Our Story
Every community deserves the skills, relationships, and courage to navigate conflict, prevent harm, and create spaces where everyone can thrive. This belief has guided our work for more than three decades.
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Founded in 1995 as Quabbin Mediation, our organization began by providing accessible mediation and conflict resolution services throughout the North Quabbin region of Massachusetts. In partnership with courts, schools, local governments, businesses, and community organizations, we helped individuals, families, neighbors, and workplaces resolve conflict through dialogue, understanding, and collaboration. Among our earliest initiatives was mediation and conflict support for veterans and their families, Veteran Mediation, a program that has since grown into Homefront Strong, a nonprofit organization that continues this important work today.Â
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Over the years, our work expanded beyond mediation to include education, facilitation, restorative practices, leadership development, and conflict engagement. We discovered that lasting change doesn't come from only resolving conflict after it happens; it comes from equipping people with the skills to prevent harm, build healthy relationships, and respond with confidence when challenges arise. This is the philosophy that shaped the development of our flagship program, Training Active Bystanders (TAB).Â
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In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point for our organization. Rather than pause our work, we reimagined it. By moving TAB and other programs online, we were suddenly able to reach communities far beyond our own. What began as a local organization quickly became part of a growing international network of trainers and partners committed to creating safer, more connected communities. In 2026, we launched Just4Everyone Athletics, bringing our expertise in conflict engagement, leadership development, and inclusion to athletic organizations.Â
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Gathering Currents remains intentionally community-powered. We are more than a mediation center. We are a community of educators, facilitators, trainers, advocates, and leaders working together to create cultures where people know how to engage conflict constructively, interrupt harm, strengthen relationships, and care for one another.Â
The Meaning Behind Our Name
Our original name, Quabbin Mediation, reflected both where we began and what we believed. The word Quabbin is derived from an Indigenous Nipmuc word, often translated as "meeting of waters." Long before the Quabbin Reservoir was created, the region was home to Indigenous communities whose histories and relationships shared this landscape. The flooding of the Swift River Valley forever transformed the area, but it also became a powerful reminder that places, and the people connected to them, carry stories that continue to shape the future.Â
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For us, meeting of waters, has always represented something greater than geography. It reflects the coming together of people with different experiences, perspectives, identities, and ideas. It reminds us that progress happens not by avoiding differences, but by learning to engage them with courage, accountability, curiosity, and care.Â
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As our work expanded beyond mediation and the Quabbin region, we realized we needed a name that honored our roots while embracing the broader movement our organization had become. Gathering Currents carries that same spirit forward.
Just as currents converge, separate, and continue flowing, communities are constantly changing. People bring different histories, strengths, challenges, and perspectives into every conversation. Our role is not to stop those currents, but to help them meet in ways that foster understanding, strengthen relationships, prevent harm, and create lasting change.Â
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Our name has changed, but our foundation has not. We remain rooted in the values that inspired Quabbin Mediation more than thirty years ago: that when people come together with compassion, courage, and a willingness to learn from one another, stronger communities emerge.Â
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Gathering Currents is both a tribute to where we began and an invitation to where we are going: bringing people together, building skills for navigating conflict, and creating communities where everyone belongs.
Stephanie Hsu
Co-Executive Director
Stephanie oversees operations, manages relationships with community partners and global hubs, and coordinates volunteers and instructors.Â
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Stephanie began her career at McKinsey & Company, where she worked from 1998 to 2005 in Knowledge Management for the Public Sector Practice. She later served as Fund Development Specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters Philadelphia before stepping away from the workforce to focus on raising her family.Â
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Her journey with Gathering Currents began when she attended her first Active Bystander Training in 2017- an experience that proved transformative. As someone who prefers to avoid confrontation, Stephanie found in TAB the language and tools to take safe, effective action when witnessing harm or bias. That foundational experience continues to fuel her passion for the work. In 2020, she formally became a TAB instructor and was appointed TAB Coordinator in 2022. In July 2024, she was named Co-Executive Director of Gathering Currents.Â
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Beyond her professional work, Stephanie is deeply engaged in civic life. She serves as Vice Chair of the Lexington Human Rights Committee (LHRC), acts as the LHRC's liaison to the Commission on Disability, and co-chairs the Community Wellness Collaborative on Mental Health & Neurodiversity.
Our Staff
Lilly Fellows
Co-Executive Director
Lilly oversees program development, curriculum fidelity, internships, youth and school partnerships, and our athletic programming.
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Lilly graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Psychology, Exercise Sport Studies, and Community Engagement and Social Change. As a student, they conducted research on social justice in athletics through the Sport For Social Change Lab and Great Commission United in Heideveld, Cape Town, South Africa. This work, alongside their work with Gathering Currents, earned them the United Way 2022 Young Community Leader of the Year award, the 2023 Smith College Beacon award, and, as a finalist, the 2025 Massachusetts Nonprofit Network Nonprofit Excellence Award in the Young Professional category.Â
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Her journey with Gathering Currents began in 2015 as a TAB trainer and Peer Mediator as a student at Mahar High School. In 2020, Lilly became an instructor, consultant, and director of youth programming. In July 2024, she was named Co-Executive Director of Gathering Currents and founded the program Just4Everything Athletics in 2026.
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Beyond Gathering Currents, Lilly is in their final year of graduate school as a Master's student in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is a Mental Health Counselor, specializing in athletes and performers, at Springfield College.
Board of Directors
Dr. Ava Floyd
Co-President - Hopkinton, MA
Dr. Ava Floyd is a clinical psychologist, leadership strategist, and organizational development consultant who specializes in equity-centered change, helping organizations align their values, strategy, and culture for greater impact. She works with nonprofits, institutions, and leaders to strengthen capacity, advance racial equity, and build sustainable systems for transformation.Â
Annie Baker
Winchester, MA
Annie Baker is the owner of Hardwired Branding, where she leads branding and marketing strategy to help organizations clarify their identity and strengthen communications. She specializes in building cohesive brand narratives and supporting organizational growth.Â
Michael Bettencourt
Winchester, MA
Michael Betterncourt is a practicing attorney in Massachusetts and is a longtime public servant dedicated to advancing workers' rights, equity, and community well-being. A four-term member of the Winchester Select Board, Mike has spent his career fostering inclusive communities through civic leadership, affordable housing advocacy, and public service.Â
Kabrina Bass
Co-President - Columbia, SC / Chicago, IL
Kabrina Bass is the founder and principal consultant of Kabrina Bass Consulting, where she partners with faith-based and nonprofit organizations to strengthen leadership, strategy, and community impact. With over 30 years of experience, she brings expertise in mediation, conflict resolution, and capacity building.Â
Sherley Phillips
Elmwood, MA
Sherley Phillips is a longtime educator and advocate who spent 33 years teaching at East Bridgewater High School. She continues her work in community advocacy and has served with organizations inclusing the Massachusetts Teachers Association, championing equity and community voice
Stacey Sexton
Clerk - Greenfield, MA
Stacey Sexton is a queer, nonbinary Socialist organizer, educator, facilitator, and coach who supports individuals and teams in navigating conflict through compassionate listening, somatic practices, and values-aligned strategy. Drawing on more than a decade of experience, they help people build resilience, strengthen collaboration, and sustain themselves in the work of creating change; Stacey also serves as Chair of the Greenfield School Committee.
Michelle Arbid
New York, NY
Michelle Arbid, Mac, PCC, is a conflict resolution consultant, coach, negotiation strategist, university lecturer, and speaker with a background in mental health and a focus on helping people improve their relationship with conflict. She works with people navigating crossroads, conflict, and collaboration.Â
Consultants
Dr. Daniel Cantor Yalowitz, Ph.D.
Jack Jaillet
Maddy Allred, BA
Gregg Grenier, MBA
Facilitation Expert - Greenfield, MA
Daniel Cantor Yalowitz is a developmental and intercultural psychologist in private practice and a former provost and dean at the School for International Training Graduate Institute. He is an international trainer and has worked with TAB since 2008. Daniel has developed and teaches our advanced facilitator training program.
Youth and Tech Consultant - Winchendon, MA
Jack is a freshman at UMass, Amherst, and a youth programming and technology consultant with Gathering Currents. He has helped modernize the new elementary TAB program and contributes to outreach, program innovation, systems, and social media.
Grant Writer, Social Media Manager - Needham, MA
Maddy is a recent graduate of Smith College with a degree in Government and Economics. A member of the 2025 summer internship class, Maddy is now a consultant supporting our grants and fund development efforts through research, writing, and funding strategy.
Financial Consultant - Ashland, MA
Gregg brings 15 years of nonprofit experience and a passion for helping organizations build the infrastructure to sustainably deliver on their mission. Gregg owens and operates GG Nonprofit Consulting and also works full-time in the nonprofit sector as a Vice President of Operations.
Where We've Worked
While we are based in Massachusetts, with satellite offices in Lexington and Greenfield, we work all over the world. Through our train-the-trainer (T4T) model and virtual options, we have hubs and partners across the U.S. and Alaska, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Zambia. Our furthest participants have joined us from New Zealand! Some recent examples of where we've worked include:
Organizations
Spark Kindness
Lexington United Against AntisemitismÂ
Community Autism Resources
Victory Programs Boston
Schools
- Pioneer RegionalÂ
- Hampden-Wilbraham District
- R. C. Mahar RegionalÂ
- Greenfield High School
- Athol YMCA
- Spokane Educational Service District Schools
- Waterloo District Schools
- Gloucester High School
- Greenfield Community College
- Springfield College
Municipalities
- Town of Concord
- City of Greenfield
- City of Sommerville
- Town of Wayland
- City of Amherst
- Holliston Democratic Committee
- Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council
- Lexington Human Rights Committee
- Athol YMCA