Movement Tapestries & Sheryl Petty, Ed.D.
CEO & Founder of Movement Tapestries, Sheryl Petty supports the efforts of practitioners, organizations and community members to heal ourselves and our social systems, unleash our joy and creativity, and improve our collective life. I’ve worked in equity, systems change, education, network weaving, field building, and organizational development for nearly 30 years, supporting individuals, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, districts, government agencies, colleges and universities. For over 25 years, I’ve also been a priest in an indigenous African-based tradition (from the Yoruba people), have practiced and am ordained in yogic (non-monastic), Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, and am also authorized to share practices based in Bön Buddhist Dzogchen (the Indigenous tradition of Tibet). I also have a BA in Mathematics, an MA in Systematic & Philosophical Theology, and a Doctorate in Leadership & Change. I teach and share practices from all of these systems, and am also a certified yoga asana teacher.
Movement Tapestries focuses nationally and internationally on Deep Equity, Systems Change & Personal Transformation. I work independently and in collaboration, and have worked as an affiliated consultant with Change Elemental and Movement Strategy Center. I was recruited by Change Elemental in the early 2010s to help build out their equity practice and excitedly returned to my private practice in 2020. I was also a Principal Associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, a fellow at Stanford University's Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, and am currently a Fellow with the Mind & Life Institute and was Adjunct Faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. I have been a program manager, high school teacher, executive director, and board member in addition to consulting. My work includes equity-driven visioning, change process design and facilitation, cross-sector field-building, strategy development, alliance and network development, multi-year deep equity transformation processes with institutions, and professional, spiritual and life coaching. I support people and organizations in: catalytic institutional equity assessment; groundbreaking reckoning and alignment sessions; developing new visions and strategies that integrate efforts across an organization or field; planning the multi-year next steps to operationalize the new, transformative visions and strategies; and building the inner capacities to make the vision and next steps deep and sustainable. I am based in New York and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years.
