We seek to make conflict resolution, de-escalation, and violence prevention the shared language and practice of Oakland.

Three Bay Area community leaders bring our extensive experience and community connections to the Oakland Speaks project: Ana-Marie Jones, Founder of the Oakland Speaks project, serves as Content Lead; Ira X. Armstrong of Peace Out Loud serves as the Community Lead; and Karen Fleshman, Founder of Racy Conversations, serves as Administrative Lead.

Our goal is to reduce violent crime in Oakland by:

• embracing conflict resolution and de-escalation techniques as Oakland's shared community language

• building community power of individual and collective words and actions

• saving lives and transforming a negative perception into a positive reality

Ana-Marie Jones, Content Lead

Ana-Marie Jones (she/her) helps people create more positive, connected, and effective work and social environments. She is an author, keynote speaker, consultant and trainer, and a winner of 3 Cable Telly awards. Ana-Marie was inducted into the Women in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Hall of Fame as a recognized expert on culturally competent sustainable preparedness, response, public safety, and community resilience. She founded the Oakland Speaks Project.

Ira X. Armstrong, Community Lead

Ira (they/he) is a founder at PEACE Out Loud, a queer, Black, Brown, and poor people-led Social Permaculture enterprise in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they are dedicated to Self Determination, Outdoor and Freedom Education, and building Consent Culture.

Karen Fleshman, Administrative Lead

Karen Fleshman, Esq. (she her hers) is a mentor, activist, entrepreneur, attorney, author, educator, proud San Franciscan, and a single soccer mom. In 2014, she founded Racy Conversations, a workplace workshop facilitation company, to inspire the antiracist generation. Hundreds of workplaces nationwide have benefitted from Racy Conversations workshops. Karen’s passion project is building interracial sisterhood.