Chuck Cogliandro's passion since he was a child has been music and drumming, although his soul chose a family that was less than supportive of his drumming interests. Guided by his father, Chuck earned a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan in 1986. Realizing something important was missing in his life, at age 24 Chuck took a leave from GM, bought a Honda CB900 motorcycle, and roamed the United States for four months while nurturing his decision to step into his real love- music.

Since 1992, Chuck has had a life in music, bringing people together in the shared joy of West African drumming. He learned the music and culture of West Africa from his first teacher, Brother Yusef Crowder, who also taught him to carve and skin the drums. Chuck was an original member, assistant director, and ultimately director of the Thurman Hamer Ellington UU Percussion Choir in Atlanta from 1992-2003, and has been the musical director of the Emerson Drummers since it was established in 1996. For 25 years Chuck led the Kumandi West African drum and dance conference which gathered 140 people annually to learn and celebrate at a retreat center near Asheville.

In 2003 Chuck expanded the healing he had been doing with his hands on the drum, and began studies at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, graduating and opening a healing practice in Atlanta in 2007. He attended a Family Constellations ancestral healing workshop in 2009 and received a deep understanding related to his mother’s lineage, and decided to study that method. Chuck and his wife, Kelly, trained together for three years and were certified as Family Constellations facilitators with Peter and Jamy Faust’s Constellation Approach in 2014. They serve individuals and groups in Atlanta, and Chuck has traveled to Dubai, Beirut and many U.S. locations sharing the work.

Chuck is a former national board member of Coming to the Table, an organization dedicated to healing the legacies of racism and slavery in the United States, and is a co-founder and current co-facilitator of the local Atlanta chapter of CTTT. He currently serves as a consultant to Equitable Dinners and iChange Collaborative, two DEI and social justice organizations in Atlanta. Chuck is a part of the stewards team and serves as Firekeeper for the Hero’s Journey, a men’s community that meets in the West Virginia mountains for two weeks every summer. Chuck and Kelly live in Lithonia, Georgia on the edge of Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area where they tend a beginner-level homestead tending fruit and vegetable gardens and a flock of 18 chickens.