Board Members
Isaac Koren (Co-Founder)
Thorald Koren (Co-Founder)
Cynthia James
Cynthia James is an Emotional Integration Leadership coach guiding people as they make changes for lasting healing in their lives. She is a speaker, performing artist, and multiple award-winning author of “I Choose Me: The Art of Being A Phenomenally Successful Woman at Home and at Work” (3 times a #1 Bestseller on Amazon), “What Will Set You Free?”, “Revealing Your Extraordinary Essence”, and latest book “Does My Voice Matter? A Journey of Self-Discovery, Authenticity and Empowerment”. Cynthia has coached and supported thousands of people worldwide into vibrant living. Her program, Advanced Awareness and Clarity Coaching, offers depth, focus and results for high-level business leaders.
Internationally, Cynthia creates and facilitates Inward Journey pilgrimage retreats. She has completed a Masters Degree in Consciousness Studies from Holmes Institute and Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. She created and hosts a weekly podcast, “Women Awakening” on all podcast channels. Cynthia is personally committed to utilizing creative expression as a vital and effective healing modality that will assist everyone in their own personal and professional growth.
Charonda Johnson
Charonda Johnson started her career as an airman in the US Air Force. Charonda served on three deployments, two in support of combat missions in Iraq. In March 2003, she provided direct intelligence support to F-117 stealth fighter pilots helping launch the first combat missions at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
After leaving the military in 2007, Charonda worked for President Biden (when he was a US Senator) and his successor Senator Kaufman. Next, she worked taking care of families of America’s fallen military as a Survivor Outreach Coordinator, and obtained her bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management from Wilmington University. Charonda learned a lot about grief, trauma, death and how to support families who experienced the worst imaginable losses in this position. In 2020, Charonda’s father died of covid as a result of leading worship in church conferences which thrust her into advocacy on a national level. This led to her serving as the Strategic Partnerships Manager for Covid Survivors for Change.
In partnership with the state of Delaware, her advocacy work helped launch the first permanent covid memorial in the state of Delaware and led to the passage of Senate Bill 1, the Healthy Delaware Families Act. A bill that ensures that many Delaware workers will have access to up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to care for themselves or a family member with a serious illness, to bond with a new child, or for a family member’s military deployment. She has contributed to many covid memorials to include singing on the National Mall as a part of the In America: Remember Memorial in 2021 on what would have been her father’s 65th birthday. All of this work led to her serving on the Delaware Psychological Association’s American Rescue Plan Act Grant as a Mental Health Advisory Board Member.
Charonda is also a songwriter and international speaker who has spoken and sung in Tokyo, Japan and Geneva, Switzerland. During the Covid pandemic, she was invited to share her inspirational story of advocacy and perseverance with women of African descent from all over the globe.
In her spare time she enjoys singing, songwriting, speaking, and spending time with her husband and son.
Sybille Heyms
I am a guide, a visionary, an intuitive, an author, a singer-songwriter, an entrepreneur.
As a lawyer and a business development, marketing- CSR- and quality manager, I learned a lot about our corporate world, about current energies and structures.
As an attorney for intellectual property and trademarks in Germany, I kept myself close to art and artists.
A cornucopia of education in filmmaking, directing, storytelling/scriptwriting, actor-directing, camera, light and film production fueled my ideas and visions of creative projects to come. The love for stories and animals led to a couple of experiences in different movie productions and taught me how to integrate creativity and animals playfully into self-development-training programs.
Being a horse-assisted, integral guide for self-awareness and development showed me how beautifully life unfolds when we are present in the moment, self-aware, self-reliant, empowered and fully embodied. This helped me to find deeper parts of myself, my vocation and my vision for a new world.
Meeting the Brothers Koren and experiencing the healing space that can be created through my own voice, changed my perception forever. Being led into my own creative process, creating songs from deep within and allowing healing of trauma to occur, showed me the importance of claiming my own unique voice.
As a board member of the YBV foundation I am a proud part of an amazing vision to empower others to lean into their voice & creativity for mental and emotional wellbeing. I deeply believe that’s what the world needs right now – a voice positive and loving space to allow healing and balance to enable growth beyond our limitations into self empowerment.
Nils Koren
I am fortunate to, from an early age, have an understanding that, to feel good on the inside, by knowing my inner self, I can live my life consciously, feel gratitude, and have the clarity to navigate through this amazing life.
I am retired and for the final 11 years of my career, I was Managing Director of a large building materials wholesale distribution company in Australian and New Zealand, where supply chain and wholesale distribution expertise, exploring and understanding the changing connectivity of supply and customer base, were necessary skills.
I was also Chairman of ATIF (Australian Timber Industry Federation) where I made representations to the government of the day on behalf of the Australian industry. I have a Bachelor of Mining Engineering from Melbourne University. I have been a board member of Chebmont Pty Ltd, a family investment company, since 1989. I am married to Shelley Maine, a lawyer, and I love to travel, ski, and be walked by my Australian cattle dog.
Nicole Mason
Nicole B. Mason is a lawyer, performance coach, author, entrepreneur, former tech executive and singer-songwriter.
While in college during the early 1990s, Nicole worked for Governor Mario Cuomo as a researcher and speech writer, advocated for the environment in a variety of ways including establishing the recycling program at SUNY Albany, and followed her lifelong passion for music by working at a record store. Nicole also hosted a live radio show during college- podcast style, long before there were podcasts. After obtaining degrees in Psychology and Political Science, she went on to law school at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she focused her legal studies on intellectual property law. All of that prepared her well for a 25+ year career in corporate law, working internationally for tech companies based in Silicon Valley and New York City.
During her corporate career, Nicole built and led multidisciplinary teams and worked with a variety of government agencies at all levels of government throughout the US as well as Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. She became known for forging relationships with municipalities and other government and quasi-government organizations in order to make available cutting edge technology solutions to the public. She is also known for her motivational work focused on team performance in remote and hybrid workplaces, empathetic leadership and employee engagement, as she has written published books and articles on those topics and spoken at conferences.
Nicole is also a mom to a young athlete and student, and loves to share her passion for fitness and exploration (of the inner and outer worlds) with people called to attend her classes and retreats. She is a ski instructor, qigong and yoga instructor and global citizen who brings high energy to everything she does. She is a strong believer in the YBV work and its transformative effects on people’s lives and wellbeing.