Who We Are
The Training Laboratory is building the training programs and organizational infrastructure that movement organizations and their leaders need — not just to survive, but to grow, stay grounded in their values, and pass something stronger on to the next generation.
Our team and board bring decades of experience in anti-violence work and community-based leadership, informing how we design support that meets the evolving needs of organizations and the people who lead them.
Valeriana Chikoti-Bandua Estes
Valeriana Chikoti-Bandua Estes is a former refugee from the Republic of Angola. Born in Zambia and at 3 years old subsequently raised in Papua New Guinea where she began the beginning of a lifelong journey of championing marginalized communities, supporting Immigrant and refugee populations, and interrupting anti-blackness.
Racial Equity, Interrupting anti-Blackness and centering Black Immigrant and refugee voices is not just a trend for her, it’s a calling that has led her to speak, to write to contribute, to host and facilitate conversations and be the lead in many spaces that have been very inequitable.
As a result Valeriana has been carving out a distinct path, that is centering on dismantling, decolonizing and identifying much needed strategies and tools for Individuals, Non-Profit Executive Directors and Board members, Businesses and Corporations to use in their quest to interrupt anti-Blackness and create equitable hiring practices and environments that center equity for all staff.
In addition to serving as the Executive Director of The Training Laboratory, Valeriana leads the Social Justice Fund Northwest.
Executive DirectorOur Board
Geene Gonzales
Geene Gonzales has been engaged in community-based and anti-violence work since the 1990s in the Bay Area and, since 2006, in Seattle, Washington. She spent eight years as a residential carpenter with an all-women crew in Oakland, California.
Coming full circle with her Filipino family’s migration story, she is now a Registered Nurse and Clinic Supervisor at Eastgate Public Health Center’s Primary Care Clinic, where she serves low-income pediatric and adult patients, primarily from immigrant and refugee communities.
Geene lives in Seattle with her wife, Alanna, their two daughters, Nora and Risa, and her mother-in-law, Julie. A self-described recovering a cappella singer, she still enjoys singing, storytelling, and playing “Would You Rather…” with her children.
Board Chair
Lulu Carpenter
Luzviminda Uzuri “Lulu” Carpenter (aka Ms. Lulu) is a 5th–8th Grade Performance and Media Arts Teacher, 8th Grade Production Teacher, and Advisor at Seattle Girls School. She is also a performance artist, radio host, producer, promoter, consultant, and community organizer who brings a cultural worker and strategist lens to her work.
Through art and education, Lulu focuses on violence prevention with youth, young adults, and other marginalized communities. She is the founder of Alphabet Alliance of Color (AAoC), established in 2017 to build allyship among queer and trans communities of color, and currently serves on the Teacher Advisory Board at MoPOP Museum while developing a storytelling project and educational institute.
With over 14 years of experience in Seattle, she has collaborated with organizations including Ladies First Project at Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA), VoicesRising, API Chaya, and GABRIELA-Seattle. She has also served as an ambassador for On the Boards, a Commissioner and Co-Chair of the City of Seattle LGBTQ Commission, and a consultant for organizations such as ROOTS Young Adult Shelter.
Board Member
Board MemberUma Rao
Uma Rao is the founder of Devi Consults and a feminist leader who applies a trauma-informed, intersectional approach to her work. She partners with nonprofits to build strategic vision and equips leaders—particularly women and trans leaders of color—with the tools needed to grow and sustain their organizations.
Over the course of her career, Uma has helped advance models of democratic philanthropy, raised millions of dollars for community-based organizations, and trained more than 2,000 professionals in fundraising, with a focus on communities of color and a reparations analysis. Her work has contributed to statewide marriage equality efforts in Washington, cross-sector partnerships between the tech industry and public education, and innovative community-based advocacy models for immigrant survivors of domestic violence.
Uma has served on the boards of numerous regional and national organizations, including the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Western State Center, Social Justice Fund NW, Surge Reproductive Justice, and the National Network of Abortion Funds.
Outside of her professional work, she enjoys spending time with dogs, searching for the best french fries, and channeling her inner rock star through karaoke.