Swivel Skills (2021-Present)

We are entering into a values-based, circular and green economy. Companies that upskill their employees with the tools of transformation will be at the forefront of adapting to the changing business landscape, but there is a significant sustainability skills gap in most workforces. Swivel Skills is the capacity-building educational platform equipping the global workforce with actionable sustainability skills for this changing business landscape.

Leyla created the Swivel Skills Platform to help organizations pivot to the circular economy through rapid sustainability skills development, helping to connect the dots for companies and employees through our delightful online training platform.

A NYC-based creative agency designed to activate, support and experiment with ways in which design can be used as a catalyst for positive social change, Disrupt Design (DD) takes selective commissions, enacts collaborations and initiates creative propositions around critical areas from education to love, gender and power. 

At the forefront of cognitive experience design, Disrupt Design is all about pushing the boundaries of change-making, finding unique and positive protagonist ways of activating change, and making sustainability a normalized concept on the path to regenerative systems design. 

DD creates toolkits that transfer knowledge and action to creative professionals wanting to participate with more purpose. Toolkits come in varied forms and embed within them a deep substance-based knowledge set that presents itself as a fun and engaging set of tools for activating change. DD uses the Disruptive Design Method and explores new ways of making change by design. 

Founded in 2014, the experimental knowledge lab was intended as a provocation exploration of how knowledge can be transferred rapidly in experiential ways, and it has quickly grown to a global initiative with over 20,000 online students from 40+ countries. The UnSchool is for professionals and emerging leaders wanting to up-skill in sustainability, social innovation and creative problem solving, as well as develop their own careers in purpose-driven practices. 

The UnSchool teaches the Disruptive Design Methodology and Method Set and creates unique knowledge transfer experiences that pop up around the world. Winner of a CORE77 Design Education Award, The UnSchool ran ten fellowships in nine countries between 2014-2019. In 2017 it began offering certification tracks that allow for certified UnSchool educators to teach core content in communities around the world. 

Website: unschools.co | Online classes: online.unschools.co 

In 2017, Leyla took on an ambitious project to restore and regenerate an abandoned farm and olive mill in the wine country of Central Portugal. Inspired by cultural destinations that can curate spaces for change, she started this initiative as a living learning lab for UnSchool Programs and a Brain Spa for burnt-out creatives needing space and a place to regenerate and re-calibrate their change-making endeavors. CO stands for Creative Optimism, and from May 2018, the farm started receiving workshop participants and creative residents from around the world until, due to COVID-19, the project was suspended indefinitely in March 2020. It’s since been transferred to new custodians and is closed to the public.

The CO Project ran a variety of outreach and engagement projects such as single and multi-day learning experiences that offered compelling immersive experiences into rural regeneration and sustainable lifestyles, all with a Portuguese flavor. In keeping with the social enterprise model, the last Sunday of every month offered a by-donation community open day, which each year saw over 500 people visit the rural part of Portugal to learn more.