Hi, I’m Zoë!

I am the founder and lead educator at Runa, a school dedicated to activating personal and collective ingenuity through ritual, story, and play. Runa represents the culmination of a decade spent studying public policy, participatory research, and narrative and ritual design.

My work is rooted in a commitment to autonomy, reciprocity, and interdependence, essential values for transforming the unprocessed personal and collective grief that impacts so many of us. I live and work in Curitiba, Brazil, on the ancestral lands of the Guarani, Kaingang, and Xetá peoples.

A multidisiplinary approach to ritual and game design

My work is a bridge between the academic study of community policy and the embodied practice of ritual arts. My work is built on a decade of research into how communities sustain themselves during times of transition, and is built on three pillars of research and practice:

Pillar 1 | Public Policy & Action Research

I earned my M.A. in Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University. My research with Community Labor United and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative focused on how communities build their own networks of care when the state falls short.

Under the mentorship of Penn Loh, Laurie Goldman, and Sarah Jimenez, I explored how to transform power relationships across university and community spaces, drawing on the tools of action research and participatory evaluation.
This lens allows me to view stress and burnout not as an individual failure, but as a systemic symptom that requires collective, structural solutions

Pillar 2 | Trauma-Informed Facilitation & Ritual

To understand and address the emotional, embodied roots of stress and burnout, I have spent years in deep apprenticeship with mentors like Lara Irene Vesta and Shauna Janz, and Marika Heinrichs.
For four years, I immersed myself in Northern European folk practices and rites of passage, focusing on how wisdom from these traditions can support people living with chronic illness and disability today. I specialize in creating containers that are transparent, offer choices, and are respectful of personal histories.

Pillar 3 | Narrative Design & Liberatory Theater

With a B.A. in English and minor in Creative Writing from UNC-Chapel Hill, I use storytelling as a tool for reaching clarity and effective, creative action.
I furthered this through training with Elijah Brunson (2025) and Theater of the Oppressed (NYC), using improvisational play to rehearse for social change. I view rituals and games as “rehearsals” where people can practice new ways of relating to one another in both their daily lives and their work.

Selected Research & Publications

Peer reviewed: Loh, P & Ackerman, Z 2021. A Relational Approach to Transforming Power in a Community-University Partnership. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, vol. 14(2),

Peer reviewed: Loh, Penn, Zoë Ackerman, Joceline Fidalgo, and Rebecca Tumposky, 2022. Co-Education/Co-Research Partnership: A Critical Approach to Co-Learning between Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and Tufts University. Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pp 1-17.
Ackerman, Z. “Teaching Democracy: An Action Research Evaluation of a Community-University Training on Popular and Participatory Education Methods,” Master’s Thesis, Tufts University Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning, February 2020.
Ackerman, Z. Loh, P & Alias C 2020, ‘An assessment of the CoResearch/CoEducation (CORE) partnership between Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and Tufts University’, Tufts Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning, 18 December 2020.

Selected Training & Education

M.A. Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University (2020). Thesis nominated for exemplary category. Rob Hollister Award for Community Service.

Ritual, Myth, and Embodiment with Gabriela de Golia (2024), Marika Heinrichs (2023-2024), and Lara Irene Vesta, including 9-month and 13-month immersions (2020-2023).
Trauma- and Grief-Informed Facilitation with Shauna Janz (2023-2024)
Liberatory theater with Elijah Brunson (2025), Big Blue Door (2024), and Theater of the Oppressed NYC (2021).
In addition to the work of the teachers described above, my approach to decolonial theory and queer/feminist worldviews has been deeply shaped by scholars like Arturo Escobar and Maria DeGuzmán, as well as the late Steve Wing, whose work connected research and art toward radical visions of liberation.

A Note on Values & Accountability

There is no single training program for this kind of multidisciplinary, creative work. This unchartedness creates both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, it allows for expansive, lifelong learning and the development of deeply personal practices. On the other, it can mean a lack of clear ethical guidelines and systems of accountability within the field.

As I continue to explore how to participate in networks of practitioners who are accountable, ethical, and grounded, I recognize the importance of three kinds of relationships: mentorship from teachers, peer mentorship, and education and training, and community-building. These areas offer guidance, reflection, and spaces for accountability.

I am an active member of several deep peer mentorship and accountability spaces, including collaborations with Blair Mikaela Franklin, Gabriela de Golia, and Elijah Brunson to reflect on my development as an effective facilitator and designer.

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This occasional newsletter explores how play, ritual, and creativity can help us navigate change, cultivate connection, and imagine new ways of living.

“We are here to witness the creation and to abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”