TRANSPiRE Seasonal Newsletter – Spring Equinox Edition 2026

The spiral is a powerful, ancient, and universal symbol across the planet, representing the growth, evolution, and the journey of life.

There is no better symbol to represent the TLC journey than the spiral. Transformative Leadership for Change was called into existence nearly 10 years ago by women of color leaders in the progressive community organizing ecosystem in Colorado. We came together to support each other around issues of burn-out, sustainability, unaddressed trauma, conflict and competition, underfunding, and internalized/systemic oppression. Tired of leadership programs that reinforced dominant culture “hard skills” to simply survive the non-profit industrial complex, we yearned for a space that centered BIPOC experiences, collective healing, transformative relationships, abundance, creativity, and proactive vision. The TLC Fellowship was born, as an offering of “tender, loving, care” to ourselves and our peers.

Since that time, we have been journeying on the path of the spiral, outward into the ecosystem and inward in deepening practice. The TLC Fellowship, which started as an experiment, has now become a rite of passage for BIPOC movement and organizational leaders in Colorado. This year, we will graduate our fifth cohort of fellows, bringing our total to 104 leaders from 82 organizations across the state. We now provide year-round programming for our network of graduates; coaching, consulting, and technical assistance for TLC Network leaders; and ecosystem-shifting projects such as our annual Wealth Reclamation Summit, Another World is Possible Fund, Platform for Change (our call-in to philanthropy), and so much more. We spun off from our fiscal sponsor (thank you UNE!) in January, 2024, to operate as our own independent 501c3. And we grew from a volunteer project that was quite literally being organized from the women’s bathroom in between meetings (if you know, you know) to now having 5 incredible staff and 6 governing circle members.

While we send ripple effects of transformation across the spiral of our influence across the Colorado (and national) movement ecosystem, we have simultaneously traveled inward, deepening our practice of embedding our Liberatory Leadership Values into every aspect of the organization. From the way we run our meetings or create organizational policies to how we design our fellowship curriculum and build partnerships, we strive to embody the principles of Abundance, Accountability & Transparency, BIPOC Collective Determinism, Boldness & Innovation, Creativity & Innovation, Gratitude, Healing, Joy, Love, Rest & Sustainability, and Stewardship.

In the spirit of this last value, we are preparing to steward the organization into its next decade with the launch of a vibrant new look for TLC. We hope that this bold and colorful spiral becomes a reminder of the joy, inspiration, passion, healing, bold energy, and transformation that is needed, more than ever, to get us from the world that exists to the world we are calling in. This new logo is part of an exciting rebrand to bring greater visibility to our leaderful TLC community and stories of transformation. Check out our brand new website and social media to feel the fresh energy! Thank you for being a part of the collective journey of TLC with us. We have never been more clear that our lives, our safety, our wellbeing, and our liberation are deeply intertwined, in beautiful spiral formation.

TLC Team

At the end of last year, the TLC community lost one of our most beloved members, Mimi Estelle Madrid Puga (he/they/she), 2021-2022 TLC Fellow, and Founder/Executive Director of Fortaleza Familiar, a community-based nonprofit dedicated to the wellbeing of Indigenous, Chicanx, Latinx, LGBTQ and Two-Spirit young people and their families in Colorado.

Mimi was born in El Paso, Texas in 1988, but was raised in Denver, CO, where they created a rich and vibrant life until transitioning in November, 2025.

A proud, brown, queer, Two-Spirit artist, photographer, filmmaker, poet, documentarian, columnist, and community organizer, Mimi dedicated over 20 years to the movement. It is hard to capture Mimi’s impact in words. From designing reproductive justice curriculum for youth in the early days of COLOR, bringing Rigoberta Menchu Tum to meet Colorado youth through PeaceJam, to organizing queer and trans youth of color to fight for justice in the Denver Police Department’s murder of Jesse Hernandez at SOL/BSEEDS and founding Fortaleza Familiar – Mimi’s work impacted thousands of lives in Colorado and beyond. They sat on multiple local & national boards and worked at a number of organizations. But their influence went far beyond the nonprofit industrial complex, which they always carried a healthy skepticism of. Their ultimate loyalty was to their loved ones, to young people, to the community, to all living creatures on the earth, to the land, to the ancestors, and to future generations – not to a single nonprofit or job title. This authenticity is one of the many reasons they were beloved to so many as a sibling, friend, comrade, and leader: “Mimi reminded everyone that resistance and celebration were two wings of the same bird. Whether organizing, marching, or simply sharing space with community, Mimi brought people together with purpose and joy.”*

Our TLC Co-Executive Director, Neha Mahajan, shared the following words at Mimi’s memorial:

“The departure of our beloved Mimi from this earth has shattered our hearts, broken them wide open. But I know that this is by the design of Mimi’s soul. Because our hearts were too small to contain the magnitude of love we have for them, too small to contain the vision of their work and life, too small to hold their expanding energy as they become an ancestor.

So we must allow our hearts to crack wide open. And in those cracks, plant the seeds of love, beauty, creativity, joy, laughter, dance, song, story and community that Mimi so carefully harvested and saved for us. We must turn towards each other and tend to those seeds with the rain of our tears and the sunshine of our favorite memories. We must turn to each other and nurture those seeds with healing for the broken places in ourselves, in our relationships and in our world. We must turn to each other, because it takes a community to cultivate broken and expanding hearts, to fill those cracks with an abundant, gorgeous and sacred garden that Mimi would be proud of.”

If you listen closely, Mimi still speaks to us in the language of sunflower seeds, hummingbirds, and Assata Shakur chants. Mimi remains present in the soil of the earth, the stars in the cosmos, and in the winds that connect the two. Mimi lives on forever in the hearts and souls of those of us who had the privilege to love them and be loved by them.

Mimi is survived by their wife Eleanor Dewey; their siblings Gabby, Ricky and Tahiyari; their mother Norma; their 13 nieces, nephews, and godchildren; their best friend Guadalupe Vargas; and a vast community of chosen family and friends. If you would like to support the family, please contact Neha Mahajan for the best ways to do so.

*Quote from Memorial Service Booklet