Circus Up, inc: Ayla Gavins and Leah Abel

Ayla and Leah work as a team! Ayla Gavins is an equity and inclusion consultant and educator who brings deep knowledge of what it takes to create equitable and just education environments and engages fellow educators locally and globally to design inclusive programs. She regularly consults with and leads discussion groups on racial equity and inclusion for a variety of organizations, assisting individuals and teams to see their role in creating inequities and supporting them to change that narrative. She is the former principal of the Mission Hill School in Boston, one of the most progressive, inclusive, and democratic schools in the country.

​Leah Abel is a consultant on equity in circus arts education and speaker on the intersection of arts and justice. She uses liberation health as a framework for working with youth from under-resourced and marginalized communities and with organizations that aim to build more supportive cultures for their staff. A longtime member of the social circus, hospital clowning, and Clowns Without Borders communities, Leah is a licensed clinical social worker. She studied with Dawn Belkin Martinez at Simmons Graduate School of Social Work and also holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. As Founder and Executive Director of Circus Up, Leah is committed to co-designing equitable partnerships with other community organizations. She is also a founding member of DRIVE Forward, a diverse team of hospital clowns across the U.S. who are dedicated to Diversity, Representation, Inclusion, Voice, and Equity. ​