An organic and uplifting collaboration of two purpose-driven humans
Our Story
We first connected through a mutual friend at a Bay Area B Labs event. It’s hard to believe that was in the spring of 2016—when global and national landscapes for both life and work felt very different.
When we founded Liberation Labs years later, the collective consciousness had shifted. Through a series of serendipitous opportunities to collaborate, we realized that the alignment of our values, shared belief in humanity, and complementary skill sets could offer something both profound and actionable within the new world of work. Rooted in equity and connection, we’re bringing fresh perspective to the ways that teams see—and help liberate—one another.
Our Values
Compassion
We honor our innate potential as humans to learn and evolve, and believe we learn best when cared for. We express care frequently and tend to the health of the whole—with a particular focus on the most marginalized among us.
Clarity
We make the implicit explicit. We seek to communicate clearly from a place of people-centered outcomes, and welcome multiple modes of engagement in our work. This includes telling the truth, even when it’s hard.
Joy
We believe that we can’t wait until everything is perfect to find joy. Joy isn’t the destination; joy is our fuel. We bring intentional levity to the hard work of building culture and systems.
Michael Gregor
Michael (he/him) has become a trusted partner for bold leaders with a hunger to change how their organizations collaborate and work together. His approach brings together the core principles of equity and inclusion, change management, human-centered design, and co-active coaching to create experiences, processes, and moments that lead to transformative results.
As a seasoned consultant, inclusive facilitator, and expert coach, Michael has partnered with companies of all sizes to unlock the future of their organizations (working in tech, philanthropy, consumer goods, biotech, social services, and government). Michael has delivered consulting in strategic planning, organization design, change management, process design, interpersonal communication, mindfulness, and equity-centered cultural change to over 75 organizations. He has designed and facilitated numerous retreats, summits, offsites, and training experiences for leadership teams and all-company audiences.
Michael is a queer white man, a parent in a multiracial family, a mindfulness practitioner, and an entrepreneur. He loves working with visionary leaders who are disrupting the status quo while taking good care of themselves and their loved ones.
Viva Asmelash
Viva (she/her) is a passionate people operations and certified inclusion strategist who specializes in sustainable DEI strategy, inclusive instructional design + learner experiences, and critical team conversations. Viva’s professional purpose is to create environments where people feel truly seen and are inspired to be their best and most authentic selves. She brings 15 years of experience in leadership training + development, values-driven branding, and employee engagement. Viva frequently designs and delivers group and individual inclusive leadership coaching programs for executives, delivers keynote speeches and panel discussions, and crafts custom DEI education experiences for organizations of many kinds.
As a first-generation Eritrean-American, Viva leverages a unique, life-long perspective on race, gender, culture, belonging, privilege, and access to education. With this lens and her breadth of industry experience, she takes deep care in working with select clients to share insights and tactics to deepen their people + inclusion ethos and efforts—all in hopes of planting seeds for collective liberation and joy.
“We engaged Viva and Michael on a project to level up our leadership team's awareness and knowledge in the DEI space. We worked closely with them to explore our own biases, understand privilege and power, build skill giving feedback, and more. It has been an incredible journey that I'm so glad we started. Viva and Michael are in sync as leaders and presenters, but approach their work with complementary styles and different strengths. They're gentle but firm, confident and patient, wise and knowledgeable, and also very fun! My team is composed of very different personalities and backgrounds, and they managed to reach each of us where we were.”
—Chris Goetz, President at Ideal Building Recovery Solutions