Inaugural Nonprofit Staff Retreat Set for September 10
Reconnect - Recharge - Restore
The Athens County Foundation will host its Inaugural Nonprofit Staff Retreat on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Dairy Barn Arts Center. The retreat is open to two staff members from each nonprofit organization located in—or serving—Athens County.
This immersive, day-long gathering is thoughtfully designed to foster personal renewal, strengthen inter-agency collaboration, and support collective resilience. Participants will begin in a structured welcome, then follow their own “path” through a range of self-care experiences—including mindful movement, a facilitated conversation on wellbeing, healing touch, and creative engagement.
Agenda
8:30 - Coffee, snacks, and networking (optional)
9:00 - Welcome and Gathering
10:00 - Choose Your Own Self-Care Sessions (up to three)
12:30 - Lunch
1:15 - Team Building Activity
2:00 - When is Enough, Enough? (Conversation about burn out)
3:00 - What’s Possible Here? Small group discussions
3:30 - Check Out
4:00 - Network, Connections, Refreshment (optional)
Self-Care Sessions
- Mindful movement, adaptive yoga and gentle stretching exercises designed to support present-moment awareness and release physical tension.
- Caring for Your Whole Self, an inclusive conversation exploring practices of self-compassion and wellbeing.
- Healing Touch, chair massages that support muscle tension relief, stress reduction, and overall physical and mental renewal.
- Creation Station - Self-led place to release creative energy with provided craft and art supplies of all types.
Retreat & Team Facilitator
Dani Esperanza will be the event facilitator and host. During the retreat, they will lead a collaborative team-building session, serve as guide during the afternoon’s fishbowl conversation, as well as small-group sessions envisioning collective opportunities for the nonprofit sector.
Dani has been proud to call Athens home for the past 18 years. Their career has centered on community engagement, programming, leadership, and development through roles with many area businesses and non-profits. As an alumnus of Leadership Athens County Class of 2019, Dani understands the value of strength-based leadership and a commitment to community development. As the Leadership Athens County Program Director, they are honored to now direct such a powerful program that brings folks together to identify, connect, and hone their skills for stronger sustainability of our community.
When Dani isn’t working, you can find them in referee stripes at roller derby bouts, creating art, loving on their pets, and dreaming up big ideas over coffee with their wife and 10-year-old kiddo.
Mindful Movements
Shei Sanchez welcomes all kinds of students and practitioners, regardless of ability or experience. She originally took up yoga in 2009 after an autoimmune diagnosis. Through the discipline of yoga, Shei has been learning how to cultivate resilience, strength,and ease of presence especially during challenging times. Since then, she has earned her RYT certification at Seasons Holistic Arts and loves sharing her practice with her community.
Introduced in the Hatha tradition, Shei delved into Vinyasa, Yin and Iyengar Yoga to deepen her practice. With a combination of these modalities, students are invited to become more body and mind aware while improving mobility, flexibility, and strength. Her teaching also incorporates mindful breathing to nurture the self and awaken gratitude.
Outside of her full time role as Program Officer at the Sisters Health Foundation, Shei teaches for the Federal Valley Resource Center in Stewart, Middle Path Yoga in Athens, and Village Productions in Amesville. She also teaches a slow flow at the Paw Paw Festival’s wellness tent. She has also led sessions for Leadership Athens County, Circles Campaign of the MOV, and other nonprofit groups.
Caring for Your Whole Self
Rachel is a seasoned facilitator and licensed professional clinical counselor with over twenty years of experience guiding diverse groups toward greater collaboration, clarity, and connection. As co-owner and Lead Clinical Officer of Rock Riffle Wellness and founder of Siegel Transformations, LLC, she blends her background in clinical mental health, organizational dynamics, and passion for community engagement to help nonprofits navigate complex conversations, strengthen their collective impact and support culture of personal wellness.
Rachel’s facilitation style is strength-based, relational, and grounded in evidence-based approaches, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), Gottman, mindfulness, and cognitive frameworks. She is attuned to the social inequities and multicultural contexts that shape group dynamics, and she strives to creates spaces where all voices can be heard, valued, and integrated into shared solutions.
Her work draws on extensive experience in medical, school, community-based, university, and multidisciplinary settings, as well as training at The Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute and advanced level of relationship training (IFIO & Gottman methods) Whether leading strategic visioning, conflict transformation, or team capacity-building sessions, Rachel brings deep emotional attunement, trauma-informed awareness, and creative tools-such as art and nature-based interventions, to help groups move forward with purpose and cohesion and connection to their guiding mission.
Healing Touch
Join Andrew Shackelford, LMT and Amanda Birt, LMT for restoration and relaxation in a chair massage. Let the tension and pressure melt away under their expert techniques.
Andrew received his B.S. in Physiology of Exercise from Ohio University and went on to complete the Medical Massage Therapy program at Hocking College.
In addition to his massage therapy practice, Andrew has professional experience as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, which has helped inform his massage style.
Andrew's preferred massage techniques include Swedish Massage, Trigger Point Search and Release, Deep Tissue Work, Pin and Stretch, Unilateral Press Stroking, Cupping, and Active/Passive Range-of-Motion Movements.
Amanda received her Massage Therapy license in 2013 from Everest in Tampa Florida.
Amanda carefully listens to her client’s description of what's wrong and will then follow the paths of the muscle to find the origin of the problem.
Amanda offers Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, and pre-natal massage. She also offers hot stones, cupping, and reflexology.
The retreat will also connect to the Strengths+Strengths program, highlighting the ways our community’s nonprofit professionals can combine skills, resources, and vision to generate lasting impact.
Lunch will be provided, and registration is free.
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