Why Provoc?

Bettina Sferrino

Interim Chief Strategy Officer

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

Bettina’s purpose is to share her passion, skills, creativity and time to fight for justice. For 10 years, Bettina supported and led nonprofit communications teams, leveraging stories and connections to change hearts and minds for affordable housing, LGBTQIA+ equality, reproductive justice, and public land advocacy. Bettina intimately knows the challenges many nonprofit communications teams face — her broad understanding of internal operations and dynamics, experience collaborating with fund development and programs teams, and expertise in community building, brand strategy, and messaging all inform her approach to communications that are not only inclusive and accessible, but also build equity.

According to social media, Bettina is “super stylish,” a “cookie sorceress” and “generally awesome.” She lives in Oakland, California, with a cat named Lady Bird.

Bonnie Coberly

Strategist

Bonnie Coberly is a communications professional,  facilitator and strategist with 15+ years of experience supporting business and nonprofits to grow  their organizations. She has mastered the ability to sincerely listen, gather important insights and then turn those insights into strategies and content that inspire engagement and create results.

Carter Stowell

Data Scientist, Strategist

PRONOUNS: he/him/his

As a data science consultant and lead strategist at Provoc, Carter Stowell brings twenty years of experience to successfully managing distributed project teams. With a passion for data-driven strategy and predictive analytics, Carter can synthesize complex information into actionable insights and solutions. He creatively applies tools and methodologies that improve decision-making and drive effective and equitable communications strategies. He is fluent in data analytics and visualization, and grounded in best practices for user experience design and agile project management.

Carter holds an M.S. in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University, and a B.S.E. from Duke University. Prior certifications include Project Management Professional by PMI, and ScrumMaster by Scrum Alliance. Before bringing his talents to Provoc, Carter had built his foundations in high-traffic web work at Wired Digital, where he provided production and project management for Wired.com and Hotbot.com.

Cesar Rodriguez

Visual Designer

Cesar is a visual designer and licensed architect with a history of working on a wide breadth of project types throughout his career. His educational foundation includes a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arizona as well as a Master in Design for Emergent Futures from ELISAVA, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering. While home is both San Francisco and Arizona, Cesar currently resides in Barcelona, Spain, where in his free time he works on experimental food-design projects and enjoys hosting events at his collaborative design studio space.

Cory Osborn

Senior Designer

PRONOUNS: he/him/his

Cory has worked as a design strategist for Provoc for more than 11 years, and as a commercial illustrator and designer for over 20 years. His education includes traditional and digital art studies at the University of California Santa Barbara and graphic design at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. A resident of Washington, DC from 2002 until 2010, Cory now lives in Amsterdam, NL. Living in Europe gives him valuable perspective and insight on global social change and citizen engagement movements.

K Watkins

Project Manager

PRONOUNS: any pronouns welcome

K Watkins began working with Provoc in 2016. Her career has included non-profit web development, aerospace engineering, construction, finance, higher education, and telecommunications; she has worked as a project manager, technical writer, editor, indexer, and business analyst. Whatever the field, whatever the job title, her specialty is productivity through knowledge infrastructure: what you need to know, when you need to know it, right where you can find it. K holds a Master’s Certificate in Project Management, and also a PhD in English…which probably explains why, when she’s not at work, you can usually find her playing with words.

Keisha Igbazua

Interim Chief Operating Officer

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

Keisha is an Operations Professional with over 15 years of experience in non-profit management, administration, finance, and project management. She is also a proud wife, mother of 4 black sons, Reiki Master, Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, and Black Maternal Health Advocate. As Director of Resource Operations, she supports Provoc through the three pillars of our well-being – vision, operations, and finance – all rooted in racial equity. She works with the business development, project management, and executive leadership teams to innovate solutions that ensure Provoc walks the talk of “purpose, people, planet” rooted in equity while being a for-profit, service-for-hire company.

Kela Lester

Creative Strategist, Copywriter

For brands, Kela is the person who gathers everyone around the bonfire to make s’mores and spark conversations. Creative and strategic, Kela is the welcomed bridge between the big picture and its moving parts. Kela focuses on the stories of people and brands who are building a better world. Come as you are if you dare to leave feeling more connected to yourself and others.

Kenneth Osazuwa

Project Manager

Meet Kenneth, a seasoned Product Manager and Technical Project Manager with over four years of experience leading cross-functional teams and delivering scalable products that cater to both customer and business needs.

Kenneth has played a pivotal role in helping build startups and driving the success of scalable products throughout his career. His expertise includes managing sprint planning meetings, implementing road mapping practices, functioning as a scrum master, and conducting QA testing to ensure the delivery of high-quality products.

Kenneth’s proficiency in utilizing collaborative and project management tools such as Jira, Asana, ClickUp, and Trello has enabled him to manage projects effectively, track progress, and communicate with stakeholders. He even developed and sold his own project management tool, gaining valuable insights into product creation and product marketing.

Mara Hughes

Copywriter, Research Strategist

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

Mara has built a career communicating complex ideas in service to the public good. A former high school English teacher, she spent several years working as a sociologist of education and contingent faculty organizer before transitioning to communications, where her specializations in research and writing have made her an asset on projects with heavy data and regulatory components. After lengthy stints in public healthcare and nonprofit journalism, Mara freelances as a strategist with a special interest in projects that draw on her subject matter expertise and let her delve deeply into new opportunities to learn.Mara is from Philly and for Philly. She’s still looking for a workplace with the energy, innovation, and unerring ethics of a classroom of tenth graders.

Melanie Marine

Director of Business Operations

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

Melanie has more than a decade of experience managing online/offline strategic communications projects, and she’s adept at crafting long-term impact with clients through open communication and team participation. She loves to streamline processes, figuring out ways to save both time and money, hence the love of project management! She has an MBA from George Washington University, and enjoys volunteering. She’s also an avid hiker.

Miesha Robinson

Project Manager

Miesha is a Project Management and Marketing Strategist who helps early stage to enterprise level organizations develop, plan, and implement solutions to complex projects. Miesha has a combined fifteen years’ experience in leadership roles in corporate America and leading community projects for non-profits and social impact initiatives. Her branding and marketing ideations connect communities to brands through authenticity and brand experiences.

Neha Sharma

Strategist

Neha is committed to tapping into collective insight and foresight, primarily through strategy, partnerships, and product creation. She has experience building diverse and equitable clean energy economies, energy efficiency and intelligence in the built environment, facilitation for group alignment, and bridge building between disparate networks & nodes.

Raj Aggarwal

President

PRONOUNS: he/him/his

Raj founded Provoc in 1999 and serves as President and Lead Strategist. Over twenty years of experience as a communications and technology strategist, he has worked with more than 400 nonprofits and socially responsible businesses on a variety of projects including internal and external branding, marketing and customer engagement. Raj keeps Provoc rooted in empathy-driven work by forging partnerships with values-aligned, visionary leaders and has led workshops and talks at dozens of national conferences. He serves on the boards of Think Local First, DC and Ben’s Chili Bowl Foundation, and recently shared his personal story on NPR.

Sierra Moses

Project Manager

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

Sierra Moses is a certified Project Management Professional with experience managing complex communications, marketing, and branding projects. Sierra has led a variety of web, digital, and content marketing programs across multiple industries and has a proven track record of delivering highly specialized web and print content marketing campaigns, projects, and programs.

Tiffany Maqubela

Executive Assistant

PRONOUNS: she/her/hers

Tiffany has a professional background in organizational administration, rooted in the field of education. In supporting senior leadership and aiding team members across various departments, Tiffany specializes in providing the necessary continuity that allows organizations to run smoothly and efficiently. For the last few years, Tiffany has had the honor of being a stay-at-mom to her three young daughters, while also being a 200-hour certified yoga instructor, with additional certifications in restorative yoga and prenatal yoga. Tiffany teaches both virtually and in studios in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. As she truly has a passion for ensuring that personal wellness and self-care is something available to everyone, Tiffany leads many of her classes in marginalized communities that lack access to the practice of yoga. Tiffany holds a B.A. in History and a M.Ed. in Educational Administration and Policy from Howard University. She currently resides with her family in Maryland.

Will Coyle

CEO

PRONOUNS: he/him/his

As Provoc’s CEO, Will takes great pride in the company’s mission and collaborative values. He enjoys providing sound company structure while also delivering beautiful design solutions for Provoc’s clients. With twenty years of creative strategy experience, Will has an especially strong background in brand development. His work balances functionality, intuitive content delivery, and visually compelling aesthetics.