CREATIVE KUPONYA

Our Team

Breaking the Mold in Mental Health Care: Creative Kuponya builds resourced, connected, and empowered communities through intentional mental healthcare , education, and relationships.  We do things differently—freeing clients and clinicians from one-size-fits-all treatment and building a space where healing, growth, and opportunity thrive.

Jamil Stamschror-Lott, LICSW

Founder & CEO

Jamil Stamschror-Lott, LICSW is a nationally recognized public speaker, mental health therapist, and the CEO and co-founder of Creative Kuponya. As a Black man, representing less than 4% of licensed therapists in the U.S., Jamil brings both lived experience and clinical expertise to his work as a healer and facilitator. Honored as a 2024 Bush Fellow and featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Rolling Stone Magazine, and more, Jamil has offered over 250 professional speaking engagements, blending honesty, humor, and humanity to spark transformative conversations about mental health and equity.

In 2017, Jamil and his wife Sara co-founded Creative Kuponya, a practice dedicated to reshaping how people experience mental health care by providing “Room, Relief & Resource” to people that have historically been underserved. Through their theory of Transformative Community Healing Sessions, along with education & training, they’ve created accessible pathways for care that meet people where they are.

Sara Stamschror-Lott, LMFT

Founder & CCO

Sara Stamschror-Lott, MA, LMFT, alongside her husband Jamil, established Creative Kuponya in 2017, driven by personal experience with the detrimental effects of misdiagnosis. The organization provides mental health and wellness psychoeducation, Anti-Oppressive Trauma Informed consultation, Community Cultural Assessments, Transformative Community Healing Sessions, and workplace therapy, intentionally avoiding the imposition of rapid forced diagnoses and the historical shortcomings of the medical model.

Following the loss of their offices during the civil unrest subsequent to the murder of George Floyd, Creative Kuponya initiated The Kuponya Fund. This fund aims to offer no cost therapy sessions, eliminating the obstacles often associated with conventional mental healthcare. To date, it has facilitated over 6500 sessions in Minnesota.

Sara is a  Minnesota Board Approved Supervisor for both the Boards of Marriage and Family Therapy and Clinical Counseling. She has also served as a professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at Saint Mary’s University. Her clinical expertise lies in trauma care, employing EMDR, somatic therapies, and art-based approaches to facilitate physical and emotional healing. Further, she is a Minnesota State recognized neutral and works as a mediator for family and civil cases. Sara’s work has garnered her a “40 Under 40” award and recognition in publications including The New York Times, USA Today, BBC Worldwide, amongst other prominent news outlets.

Brittane T. Geleske, MA
Director of Operations & Wellness

Brittane holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration & College Student Development. She is deeply passionate about holistic care, wellness, and healing.

During the past decade, she has dedicated her career to excellence in college student development, leadership, justice, and equity. Brittane approaches any role by providing space for individuals to learn, feel understood, and receive access to necessary resources.

Brittane is excited to bring her administrative leadership, project management, and content curation expertise to Creative Kuponya in order to support organizational growth and further provide space for community healing, teaching, and mental health care without barriers.

Rebecca Dilley, MA
Therapist

Rebecca brings an eclectic mix of interests and experience to being a therapist, including working with youth and families in a variety of settings, running a business in visual arts for over a decade, and working on books about local food. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in History and Spanish and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She is also trained in EMDR, a trauma-informed mode of therapy.

Rebecca specializes in working with couples and families. As a therapist, she witnesses growth, creativity, and resilience that people bring with them. She believes that curiosity and a sense of wonder are two of the most important tools she brings as a therapist.

Nina Barnes, MA, SPHR
Coach & Spiritual Director

Nina Barnes is a coach and spiritual director with a passion for accompanying others in navigating life. Through Transforming Journey, Nina considers it a sacred privilege to help people listen for and respond to possibilities. She creates space for people to discover purpose & meaning, discern opportunities, work through challenges and conflicts, and develop as leaders. Nina is honored to help others experience and embody love, hope, redemption, and a journey of belovedness. Nina has extensive human resources experience, stemming from 30+ years of service within a variety of organizational settings.

Nina earned a Master of Arts degree in Spiritual Formation & Leadership and holds certifications in:

  • Spiritual Direction
  • Human Resources Management (SPHR-Senior Professional in Human Resources) with specialization in employee relations
  • Conflict Coaching/Mediation
  • Bias Awareness and Mitigation
  • Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Qualified Administrator
  • Enneagram Training and Coaching
  • Spiritual Leadership Transformation

Outside of work, Nina desires to make a meaningful impact as she serves as a board member of two non-profit organizations, and in her most cherished role as mother to an adult son and “daughter-in-love”, along with being “Gramma Nina” to their two beloved little girls.