Our Story
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“My experience in the mountains was that people really care about their communities in an up close and personal way. And they were having conversations about race and gender identity and class differently than I’d experienced in most places. They aren’t always getting it right, but they are having hard conversations. That’s where change starts.” – Danaé Aicher
Our Story
BZora, Inc. is a civic education and engagement nonprofit committed to expanding access to equity education and immersive civic experiences. We were founded on a simple belief: the tools of understanding, dialogue, and civic engagement shouldn’t be locked behind corporate budgets or academic gatekeeping. Every community deserves the chance to learn its history, practice honest conversation, and build the skills to participate more fully in civic life.
BZora grew out of years of on-the-ground equity and inclusion work — facilitating conversations, leading trainings, and walking communities through the history and practice of justice work. What started as workshops for organizations became a broader mission: bring that same depth of learning directly to individuals and communities, not just institutions that can afford to hire consultants.
Our Mission
BZora exists to make civic and equity education accessible — not as a privilege reserved for organizations with budgets for consultants and corporate trainings, but as a shared civic practice open to individuals, families, and communities. We build immersive, honest, and hopeful experiences that help people become more informed, engaged, and equitable participants in civic and community life. And we hold space for community conversations — brave, safe rooms guided by well-trained facilitators — where the real work of understanding each other actually happens.
BZora also was inspired by the great American Writer, Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
BZora takes inspiration from Zora Neale Hurston — a writer, anthropologist, and truth-teller whose work continues to shape how we understand community, culture, and the American story. Hurston was committed to telling the stories of everyday people — their language, their lives, their communities — at a time when much of American literature looked past them. That same commitment sits at the center of BZora’s mission: civic and equity education isn’t just for institutions that can afford it, it belongs to regular people and their communities.
“You Don’t Know Us Negroes” adds immeasurably to our understanding of Hurston, who was a tireless crusader in all her writing, and ahead of her time. – New York Times Book Review
Founder & Executive Director
Danaé Jones Aicher is the Founder and Executive Director of BZora, Inc. and the founder of CultureValue, LLC, an equity and inclusion consulting, speaking, and strategy firm. Her background spans more than 20 years across political journalism, messaging strategy, and public relations before she moved into full-time equity and inclusion consulting and facilitation. That history — telling stories, shaping messages, and organizing people around a cause — shapes how BZora approaches its work: rooted in truth-telling, courageous dialogue, and civic practice.
Danaé currently serves as BZora’s volunteer Executive Director. CultureValue, LLC contracts with BZora to provide facilitation services under a board-approved agreement, allowing BZora’s programs to be delivered by an experienced practitioner while keeping program ownership and mission squarely with the nonprofit. As BZora grows, the long-term plan is to hire a paid Executive Director and transition Danaé into a Founder Emerita role on the board.
How We Work
BZora operates through a network model we call equity collaboration — bringing together independent consultants, facilitators, and community partners around each program, rather than building a large in-house staff. This keeps our programs rooted in real community relationships and lets us bring in the right expertise for each experience, whether that’s a historian for The Justice Journey or a local partner organization for a Community Conversation.
BZora
Main: (828) 407.0464
PO Box 620307
Oviedo, FL 32762-0307
Header image credit: Photo by Miles Peacock on Unsplash
