About

The feminist consulting collective is an organisational consultancy, expert network and think tank. We founded the collective in 2022 to support organisations and individuals with feminist, power-critical and diversity-sensitive approaches.

In the feminist consulting collective, we utilise our many years of experience from civil society, development and socio-political, social and activist fields of work. Our work is influenced by feminists from around the world, by different movements and feminisms, locally and transnationally. We have expertise in consulting, training, management and leadership. Depending on your concern and topic, we support you individually or as part of a team.

We aim to pursue an intersectional approach, informed by an understanding of the way people’s intersecting identities shape their experiences with power and privilege, discrimination and violence. We aim to create an environment in which the knowledge and the lived experience of all those involved are included and in which self-determination and safety are the focus. This is why we prefer to work as a team to bring in multiple perspectives. We are happy to recommend colleagues from our network for issues that we may not be best positioned to facilitate ourselves.

The feminist consulting collective is an organisational consultancy, expert network and think tank. We founded the collective in 2022 to support organisations and individuals with feminist, power-critical and diversity-sensitive approaches.

In the feminist consulting collective, we bring together our many years of experience from civil society, development and socio-political, social and activist fields of work. Our work is influenced by feminists from around the world, by different movements and feminisms, locally and transnationally. We have expertise in consulting, training, management and leadership. Depending on the concern and topic, we support you individually or in a team. 

We aim to pursue an intersectional approach, informed by an understanding of the way people’s intersecting identities shape their experiences with power and privilege, discrimination and violence. We aim to create an environment in which the knowledge and the lived experience of all those involved are included and in which self-determination and safety are the focus. This is why we prefer to work as a team to bring in multiple perspectives. We are happy to recommend colleagues from our network for issues that we may not be best positioned to facilitate ourselves.

Daniela Gierschmann

Daniela Gierschmann (she/her)

Organisational consultant and coach,
trainer and facilitator

Daniela is a political scientist and systemic organisational consultant. She has been working in civil society and development contexts for 15 years, in Germany and in the Global South. She has …

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developed programmes in the field of sexualised violence and gender justice and supported the development of feminist initiatives and organisations. She has experience in leadership, consulting and training and knows that inclusive, collective and solidarity-based processes can change everything. Feminist leadership as a personal and political concept for action has inspired her work for many years.

She creates space for dialogue and learning to jointly shape and strengthen the capacity of individuals and institutions to act.

FOCUS AREAS

  • Organisational and team development
  • Strategy and concept development
  • Feminist leadership
  • Conflict and communication
  • Transnational cooperation
  • Gender justice and gender-based violence

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • Political scientist (MA)
  • Systemic Coach
  • Systemic organisational development consultant
  • Conflict trainer
  • Further training in management, facilitation, communication, mindful organisational culture, stress and trauma sensitivity

Profil als PDF

Daniela Gierschmann, Geschäftsführerin

Dr. Bele Grau (she/her)

Facilitator, coach
and organisational consultant

Bele has been working in German and transnational civil society contexts and as political activist for over 20 years. As a social worker and anthropologist, she has gained research and teaching experience …

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at various universities. She uses her counselling skills to accompany and support activists and civil society actors at home and abroad who work for human rights and social justice. She creates space for individuals and groups to reflect on differences and power dynamics and to engage in change. Political and social analysis is just as important to her as looking at individual issues and collective approaches. Her sources of strength are political activism and meditation.

FOCUS AREAS

  • Organisational and team development
  • Discrimination-sensitive consulting
  • Health and self-care, stress and resilience
  • Violence in gender relations
  • Political action and civil society negotiation processes

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • Doctorate in Anthopology
  • Postgraduate course in African Studies
  • Social Worker
  • Embodied Social Justice
  • Mindfulness-based systemic coaching
  • Systemic organisational development
  • Further training in (project) management, conflict management, mindful organisational culture, dealing with the consequences of violence and traumatisation, trauma counselling, etc.

Profil als PDF

Maria Zemp Kooperationspartnerin

Maria Zemp (she/her)

Trainer, coach and supervisor

Socialised in the second wave of the women’s movement in Switzerland and Germany, enriched with experiential knowledge from working with colleagues and fellow activists from the Global South, she …

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is confident that a better world is possible. With her feminist view of the world, she encourages people to critically question power and gender relations and to approach social and individual processes of change with confidence and courage.

Through her nationwide and international work, she developed a great insight into institutions within  the social and health sector, in organisations and projects of international cooperation, and in civil society action contexts.

FOCUS AREAS

  • Organisational consulting on staff welfare 
  • Stress and trauma sensitivity in the context of human rights violations: Gender-based violence, flight, (multiple) discrimination and racism
  • Staff Care and MHPSS Consultant in crisis areas
  • Coaching, supervision and facilitation of development and change processes

www.mariazemp.de

Profil als PDF

Esther Philips

Esther Philips (she/her)

Project manager, consultant and trainer

Esther is an experienced consultant, trainer and project manager. She graduated in International Relations and has deep expertise in transnational cooperation. She brings in-depth experience in managing projects in …

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transnational contexts such as Peru, Argentina and Kenya. In her work, she combines academic expertise with her experience in civil society engagement as former co-founder and Chair of the Board an umbrella organisation for diaspora organisations in development cooperation.

As a member of the diaspora, she brings a unique perspective on the field of action of so-called development cooperation and a special added value for the development of inclusive and participatory approaches.

As a consultant and trainer, she supports organisations and companies to increase their effectiveness and offers trainings and workshops on diverse topics such as digitalisation, partnership cooperation, sustainable development, diaspora and inclusion from a power-critical perspective.

MAIN FOCUS

  • Organisational consulting and development
  • Digitalisation and digital transformation
  • Diaspora and civil society engagement
  • Diversity and inclusion
  • Black Feminism
  • Dialogue and Change of Perspective
  • Peace and Conflict Studies

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • International Studies / Peace and Conflict Research (Master of Arts)
  • Political Science (Bachelor of Arts)
  • Since 2009 further training as trainer and facilitator. Storytelling approach
  • Experiencing and Designing Negotiation and Mediation Simulations (Center for Security Studies ETH Zurich, 2015)
  • Since 2018 further training in project management

Profile as PDF

The collective is growing

The feminist consulting collective is a growing network of experts. A space in which we exchange, reflect, complement and inspire each other, explore organisational issues from feminist perspectives, develop and pilot new approaches.

feminist consulting collective GbR
Thielenstr. 14 • D‑50825 Cologne