CREATIVE KUPONYA
Our Team
Jamil Stamschror-Lott, LICSW
Founder & CEO
Jamil Stamschror-Lott, LICSW is a licensed mental health professional and an educator. As a Black man, he represents less than 4% of licensed therapists in America. Jamil and his wife Sara co-founded Creative Kuponya, an organization that seeks to dismantle the systemic racism and oppressive forces embedded within our mental health systems and provide therapeutic justice to those that society has pushed into the margins.
Creative Kuponya seeks to be a community with access to restructured, innovative mental health care at the intersection of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through three main avenues: individual therapy, transformative community healing sessions, education & training.
Among many other accolades, Jamil and Creative Kuponya have been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, The New York Times, and USA Today.
Sara Stamschror-Lott, LMFT
Founder & CCO
After experiencing the harms of misdiagnosis firsthand, Sara co-founded Creative Kuponya, with her husband Jamil, in 2017 to provide therapy without the barriers of forced diagnosis and to build a community with access to restructured,innovative mental health care at the intersection of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
After losing their offices in the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd, Creative Kuponya developed their theory of Transformative Community Healing Sessions and began the BIPOC Therapy Fund to provide no cost therapy sessions to those seeking care without the barriers of traditional mental health care. This work moves towards dismantling oppressive systems and centering the ways in which people have healed themselves and their communities before colonization, capitalism and white supremacy.
Sara is also a Minnesota Board Approved Supervisor for the Boards of Marriage and Family Therapy and Clinical Counseling. Further, Sara teaches at Saint Mary’s University in the Marriage and Family Therapy program. In her clinical practice, she is also an EMDR therapist and specializes in Oppressive Trauma Informed Care. Currently, Sara is available for keynotes, consultation, Community Cultural Assessments and supervision.
Sara’s work has been featured in The New York Times, USAToday, BBC Worldwide and other major news outlets.
Brittane T. Geleske, MA
Director of Operations & Wellness
Brittane holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration & College Student Development. She is deeply passionate about holistic care, wellness, and healing.
During the past decade, she has dedicated her career to excellence in college student development, leadership, justice, and equity. Brittane approaches any role by providing space for individuals to learn, feel understood, and receive access to necessary resources.
Brittane is excited to bring her administrative leadership, project management, and content curation expertise to Creative Kuponya in order to support organizational growth and further provide space for community healing, teaching, and mental health care without barriers.
Anusha Ramaswami, MSW, LGSW, MT-BC
Therapist
Anusha (she/her) is a licensed therapist and board certified music therapist who has a passion for working in and with her community. She believes strongly that creativity and art should be an essential part of the therapeutic process for anyone who connects with these modalities. She works to ensure that healing experiences are co-created between client and therapist. She believes firmly that community-building is essential in the work toward transformative justice and collective liberation for all oppressed peoples.
Though there are many systemic barriers to wellness, Anusha believes there is always space for empowerment, healing, and growth. Anusha enjoys meeting and holding space for any client exactly where they are at. She has found herself most frequently pulled to healing work with marginalized youth and their families, individuals impacted by incarceration, immigration, and generational trauma, and those engaging in racial identity development at all stages of life.
Kahmiyah Anderson, MA
Therapist
Kahmiyah received her Master’s Degree from Saint Mary’s University and is pursuing her LPCC. She implements a humanistic approach that is strengths-based, and person-centered while implementing some aspects of CBT. Kahmiyah believes that all individuals are experts in their lived experiences and is intentional about supporting individuals in feeling empowered in their therapeutic journey toward reaching their fullest potential.
Kahmiyah has experience with providing in-home therapy services for individuals, primarily children. She is passionate about community mental health and working towards closing the accessibility gap for mental health services and closing the disparity in education for children and adults in marginalized communities.
In her free time, she enjoys growing and collecting house plants, as well as learning more about plant/nature-based therapy. She is striving towards being able to merge her passion for mental health with plants/nature.
Terrence Thigpen, LGSW, MSW
Mental Health Therapist
Terrence is the son of a single mother and brother to a few siblings. Technically he’s a transplant from Chicago, but has been a Minnesota resident for about 10 years. While in Minnesota, Terrence has worked as a job coach, a fitness coach in various gyms and treatment/recovery programs, and as an educator. Most importantly, he’s a believer in Black healing and wellness.
Most of what Terrence has learned in life can be credited to the elders that he grew up around and his background in education. The richest lessons Terrence has learned in life have been those that children and their families have taught him over the years. Young people have been able to remind him that dreaming is liberation work. He now identifies as a dreamer and is driven by the possibilities of tomorrow.
As a therapist, Terrence provides a person-centered approach, which is driven by curiosity and exploration. His belief is that therapy is a relational process that everyone should have access to, and he deeply values community-based avenues to healing. Terrence’s goal as a practitioner is to co-cultivate a therapeutic environment that is engaging, thought-provoking, and malleable.
Some of the frameworks that inform his practice are: Relational Cultural Theory, Narrative Therapy, Trauma Informed Care, and Internal Family Systems.
Terrence integrates wellness into his own life by engaging in the following activities: working out, biking, cooking, reading, traveling, writing, going to plays, and seeing live music. He believes wellness can happen anywhere and at any time. That belief was instilled in him at a young age and he has been able to carry it with him throughout life.
Rebecca Dilley, MA
Therapist
Rebecca brings an eclectic mix of interests and experience to being a therapist, including working with youth and families in a variety of settings, running a business in visual arts for over a decade, and working on books about local food. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in History and Spanish and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She is also trained in EMDR, a trauma-informed mode of therapy.
Rebecca specializes in working with couples and families. As a therapist, she witnesses growth, creativity, and resilience that people bring with them. She believes that curiosity and a sense of wonder are two of the most important tools she brings as a therapist.
Nina Barnes, MA, SPHR
Coach & Spiritual Director
Nina is a certified spiritual director with a passion for creating space for others to discern opportunities and challenges, along with responding to invitations from God. Through her spiritual direction and coaching practice, Transforming Journey, Nina considers it an honor to help others experience and embody love, hope, redemption, and transformation.
Also, Nina currently serves as a vice president at an organization based in the Twin Cities. She has extensive human resources experience, stemming from 30+ years of service within a variety of organizational settings. Nina earned a Master of Arts degree in Spiritual Formation & Leadership.
Beyond spiritual direction, Nina holds certifications in:
– Human Resources Management (SPHR-Senior Professional in Human Resources)
– Conflict Coaching/Mediation
– Unconscious/Implicit Bias Awareness and Mitigation
– Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Qualified Administrator
– Enneagram Coaching/Training
– StrengthsFinder Training
– Spiritual Leadership Transformation
Outside of work, Nina desires to make a meaningful impact as she serves on the Advisory Council for an organization dedicated to forming global peacemakers and reconciling leaders who mend divides and on the Board of Directors for a Twin Cities non-profit. Yet, her most cherished roles are mother to an adult son and “daughter-in-love”, along with her newest role as “Gramma Nina” to her two granddaughters.
Melvin Cheatem, MSW, LICSW
Therapist
As a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, Melvin has a passion for supporting people. Growing up in an environment where he saw many people needing some sort of help, he naturally gravitated towards where the need was evident.
Melvin has over 10 years of experience in the public and nonprofit sector working with youth, adults, and families. Currently, Melvin works in the public school system, as a high school social worker, primarily in special education. Melvin has a passion for teaching, learning, and fostering healthy environments where teaching and learning can coexist.
He completed his Bachelor of Social Work degree at Metropolitan State University; and Master of Social Work degree at Augsburg University.