“When I was in elementary school, my mother sat me and my older sister down to watch the miniseries adaptation of Alex Haley’s ‘ROOTS’. Thus began the learning that would change me forever; facing and understanding America’s racial karma and my place within it. By high school, I was organizing against racism, housing discrimination, homophobia, sexism, and war, but I lacked models in my life of how to connect these struggles and live in the intersections. I moved to Washington, DC to attend school with the hope that I would find these models. I found them, or, they found me, and so much more. ”

Em Morrison (she/her) is an activist, educator, and consultant who left a political career to dedicate herself to the well-being of individuals involved in the beautiful and necessary work of social change. She brings an anti-oppression lens to all of her work, whether it is conflict transformation, organizational development and culture change, anti-racist consciousness-raising, or trauma-informed mindfulness teaching.

Em’s roles can take many forms, from facilitating a weekend mindfulness retreat to consulting with organizations to uproot dominant culture systems thinking that dehumanizes workers and communities. In Em’s consulting with nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, she works to translate the greatest aspirations of our social movements into real change for staff and the wider institutional ecosystem. Em prioritizes working partnerships with BIPOC consultants and leaders. Her own personal work on anti-racism has been a life journey, a heartbreak, and a source of great freedom. She continually seeks out experiences and material that challenge her to deepen her alignment with a liberatory love ethic. Youth work was Em’s first love, and she is grateful to have worked with various local and national youth organizations to develop and deliver engaging curriculums that embed a consciousness of equity and plant seeds for liberation across generations.

Em has been in recovery from substance abuse for over a decade, an achievement of individual freedom that she believes was made possible by a collective community of care. Her journey continually inspires her to seek-out and develop impactful approaches to community healing and transformative justice.