Exploring Accountability (Part 2); Building A Culture of Accountability: Visionary Leaders and Strategists Omar Brownson + J.K. Nelson

Founder | Advisor | Everyday Creative

Inspired by land and storytelling, Omar is building a gratitude ecosystem and regenerative economy. He takes an entrepreneurial approach to tackling large-scale challenges, particularly at the intersection of nature and culture. His work has been featured by Simon Sinek, the Wall Street Journal, and on Oprah.com.

Omar is a frequent guest speaker, has held hundreds of gratitude circles, co-hosts the Gratitude Blooming Podcast (ranked in the top three percent in the world) and is the executive director of the Los Angeles Community Garden Council, which serves 47 community gardens and has more than 2,000 members.

Previously, Omar co-founded a highly-rated gratitude app which included mindfulness teachers and cultural pioneers such as Jack Kornfield and George Takei. He was also the founding executive director of RiverLA where he collaborated with renowned architect Frank Gehry and local leaders to reimagine the 51-mile Los Angeles River as a public resource and ecosystem. He spearheaded the Greenway 2020 campaign which secured $430 million in funding to complete the LA River bikepath and launched the innovative $10 million LA River Master Plan.

Omar is an advisor to Full Spectrum Capital and the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, and serves on the board of Commonweal, focused on healing hearts and healing the planet. He has a joint master’s degree from Harvard Kennedy School and Graduate School of Design.

J. Nelson has wide and deep experience as a manager in various arenas, ranging from electoral (Field Director for over two dozen state legislative and congressional campaigns and New York State Deputy Finance Director for a Presidential candidate), VP at high performing nonprofits, labor organizing, and educational advocacy spaces.

J. has helped mobilize over 5 million people over the course of his organizing career. His management practice is undergoing ongoing refinement in the crucible of many past, present, and—most assuredly—future mistakes. J's managerial experience runs the spectrum including building teams from scratch, inheriting teams, managing complex organizational change, managing through layers of management, managing toward ambitious/inspiring goals, and managing major organizational cultural shifts.

Additionally, J. has managed in diverse organizational structures including both hierarchical and matrixed formulations and every-

-thing in between. J's trainings are marked by high energy, transparency and a sincere attempt at humor. Ever practical, he is deeply committed to equipping participants with managerial best practices that they could learn in the early morning and implement in the late morning (had they not been in a training with J). J. is dedicated to seeing every manager reach their full leadership potential. J. earned his undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University and an M.Div at Harvard Divinity School.