Who We Are

Every day FLOX works to put community back in design. Using facilitation, FLOX engages social impact leaders to collaboratively design their community and member engagement models, plan for the future, and develop stronger leadership teams. Rooted in black feminist theory, Afrofuturism, and social justice. FLOX is on a mission to re-weave communities one conversation at at time.

Our name is at the root of who we are

FLOX is named after a scientific process called FLOXing - it refers to the moment and process when a new DNA sequence sandwiches a gene, changing it, interrupting it. Making it new. We are FLOXing in the world of design, management and social justice - inserting new ways of being and doing within systems.

Founding Story

Found in 2019 FLOX Studio began as a dinner party design lab that invited non-profit professionals, advocates, activists and designers to engage in generative excercises that addressed some of the pressing needs in New York City. From 2020 forward, FLOX has engaged 20 different organizations, conducted over 1500 hours of in-person and virtual faciltiations, and helped organizations both in the midst of and on the precipice of change and transition. Rooted in Black feminist theory, FLOX supports organizations and formations as they navigate change and reweave their community, one conversation at a time. To us, consulting means building the ability and strength of organizations and the communities that they serve to learn together, grow together, and lead together more effectively.

Who Is Sloan Leo

Sloan Leo Cowan (they/he) is a community designer, facilitator, educator and artist. They are a leading thinker in community design, or facilitation design—the art of helping people work better together.

To Cowan, design is a way of orienting toward leading change, and he creates strategies and practices to find shared language and frameworks that allow organizations to be more intentional about community design, strategy, and engagement. To that end, he founded FLOX Studio Inc, a community design and strategy studio that supports mission-driven organizations to answer the question, “How will we move forward together?”, where he serves as CEO & Lead Facilitator.

A proud graduate of the University at Albany, Cowan has over 15 years of experience facilitating and managing social impact staff & volunteer teams. In their early career as a relationship management strategist in the nonprofit sector, they raised $20M for a wide range of organizations advancing LGBTQI human rights globally, supporting formerly incarcerated individuals, and housing youth. They later served as the Director of Board Relations for the Environmental Defense Fund and the Chief of Staff for the Trust for Public Land, where they facilitated the development of the 2020–2025 strategic plan “The Power of Land For People.”