Team
Sonya S. Lopes
Owner and Managing Director
Over the past 30 years, Sonya has sharpened her experience in the broader education, youth development and government sector, coaching leaders to develop social justice-oriented outcomes and strategies, providing leadership for human-centered execution of strategies, advising executive leaders in change management practices to support transitions, and building talented teams to sustain improvement over time. At Prospect Studio, she has led numerous long-term visioning and strategic planning initiatives with school districts, county offices of education and government entities to develop future-focused, equity-centered innovative visions and strategic plans with their communities.
Prior to joining Prospect Studio, Sonya was an Innovation Strategist at Collective Invention, where she also supported education and philanthropic organizations to develop and implement an innovation practice. At Partners in School Innovation, Sonya was the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Director supporting public schools and districts to improve teaching and learning so that every student, regardless of background, thrives. Prior to this role, Sonya served as the Director, District Alliance Program, at the Stupski Foundation. During her eight-year tenure at the Foundation, she led strategic planning processes, English Learner Task Forces, and executive leadership coaching on implementation of key strategic initiatives for school districts around the country. Prior to her work with public education, Sonya was a Special Agent and engineer in the United States Air Force. She culminated a ten-year career involving investigative, engineering, and organizational development roles as Director of Criminal and Counterintelligence Investigative Operations.
Sonya earned her BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Santa Clara University.
Sonya specializes in strategic planning, strategic foresight, leadership development, data-driven decision making, equity-centered design, facilitation, organizational development and change management.
Senior Associate, Strategy and Engagement
Tiara Grayson
Over the past 20 years, Tiara has coached leaders in both education and the government and social sectors to develop a continuous learning mindset while using data to improve their practice, build strong teams, and advance equity for the communities they serve. She started her career in education as an elementary school teacher in the Alum Rock Union School District in San Jose, CA. Since 2021, she has worked with Prospect Studio, where she has led deep community engagement efforts, future-focused learning experiences, and change management strategy with our partners. She has also supported school district partners with developing their instructional vision and strategy.
Prior to joining Prospect Studio, Tiara was the Associate Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment at Aspire Public Schools, Bay Area. As a district leader, Tiara designed and facilitated teacher and leader professional learning, engaged in visioning and multi-year strategic planning, and led a collaborative design process to reimagine the teacher evaluation system. From 2010-2015, Tiara was a School Improvement Partner and the Talent Development Director at Partners In School Innovation, where she worked shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers, coaches, principals and district leaders to use data, build shared leadership, and drive change that led to significant academic growth for students and positive shifts in school culture.
Tiara earned her BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley.
Tiara specializes in leadership development, strategic planning, team building, leading professional learning, instructional planning and project management.
Art Director
Myrna Newcomb
Myrna Newcomb creates visually compelling reports and publications for our clients. Throughout her 25+ years of experience, she has developed a thoughtful approach to design, balancing the need to communicate with a desire for design aesthetic.
Myrna has also worked with the Anchorage Museum’s Imaginarium Discovery Center, Corwin Creative, Equator Coffees, Gap Inc., Horizon 2045, Izzi Early Education, Menlo College, Napa Valley USD, Santa Clara USD, Stanford Live, Studio Scott and Wine Access.
Myrna has a BFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco.
Network Advisors and Consultants
Founder
Fiona Hovenden, Ph.D.
Using a combination of Futures Thinking, Equity-centered/Liberatory Design, innovation practices and ethnographic field research, Fiona designs and leads visioning and strategic planning projects for mission-focused organizations and their communities, helping them to think about the future, identify the future they want, and make plans to get there. Fiona has led and co-led strategic foresight projects for schools, school districts, and colleges, as well as for the San Diego County Office of Education, and the Florida Department of Education. She has a background in philosophy, artificial intelligence, anthropology, and psychology. Her interests are focused on the capabilities for catalyzing sustained collective change, and she works to unlock the capacities for creative problem solving in organizations, groups, and individuals. Fiona uses experiential design, narrative, and a variety of art forms to inspire communities to dream about the future they want, and to develop a sense of collective agency by making plans and taking action to get there.
Fiona has a BA in Philosophy from University College London, an MS in Artificial Intelligence from Kingston University, UK, an MA in Counseling Psychology from JFK University, California, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brunel University, UK.
Fiona specializes in strategic foresight, equity-centered/liberatory design, innovation culture, leadership development, facilitation and cultural change processes.
Carrie Cifka-Herrera, Ph.D.
Equity and Instruction
Over the past 20+ years, Carrie has worked with students, teachers, and school leaders as a teacher, professor, and school transformation coach, to shift both mindset and practice to create systemic change so that classrooms and schools become more culturally responsive and socially transformative spaces. As a school transformation coach, she worked in partnership with principals, teachers, and district leaders in Title I schools, to facilitate systemic change. Through results-oriented cycles of inquiry with a central focus on racial equity and school transformation, she supported schools to implement culturally responsive, research-based practices to provide meaningful, engaging, affirming, grade-level instruction. She has also led instructional leadership teams in visioning and strategic planning to create more equitable school environments as well as creating structures that work to amplify the voices of marginalized families in schools.
She earned both her Masters degree in language, literacy and culture and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focused on how rigid policy contexts influenced teachers’ abilities to implement culturally responsive pedagogy.
Carrie specializes in culturally responsive teaching and learning, facilitation, data driven decision making, culture change within organizations, team building, and leadership development.
Equity-Centered Experiential Design
Camille Idedevbo
Over the past decade, Camille Idedevbo has built a career at the intersection of strategy, design, and storytelling, partnering with leaders across philanthropy, education, financial services, and entrepreneurship to move ideas from concept to measurable impact. Known for blending creative vision with disciplined execution, Camille supports organizations in designing and implementing strategies that advance growth, alignment, and measurable outcomes. As an institutional leader in Portland Public Schools—serving as the Corporate and Foundation Relations Officer, Founding Manager of the Innovation Studio, Director of Innovation and Black Student Excellence, and most recently, Director of Community Strategy and Evaluation for the 1803 Fund—Camille has led large-scale, complex initiatives across sectors, overseeing portfolios exceeding $500 million. Her work includes developing and executing enterprise-level strategies, forging partnerships with global brands, and designing high-impact initiatives that support organizational transformation.
As an entrepreneur and advisor, Camille works with leaders to launch and scale profitable ventures across technology, entertainment, education and hospitality, expanding into global markets. She brings a systems-oriented approach to aligning vision, strategy, and operations to support sustainable growth. Camille’s strategic discipline is informed by her training in business and systems design, as well as her applied experience examining how organizations and ecosystems function. She approaches her work with a people-first orientation and a focus on clarity, execution, and equity.
Camille earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and holds professional certificates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University.
Camille specializes in enterprise strategy, organizational design, strategic planning, cultural communication, culturally-affirming facilitation, cross-sector partnership development, data analysis, experiential design and change management.
Viviana Cabrales-Garcia
Equity-centered Leadership, Professional Learning & Continuous Improvement
Viviana Cabrales Garcia has served as an educator in the Bay Area for more than 20 years. A child of immigrants, Viviana has first-hand experience of what it is like to navigate a system that is not set up for one’s own success. She has committed her professional career to ensuring that others from communities such as her own have access and opportunity to be well-represented in all spaces.
After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, Viviana attended the University of California Berkeley (UCB) Graduate School of Education, where she received her teaching credential and Masters degree.
Viviana spent her early years as an educator in an elementary school classroom, serving a predominantly Latino/Hispanic and multilingual community in South San Jose. She participated in a variety of leadership roles focused on ensuring students were receiving culturally and linguistically responsive experiences.
Seeking to impact change beyond her four classroom walls, she joined Partners In School Innovation—a non-profit that works to support educators at various levels of the school system in their Transformation efforts. She worked with the adults in the system in deepening their practice—with teachers to provide thoughtfully-planned instruction, with instructional coaches to improve teachers’ professional capacities, with site administrators to align school systems, and with district leaders to align systems of support and professional learning across the organization.
Viviana drew upon her many years working alongside teachers, coaches, principals, and district administrators for her own work as principal of AJ Dorsa Elementary School, within the Alum Rock Union School District. Viviana worked collaboratively with staff to attend to the academic and social-emotional learning of all students. She understood that attending to students holistically also meant that the needs of adults (staff and families) needed to be at the center of the work. This meant creating systems of multi-tiered support, collaborating with community organizations, investing in staff professional learning and fostering Early Learning.
Understanding the key role early education plays in a child’s development, Viviana joined the 21st Century School Leadership Academy (21CSLA) as the Lead Trainer for Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK). In this role, Viviana supported site, district and system leaders across California with the expansion and implementation of Universal Transitional Kindergarten—one key aspect of California’s Mixed Delivery System which aims to expand early education access.
Viviana brings the unique experience of having worked across multiple systems (public schools, non-profit, Higher Education) to deepen professional learning. In her current role as Vice President of Professional Learning at Kidango, she works in partnership with staff to lead the professional learning efforts that will support the realization of the organization’s mission and vision.
Viva Mogi
Advocacy, Policy and Care-Rooted Strategy
Viva Mogi is a strategic policy consultant with more than a decade of experience working at the intersection of public policy, program design, and community-centered implementation. She partners with nonprofit organizations and government agencies to move policy ideas from concept to practice—supporting long-term visioning, design thinking, and strategic foresight alongside community partners and youth. Known for her ability to bridge policy intent with on-the-ground realities, Viva focuses on building systems that are effective, culturally responsive, and accountable to the communities they are meant to serve.
A policy and program development leader, Viva has led complex, multi-agency initiatives across education and public policy, navigating regulatory and compliance landscapes while scaling programs from pilot to sustained impact. Her work includes launching first-of-their-kind programs—such as San Francisco’s first affordable educator housing—by translating ambitious ideas into operationally sound, fundable, and transformative initiatives. She brings deep expertise in policy development, government budgeting, coalition building, facilitation, and team leadership.
Viva’s leadership is shaped by a non-linear path through classrooms, City Hall hallways, and community spaces. That journey informs her people-centered, equity-driven approach, grounded in curiosity, humility, and a belief that lasting change comes from centering those most impacted.
Alongside her policy work, Viva writes Care Is a Strategy, where she explores care as both a personal and political practice—examining caregiving, community responsibility, grief, joy, and the everyday work of sustaining ourselves within systems not designed for care.
Viva holds a Bachelor’s degree in Child Development from San Francisco State University, a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Site Supervisor Permit in Early Childhood Education.
Viva specializes in policy and program development, strategic planning, design thinking, cross-sector collaboration, government budgeting, coalition facilitation, community-engaged implementation, and care-centered systems change.
Mindy Shacklett
Strategic Foresight, Strategic Planning and Mathematics Instruction
Bio to come