Welcome to Runa. We design transformative games using ritual, story and play to support personal and collective wellbeing.
Runa brings together people from diverse and diasporic cultural, spiritual, and religious backgrounds. These shared values help us create a foundation for our community where differences and uniqueness are honored, not flattened into a single story.
We build reciprocal relationships rooted in finding a dynamic balance of giving and receiving
We practice and encourage autonomy, sovereignty, and agency with ourselves and each other
We honor a multiplicity of worldviews and ways of knowing
We activate our individual and shared imagination as tools for transformation
We intentionally mark the end of cycles to honor what was and support the next phases to unfold
We support integration and coherence across inner and outer worlds in ways that feel authentic and accessible for each of us
My name is Zoë Ackerman and I’m a Ritual Educator, Artist, and Founder of Runa. Since 2020, I’ve guided the design of rituals and care networks, and now steward transformative ritual games and an emerging cross-cultural care network connecting the U.S. and Brazil. My work is grounded in a commitment to collective health and well-being through dismantling both internal and external oppression. I live in Curitiba, Brazil, on the ancestral lands of the Guarani, Kaingang, and Xetá peoples.
Raised by a fiction writer and a science writer, I grew up immersed in language, play, and storytelling. I studied English Literature and Creative Writing at UNC–Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar, exploring fiction, memoir, oral history, and even grammar-themed sketch comedy. Later, I earned my Master’s in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, where I designed community-based child care programs and participatory adult learning projects. My graduate studies focused on how communities facing racism and state neglect are reclaiming agency through collective planning and networks of care.
RUNA is the convergence of my dedication to collective liberation, my own experiences with grief and uncertainty, especially in my role as a sister to Nelle, whose nonlinear journey with chronic illness has been my greatest teacher. From 2020 to 2024, I studied with Lara Irene Vesta to learn more about how my own ancestors navigated challenging times. Under Lara’s mentorship, I learned about ritual art and design, land and ancestral connection, building teaching-learning communities, and rites of passage. These teachings, along with many other learning experiences, shape my approach to creating spaces that nurture physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.
Qualifications & Training
Institutional Learning
M.A. Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University (2017-2020). Thesis on relationality, power, and participatory education for housing, labor, and environmental justice movements. Research published in 2021, 2022, and forthcoming in 2025.
B.A. English Literature, Minor in Creative Writing, UNC-Chapel Hill (2010-2014). Morehead-Cain Scholar.
Non-Institutional and Embodied Learning
Mentorship with Lara Irene Vesta, Shauna Janz, and ongoing with peers including Blair Mikaela Franklin, Gabriela de Golia, Bruno Fernandez, and Elijah Brunson.
Dark Goddess Year of Ceremony with Lara Irene Vesta (2022). A 13-month rite of passage in myth, embodiment, and spiritual practice.
Wild Soul Runes Gnosis Class with Lara Irene Vesta (2021–2022). A 33-week ancestral connection and mythology study.
Trauma- & Grief-Informed Facilitation Training with Shauna Janz (2023–2024).
Embodied Ancestral Inquiry with Marika Heinrichs (2023). A 6-month course in body-based awareness and unlearning whiteness.
Visionary Alchemy with Gabriela de Golia (2024). A 4-month mentorship in ritual and transformation.
Theater of the Oppressed (NYC, 2021) & Big Blue Door Character Development (2024). Liberatory theater and improvisation training.
Subscribe to Mycelial Games
The Mycelial Games is Runa’s Substack exploring how play, ritual, and creativity can help us navigate change, cultivate connection, and imagine new ways of living.
