Admin / Operations
Malana Rogers-Bursen
Malana Rogers-Bursen (she/her) is a worker-owner of the People’s Saturday School Cooperative and the current project coordinator for food security, environmental justice, and sustainability at Wesleyan’s College of the Environment. As an associate with the Creative Discourse Group, Malana provides equity coaching, training, and assessment for institutions in New England.
Over the past 15 years, Malana has built extensive experience in community organizing, facilitation and collaborative research. She is particularly interested in thinking about how people can build their own liberatory spaces as acts of resistance. This passion led her to co-found the Living Room, a community center in Bern, Switzerland that provides space for community building, art, and healing. In addition, she has also provided training and coaching on community engagement for community leaders across the US, focusing on youth engagement and intergenerational action.
Malana has volunteered with a number of racial justice and immigrant justice groups in the US and Switzerland, including Hartford Deportation Defense, CT Students for a Dream, Black Infinity Collective, the Alliance Against Racial Profiling, and the Racial Justice Student Collective. She has been trained in organizing and facilitation through the Center for Third World Organizing, the Chicago Freedom School, Public Agenda, and Everyday Democracy.
Malana has a B.A. in Political Science from Boston University and an M.A. in Critical Urbanisms from the University of Basel. In 2023, she co-founded the Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective, a group of Greater Hartford Jews who are committed to the liberation of all people, including Palestinians and Jews.
Malana currently lives in Hartford, CT. She loves to sing and dance and is learning how to DJ.