Natalie Bamdad (she/her/hers) joined Change Elemental in 2017. She is a queer and first-gen Arab-Iranian Jew whose people are from Basra and Tehran. She is a facilitator, rabble-rouser, and coach working to strengthen leadership, organizations, and movement networks working towards racial equity and liberation of people and planet.
At Change Elemental, Natalie is a CoWeaver, a member of our three-person codirector team. In addition to holding the whole of the organization in partnership with her colleagues, she also leads our coaching and consulting work, putting theory into practice. She has written about shared leadership, experimentation in governance and decision-making, and evolving strategy in complexity. Her joy is working with organizations to navigate the tension between their liberatory visions and values and the perceived constraints of institutional systems and structures. She partners with organizations primarily on strategy development, coaching for leaders and leadership teams, and governance and decision-making.
As a coach, Natalie’s approach is loving, affirming, and direct. She uses humor, fantasy, metaphor, and bodywork to open up new insights and pathways out of stuckness. Her spiritual tradition is rooted in Jewish and Middle Eastern cultural practices, but she welcomes all spiritual practices in her coaching sessions and all people who find center in whatever is most meaningful to them—be it religious practice, walking in nature, reading poetry, etc. She has coached people with various roles and identities and especially loves coaching new leaders and folks trying to shift systems from within.
Before joining Change Elemental, Natalie was a Senior Associate at Community Wealth Partners, supporting the design and implementation of leadership development programs for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Haas Jr. Fund, and others. She also helped grow and develop the DC “hive” of IfNotNow—a movement of Jews to end her community’s support for the occupation of Palestine—and served as a strategy coach and trainer for the movement for several years.Before this, Natalie worked in political advocacy consulting at the Atlantic Media Company, where she supported a learning network for government affairs offices, working in grassroots mobilization, legislator engagement, and coalition building.
Natalie received her coaching certification from Coaching for Healing Justice and Liberation. She holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Swarthmore College. When she’s not at Change Elemental, Natalie organizes with her people to dismantle white supremacy in its many forms, gets lost in a fantasy novel, makes people laugh, and brings folks together around good food. She lives in Norfolk, VA, with her partner Guen and their two cats, Bubs and Biniou.