Ep. 53: SJ Janjua (they/them) and The Symbiosis of Individual and Community Liberation

This week’s guest is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging leader and practitioner, SJ Janjua (they/them). In this conversation, SJ leads us through their own personal journey and how this has led them to doing the work they are doing now to create spaces that their younger self needed.About the guest:SJ Janjua (they/them) is the founder of Empowered for Equity Consulting, where they use their passion and expertise in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging to help equip others with the tools to create inclusive spaces in schools and workplaces. SJ is a proud queer/transgender/non-binary/biracial person who uses their lived experience to guide their consulting work. They spent 5 years teaching high school level English in the US and abroad at the start of their career, and eventually left the classroom in pursuit of a master's degree. They obtained their degree in International Education and served as a classroom evaluator, curriculum developer, and a teacher trainer in the years following. During their work at a non-profit afterschool program, they began their formalized Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging work in the education space. They specialize in providing workshops, trainings, and strategic planning support to schools and organizations on creating LGBTQ+ inclusion, creating and fostering spaces for belonging, integrating restorative practices, and empowering folks to go beyond performative allyship. Learn more about SJ and their work at: www.empoweredforequity.com.Get their recently released eBook, TRANSparency: Advocating for Your Transgender Child at School.Join their email list HERE.For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescence.