Get to Know Us …
We first met more than twenty years ago at a youth drop-in center in Cambridge, MA - Ayala as the center’s director and Liz as the center’s clinician. We were early in our careers, doing front-line work with young people navigating incredibly complex challenges. Through that work - and through the ups and downs of our own lives - we grew into close colleagues and trusted friends.
Two decades later, we carry the lessons, wisdom, and humility (lots of humility) earned from those early days and from all the people who have taught us along the way.
Our mission now is simple: to use our hard-earned experience to support the folks who show up every day for others. We believe real growth happens in learning environments that feel like community - spaces built on shared understanding, belonging, and dashes of humor to keep us all Courageously Connected
We’re honored to walk alongside those doing the work.
Ayala Livny, M.Ed, MHC has over 30 years of leadership, management, and direct service experience in homeless services.
Since 1995, she has worked with individuals, families, children, and young adults experiencing homelessness to improve health outcomes and navigate systems.
Her focus has been on creating safe and welcoming spaces that incorporate trauma-informed services, harm reduction, HIV-prevention, and authentic client engagement practices. She is the co-author of the Massachusetts State Plan to End Youth Homelessness, the Boston Plan to End Youth Homelessness, the DYS Strategic Plan for Housing Stability and Homelessness Prevention, and a founding Board member of Y2Y Harvard Square (a student-run overnight shelter for homeless young adults).
She is a Senior Consultant for the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services and co-leads the work to prevent and end youth homelessness in Massachusetts.
In 2025, she received a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling and holds a small clinical practice.
In her free time, she reads, writes, hikes, basks in the sunshine, and tries to raise two children to be forces of good in the world.
Liz Geisel, MSW has spent the last twenty years specializing in healthcare, mental health and substance dependence. She has worked with leading Boston organizations including the Sidney Borum Health Center, The Institute for Health & Recovery and Boston Medical Center.
Alongside her clinical work, Liz has led teams, launched large-scale initiatives, and built programs to support those on the front lines of human service work.
Her boots-on-the-ground experiences bring a grounded, real-world perspective to the conversations and training she facilitates. Known for her interactive style, Liz weaves in participants’ voices and real-life storytelling to equip them with tools they can put into practice immediately.
Liz currently sits on the Board of Directors of Riverside Theatre Works - a Boston based community theatre where her passion for the arts and musical theatre comes to life and is nourished.