EDST COLLABORATORS & CLASS FACILITATORS
below ARE our confirmed facilitators. our faculty is growing fast! MORE WILL BE ADDED SOON.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FACULTY AT EDST’S “SISTER” ORG, EVERYONE DESERVES SEX ED (EDSE).
Anne Hodder-Shipp
Anne Hodder-Shipp, CSE (they/she) is EDST’s founder, as well as a class facilitator. She also is the founder of EDST’s “sister” org, EDSE. Anne has worked in the sexuality field since 2007 and is certified via AASECT, SFSI, ANTE UP!, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, and multiple other human sexuality programs.
Anne is also the author of Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love and its accompanying workbook, The Speaking from the Heart Workbook: A Practical Guide to the Modern Love Languages, and a contributing author of Fundamental Concepts and Critical Developments in Sex Education: Intersectional and Trauma-Informed Approaches. Most recently, Anne was welcomed as a member of the board of directors for SIECUS, a historic sex ed policy, advocacy, and coalition-building non-profit.
Bianca Palmisano
Bianca Palmisano, MSN, RN, SANE-A (they/them) teaches Sexually Transmitted Infections & Care for EDSE and is a nurse, sex educator, and the owner of Intimate Health Consulting. They specialize in training healthcare providers to better address sexual health and the needs of systemically marginalized communities. Bianca works in the Washington, DC area as an abortion nurse, and is also a trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. They also serve as a Genito-Urinary Teaching Associate (GUTA), teaching medical, physician assistant, and nurse practitioner students how to perform competent and trauma-informed breast and pelvic exams. They have been a guest lecturer for multiple medical education programs, including George Washington University, Johns Hopkins, and University of Chicago.
Brandon Hunter-Haydon
Brandon Hunter-Haydon, MSW, CSE, (he/him; they/them) is an intimacy coach, sex educator, and surrogate partner based in Massachusetts. With over a dozen years of experience, he helps individuals and partnerships overcome challenges and improve their relationships.
He works closely with clients to help them develop and enhance their emotional, physical, and sexual intimacy. Whether you’re seeking support for a specific issue or looking to improve your overall intimacy and well-being, he’s here to help.
Dawn Serra
Dawn Serra, RCC, CCC (she/her) is an EDST collaborator, as well as a class facilitator. She is the co-founder and co-owner of Tend and Cultivate Counselling, the first counseling group in Canada that specializes in providing non-stigmatized care to those in larger and fat bodies. Dawn believes her clients are incredibly wise and she approaches counselling as a collaborative endeavor that centers their lived experience.
Counselling is Dawn’s second career, embarked upon in her early 40s while running two businesses and navigating perimenopause and chronic pain. This is not something she fell into by chance, but instead something she committed to from a place of deep passion, life experience, and desire.
Cyndi Darnell
Cyndi Darnell (she/her) is a NYC-based, internationally renowned sex and relationships therapist and clinical sexologist. Originally from Australia, her approach spans the clinical to the esoteric, with a strong emphasis on somatic approaches and Narrative therapy.
She holds a board affiliate position for the University of Wisconsin - Stout Graduate Certificate in Sex Therapy Program. She’s a clinical associate with Pink Therapy UK and faculty on Pink Therapy's Foundation Certificate in Gender, Sexuality & Relationship Diversity Therapy and at New York’s Omega Institute. Her academic work is published in the Journal of Sex Education (UK) and Sexual & Relationship Therapy (UK). She's writing her first book for Rowman & Littlefield due out in 2022 on reigniting desire in relationships
Her online courses and podcast The Erotic Philosopher meet today’s adult sex education needs by bridging the gaps in peoples’ knowledge regarding pleasure, relationships, passion and desire. She maintains a global consulting practice in NYC and online and offers insight into the quandaries of the erotic to transform fear into freedom.
Dr. Dulcinea/Alex Pitagora
Dr. Dulcinea/Alex Pitagora, MSW, MEd, PhD (they/them) is a NY-based psychotherapist and sex therapist (also licensed in NJ, PA, and CO). They have a brick-and-mortar private practice in NYC that includes individual, couples/multi-partner relationship, and poly/leather family therapy, as well as supervision and mentorship. Dr. Pitagora is an out and proud member of the queer, trans, kink, and polyamory communities, and is equally proud to be a former sex worker, as well as an anti-racist/-oppression/-exploitation activist. Dr. Pitagora holds a Master of Arts in Psychology from the New School for Social Research; a Master of Social Work from New York University; a Master of Education and a Doctorate in Clinical Sexology from Widener University; and is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, CST Supervisor, and CE provider along with their colleague Dr. Jillien Kahn at Manhattan Alternative Wellness Collective. Dr. Pitagora teaches sexual health at New York University; has published articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and books; and presented at conferences on the topics of alternative sexuality and gender diversity. Dr. Pitagora is the founder of ManhattanAlternative.com, a nationwide alternative lifestyle affirmative provider listing; and was a co-founder and -organizer of the AltSex NYC Conference.
Dr. Grace Abruzzo, PT, DPT, CAPP-OB, CD(DONA), PYT-C, (they/them) is a licensed physical therapist and wellness coach specializing in pelvic health for women and people with vaginas. A certified specialist in obstetric and pelvic physical therapy, Dr. Grace uses an integrative approach to treating people in preparation and recovery from childbirth. Dr. Grace also spends time in birthing spaces, supporting mamas during labor and birth.
Dr. Grace utilizes an integrative approach to wellness, which includes interventions like education; manual therapeutic techniques, including visceral, myofascial, and internal pelvic mobilizations; yoga therapy; meditation practice; and general life coaching.
Jared Boot-Haury
Jared Boot-Haury, PsyD, ABPP (they/them). Their bio is coming soon!
Jodi Williams
Jodi Williams, MA, LPC, CST, CST-S (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Counselor, an EMDR Certified Therapist™, and an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Supervisor with a private practice in New Haven, CT. Jodi works with clients who are experiencing the impacts of trauma, anxiety, and issues around sex, sexuality, and identity. She does this work because she is passionate about offering her clients a safe space to explore, heal, and move from survive to thrive. Jodi brings creativity, body-based awareness, humor, and warmth into her therapy work.
Jodi’s practice is sex-positive, she is kink and poly/CNM friendly and affirming, and offers LGBTQIA* affirming care.
Jodi is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapy Supervisor is and available for supervision for clinicians looking to become Certified Sex Therapists. She is also available for clinical consultations for professionals looking for support with their caseloads.
Dr. Lucie Fielding
Dr. Lucie Fielding, PhD, LMHC, LPC (she/they; elle/iel) is a queer, non-binary trans femme and a therapist. She completed their MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2018. During their course of study at Pacifica, she was privileged to receive supervised training in counseling within the Student Counseling Center at Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) as well as at The Women’s Initiative (Charlottesville, VA).
Lucie also has a PhD in French from Northwestern University (2008), where they specialized in erotic literature and histories of sexuality. Their background in literature and history attunes her to the powerful ways that myth, image, metaphor, and cultural scripts shape and inform the narratives we carry with us as we move through the world as well as how these narratives can write themselves on our bodies.
In addition to Lucie’s work as a therapist, they are also a sexuality educator. She has had the pleasure and privilege of facilitating workshops in numerous settings, including professional conferences, sex therapy education programs, and community-facing workshops. Finally, they are the author of the book Trans Sex: Nurturing Trans Erotic Embodiment and Gender-Pleasure (Routledge, 2025).
Nathaniel Hodder-Shipp
Nathaniel Hodder-Shipp, CADC-II, B. Msc. (he/him) has taught Trauma-informed Care with EDSE and has worked as a professional healer for almost 15 years. tUsing an arsenal of techniques with a special focus on breathwork, Nathaniel has helped thousands of people process trauma, disarm negative thought patterns, and maintain healthy and happy relationships with themselves and loved ones. Nathaniel’s client base ranges from those seeking relief from everyday anxiety to people suffering from severe emotional and physical trauma and desperate for help; his specialty includes working in addiction treatment facilities to help accelerate clients’ journey to recovery. Nathaniel is the founder of Breathwork for Recovery, the first and only national organization comprised of certified mental health breathwork professionals with special training in healing trauma, recovery from substance use disorder, chemical dependency, eating disorders, compulsive behaviors, and other mental health issues.
Nathaniel also is EDST founder Anne Hodder-Shipp’s partner in life and marriage.
Paula Leech
Paula Leech, LMFT, CST, CSTS (she/her) is EDST’s lead collaborator, as well as a class facilitator. She is an AASECT-certified sex therapist who specializes in bringing relationships and individuals toward a greater sense of intimacy and a thriving, evolving connection (to self and other(s)) that can grow alongside them. She also works as a Supervisor of Sex Therapy and trains sex therapists to become more competent, confident providers, and she is inspired by the inevitable transformation of the therapists themselves as they witness and become part of fantastic growth and change in their clients.
Sarah Tomchesson
Sarah Tomchesson (she/her) has taught Kink and BDSM with EDSE and is a kink-positive, pleasure-based educator and pleasure product expert. Since 2007, Sarah has developed, programmed and presented comprehensive, pleasure-based sex education nationwide, and she brings an inclusive and approachable teaching style to topics ranging from Multiple Orgasms for All Bodies to Creating Meaning D/s Dynamics in Play. In addition to her work as a sex educator, Sarah sits on the Board of Directors of SIECUS - Sex Ed for Social Change - and has more than 10 years of executive-level, small business management experience as a sex toy retailer.
Dra. Serina Payan Hazelwood
Dra. Serina Payan Hazelwood, PhD, MAIS, CSE (Dra/She/Ella) is a queer, detribalized-Indigenous Chicana scholar, holistic sexuality educator, AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator and CE Provider, and an AASECT Supervisor in Training. She earned her PhD in Sustainability Education at Prescott College. Her dissertation, Re-Animating Chingonisma: Creating Indigenous Elsewheres Through Liberatory Praxis, re-animates Chingonisma as a Body of Knowledge grounded in ceremony, memory, and ancestral resilience. Guided by the Mexica cosmology of the Nahui Ollin, the Nopal Phases, and the Table of Power, her research confronts the violence of the Ivory Tower that represents the systems of colonialism and enacts relational accountability, spirit restoration, and cultural sovereignty.. As founder of The Elsewheres, she cultivates intentionally exclusive micro-spaces for transformative education rooted in decolonial praxis, Indigenous futurities, and community-centered healing. Her work integrates anti- and decolonial, queer, and feminist of-color methodologies, creating culturally responsible learning environments that emphasize liberation, resilience, and sustainability. Her published contributions include Re-Animating Chingonisma: Creating Indigenous Elsewheres Through Liberatory Praxis (2025), U.S. Parks and Protected Area Power Structures: From Historic Policies to Indigenous Futurities (Earth Stewardship, 2025), and Reimagining U.S. Federal Land Management Through Decolonization and Indigenous Value Systems (Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 2022).
Taylor Spaziani
Taylor Spaziani, LMFT, LPC, CSE (she/her) is a collaborator and Operations Coordinator at EDST. She is a Denver-based therapist that specializes in relationships and sexuality. She is also an AASECT-certified sexuality educator. Her work is rooted in the belief that pleasure is healing — that when we release sexual shame and reconnect with our authentic desires, we open the door to deeper joy, intimacy, development, and connection. Her interest in the field was sparked through curiosity and compassion — a fascination with what happens when we stop performing and start truly feeling, and through wonders as to why something that is such a core part of our humanity, often gets silenced & shamed. Taylor has experience facilitating courses on human sexuality and creating and organizing course curriculum for sexuality certification courses, which is what led her to contributing to the mission at EDST!