah trained as an actor and singer before beginning her career in voice over and narration. Leila’s voice work can be found in commercials, e-learning modules, public service announcements, and workplace training programs. Leila’s warm, confident, commanding voice, and her multicultural, multilingual upbringing lend itself well to educational content for diverse audiences. When not recording voiceover and narration, Leila is an honors student in Environmental Science at Empire State College, and enjoys learning about advances in climate solutions and ecological restoration.
Henry Ponthieu
Henry Ponthieu is a Brooklyn college graduate. Henry has a strong affinity for stage combat, fencing, puppetry and writing. His acting journey started in college where he was persuaded by professor Steven Lantz-Gefroh(M.F.A., Yale University) to study theater under him. During his stay at Brooklyn college Henry was honored with an opportunity to perform on the main stage with the Master class acting students on their thesis project. Upon graduation a family calamity led him to become an elementary school teacher. He is currently looking to break into the voiceover industry.
Vitor Avila
Vitor is a Brazilian Designer, Photographer and Video Producer who dedicates a lot of his time to the animal rights movement. He has worked at the US Embassy to Brazil as a part of the multimedia team and at Animal Equality as the Campaigns Coordinator. He is also a successful youtuber and online content creator.
Brian Alston
Brian Alston is a copy editor and proofreader based in New York City. He received his BA in English Literature from Towson University and has edited and proofread novels, short stories, biographies, academic papers, and web content.
Tislarm Bouie
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Tislarm discovered his love for arts at an early age, heavily inspired by neighborhood block parties and movie musicals. He went on to attend Professional Performing Arts School and The University of the Arts. He’s the choreographer and resident director of midtown’s new immersive experience The Stranger. He also served at the choreographer for Roundabout Theatre’s Off- Broadway production of The Bandaged Place.
Nina Duryea
Nina Duryea is a freelance photographer and videographer based in NYC. With an undergraduate degree in Broadcasting Journalism and Audio/Visual from Otterbein University and a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Wellness from New York University, Nina’s passions lie in supporting diverse wellness initiatives that influence both corporate and personal projects. You can find their work expanding DEI initiatives, mindfulness teachings, and individual portraits.