Mojdeh Stoakley is an internationally recognized and award-winning writer-performer, speaker, and educator from Chicago. They have spent the last decade bridging their cognitive-behavioral public health intervention and arts education pedagogies with trauma-informed practices to design and implement interactive healing curricula for children, youth, and adults who have experienced trauma. They currently serve as Co-Executive Director for Surviving the Mic (StM), an arts and healing justice organization that centers on survivors of gender-based violence. Mojdeh has also served as Education Director for Chicago Slam Works and Chicago Poetry Center and Directed the 29th National Poetry Slam.

Mojdeh was appointed one of the first trauma-informed arts education Constellation Residents for Ingenuity Inc (2021-22) to co-learn, peer review, and design professional development programs for school teachers and teaching artists. They are also a 2023 Chicago Poet Laureate Finalist, catching the selection committee’s attention with a proposal that included a trauma-informed training initiative for English and Theater teachers. They are the winner of the 2018 Spirit of the Slam Award for addressing the inequity and wellness concerns of 600+ poets and staff during the week-long National Poetry Slam, producing the first 100% wheelchair-accessible national competition and leading the largest Wellness Initiative of any festival in the world, which included a wide breadth of free provisions for all participants accessibility & medical support liaisons, conflict resolution specialists, childcare, crisis responders, HIV/STI testing, substance recovery check-ins, 24hr sober & affinity spaces, first aid supplies, and more.