Collective Co-Leaders
Rev. Mykal O’Neal Slack
Mykal has been working in congregations and other faith settings for two decades, helping to develop anti-racist and anti-oppressive frameworks for church life, to offer pastoral leadership and educational resources to address sexual orientation and gender identity issues, and to foster community life practices that embody radical welcome and connection.
In addition to his work with the Transforming Hearts Collective, Mykal serves as the Community Minister for Worship & Spiritual Care for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). Past roles include Co-Director of the Freedom Center for Social Justice; Director of Congregational Life at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, NC; Community Life Coordinator and Worship Leader at First Parish Cambridge, Unitarian Universalist; and Director of Worship for the Sanctuary Boston.
Teo Drake
Teo is a community organizer, a teacher, and an artisan who works in wood and steel. His work largely focuses on collective healing and communal care, drawing from embodied practices such as yoga, Buddhist teachings and philosophies, somatic work, and 20+ years of training and teaching in martial arts. As a queer and trans long-term HIV/AIDS survivor, his collaborative work to broaden access to resources for healing from trauma while working to end systems of violence that necessitate healing is deeply personal.
Teo is a founding member of the national advisory board of Positively Trans, a project of the Transgender Law Center that seeks to mobilize and promote resilience among trans people most impacted by HIV/AIDS, and also serves on the steering committee of the US People Living with HIV Caucus. His writing can be found at the blog Roots Grow the Tree and his artisan crafts can be found at The Tinkering Gnome.
Zr. Alex Kapitan
Alex is a community minister, educator, consultant, and anti-oppression activist. A trans and queer lifelong Unitarian Universalist, Alex has been working for almost two decades helping people expand their understandings, open their hearts, and practice solidarity across lines of gender, sexuality, race, class, dis/ability, age, and more, along with helping congregations engage in culture shift.
Alex previously worked at the national headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association supporting Welcoming Congregation, anti-racism, and social justice programming, and has served on numerous faith-based LGBTQ leadership bodies, including the steering committee of TRUUsT, an organization of trans Unitarian Universalist religious professionals. In addition to Alex’s work with the Transforming Hearts Collective, ze has a “word nerd ministry” via the project Radical Copyeditor.