About the Founder

Kézha Hatier-Riess's path to this work began with studying the behavior and biology of wild animals. Her Master's of Science research focused on social dynamics—including how animals navigate challenges, communicate, maintain group cohesion under pressure, and organize for survival.

Kézha brings more than 25 years of experience working at the intersection of leadership, philanthropy, and human systems across the human rights, biodiversity and wildlife conservation, education, climate, and social justice sectors.

Her career spans executive leadership in philanthropy, advisory work with funding networks, foundations, and major donors, and the building of international collaborations grounded in partnership and community knowledge.

Most recently, Kézha served as Vice President of External Relations at Global Greengrants Fund, where she helped shape and support one of the early and influential approaches to movement-led, trust-based grantmaking — centering locally rooted solutions for equitable change that understand contextual needs and stick.

She has served in advisory roles with the Human Rights Funders Network, the Biodiversity Funders Group, Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA), and Breakthrough Santa Fe, among others, supporting more equitable, partner-centered philanthropic practice.

This background deepens her work with leaders and organizations by bringing attention to how stress, capacity, and nervous systems shape decision-making inside complex systems.

She later trained as an integrative health coach, studying behavioral patterns that keep one stuck and how to support holistic and sustainable change.

This combination—animal behavior and biological research, integrative health training, and 25+ years of nonprofit leadership experience—allows Kézha to work at an unusual yet effective intersection: where biology meets leadership and organizational behavior, where stress responses shape leadership patterns, where nervous system dysregulation creates system-wide dysfunction.

She applies insights from neuroscience research, biology, and systems thinking to coach leaders and provide advisory services to organizations to identify and shift harmful patterns.