Brandon WilliamsCraig+bio

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Brandon WilliamsCraig, Ph.D. is the founder of Culturesmith partnerships, consulting, and services. Working across domains by blending many areas of expertise, his professional work in the last decade alone has included:

  • Contributing as an Enterprise Customer Success Manager at Learning Pool, one of the most successful international eLearning companies with over 1500 customers worldwide and 5.1M active learners.
  • Creating the Martial Nonviolence method, building the Peace Practices curriculum and project with international funding, and developing the work as a whole into the Conflict Done Well system
  • Engaging in public service with the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Census by contributing to the administration and field operations of the 2020 Enumeration
  • Serving for its entire history as co-founder, Executive Director, and then CEO of the Bay Area nonprofit Association Building Community, or ABC (ABCglobal.net)
  • Returning to teach graduate students of every level at his alma mater, Pacifica Graduate Institute, in the Depth Psychology Somatics Department
  • Serving as Communications Director for Ragged Wing Ensemble and The Flight Deck, a theater company and community arts facility in downtown Oakland, California.

Born and raised in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas, his first career was in the professional regional and touring theater, as well as in choral music and as a liturgical soloist. His Ph.D. in mythological studies and depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute combines psychology, literature, and religious studies to demonstrate the indispensable interoperability of the humanities with social science, organizational development, and public policy. His teaching and research focuses on the history and literature of psychology, the psychology of genre, the embodied (somatic) psychology of belief, the narrative construction of culture and the threat of disinformation to The Myth of Peace, and the development of the Process Arts.

Brandon has extensive experience contributing to the leadership of and teamwork within private and public institutions, accepts executive positions corp-to-corp and as a contractor or employee, offers leadership and facilitation training, and has worked in the study of peace and conflict since 1998, as well as providing curriculum development, conflict education, and community mediation services.

Brandon Sensei is a 5th degree blackbelt in aikido. He is founder and Chief Instructor of Aikido Oak Cliff, and was founder/Chief Instructor of Free Aiki Dojo and served as Chief Instructor of Golden Bears Aikido at UC Berkeley. He is also an un-ranked (not yet licensed to teach) member of the Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Kai, a classical budo ​school (koryu) directed by Kaicho Toby Threadgill. This style of jujutsu ​influences his aikido and all of his martial and somatic learning.

Brandon's body-based facilitation method, called Martial Nonviolence (MNv), pairs traditional aikido, professional theater techniques, and real-time facilitation, and is the heart of the work presented and developed at Culturesmith.com. His somatics students learn to Embody Nonviolence through somatic conflict resolution. His clients focused on leadership, management, and administration practice Conflict Done Well. MNv also powers an internationally funded Peace Practices curriculum being offered by ABC and practiced by students from 4 to 84 years of age in Montessori, public, and private schools. Brandon resides in North Texas with his wife and two children, and consults nationally and internationally.

To request a seminar, please visit https://goo.gl/forms/1zXJiCOaJ63BgJrz2

* (numbers from Summer 2022 - now expanded)