facilitator. illuminator. dreamer. anti-racism practitioner.
process designer and guide.
Jen is an Atlanta-based mama, sewist, and leader. She is recognized in Atlanta and across the U.S. as one of the most highly skilled white anti-racist facilitators of our time. People know Jen as open, warm, strategic, reliable, and unwavering in her commitment to living with integrity and in community to build a future beyond white supremacy.
Jen has been an anti-racism practitioner since 2003, when she began her personal journey to unlearn racism as a young activist. For more than a decade, she has guided groups across the U.S. to strengthen the impact of their social justice work--as a facilitator, trainer, consultant, coach, and organizer. Jen studied the art of group process facilitation with elders at the Interaction Institute for Social Change and VISIONS, Inc. before launching her independent consulting practice in 2018.
Jen’s approach to anti-racism and transforming whiteness is guided by these core commitments. To:
Jen supports individuals and groups to UPROOT denial, fear, harmful habits while CULTIVATING truth-telling, wholeness, and trust.
Jen is currently helping to launch two visionary and innovative racial justice projects:
Jen was a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change 2008-2018, where she co-led equity and inclusion consultations in fields including HIV/AIDS, juvenile justice, philanthropy, and public health. At IISC Jen led organizational transformation efforts, developed curriculum, and trained hundreds of social justice leaders in the arts of collaboration, facilitation and social change. Jen was a member of the Board of Directors at Resource Generation (a group that organizes young people with wealth and class privilege towards equitable distribution of land, wealth and power) 2009-2017. After the murder of Michael Brown by a white police officer in 2014, Jen worked with other folks in the RG community to launch and lead the It Starts Today campaign, organizing $1.4 million in funding to more than 100 Black-led groups "organizing for Black liberation" across the U.S. Jen's certifications include being a licensed trainer with IISC, Transforming White Privilege: A 21st Century Leadership Capacity, and VISIONS Inc.
Jen most often works in partnership with Black-women led consulting and facilitation firms, including:
Jen holds a B.A. in religion and anthropology from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University. Jen is also a parent of a toddler, a lover of ancient trees and oceans, a textile crafter, an (out of practice) accordion player, an enthusiastic transplant to the South, and a cook.
Jen has been an anti-racism practitioner since 2003, when she began her personal journey to unlearn racism as a young activist. For more than a decade, she has guided groups across the U.S. to strengthen the impact of their social justice work--as a facilitator, trainer, consultant, coach, and organizer. Jen studied the art of group process facilitation with elders at the Interaction Institute for Social Change and VISIONS, Inc. before launching her independent consulting practice in 2018.
Jen’s approach to anti-racism and transforming whiteness is guided by these core commitments. To:
- Nourish long-term, three-dimensional relationships with Black, Indigenous and People of Color as well as white accomplices
- Root in context by being place-specific and history-informed
- Remember that all forms of oppression and liberation are interconnected
- Keep race at the forefront, and understand that racism is at its heart about power and resource-hoarding
- Honor that there is always more to learn and room to grow
- Navigate tension and conflict as a generative force
Jen supports individuals and groups to UPROOT denial, fear, harmful habits while CULTIVATING truth-telling, wholeness, and trust.
Jen is currently helping to launch two visionary and innovative racial justice projects:
- THE BLACK MECCA PROJECT is a call to all Atlantans who share a deep love of freedom, Atlanta, the South, and all Black people. We envision Atlanta as a fully-realized Black mecca, free of anti-black racism, gender oppression, and classism. TBmP is collectively led by the Meccanizers team (Mattice Haynes, Dionne Hills, Jalessah Jackson, Crystal Monds, Neith Sankofa, and Jen Willsea). Jen’s role in this project is as a white accomplice to the freedom and self-determination of Black women and gender oppressed people. Find out more about TBmP here.
- DECOLONIZE RACE exists to transform the way accountability about racism and other issues of privilege and power is exercised in social movement spaces, so that the starting point for all individuals and groups to heal racism is wholeness, resilience and personal responsibility instead of a battle filled with rupture and struggles of domination. DR envisions a world where people of color no longer have to defend their humanity and where white folks have healed from fear and rage. In this new world, instead of working hard fueling the separation between people, all of human potential is now free to co-create new neighborhoods and communities that are connected and rooted in empathy and love. DR is collectively led by a team of Birth Partners (Sarah Curtiss, Weyam Ghadbian, Tammy Johnson, sujin lee, Ana Perez, and Jen Willsea) and Claudia Leon. Jen’s role in this project is to support white, European-descended movement leaders to engage in decolonizing race.
Jen was a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change 2008-2018, where she co-led equity and inclusion consultations in fields including HIV/AIDS, juvenile justice, philanthropy, and public health. At IISC Jen led organizational transformation efforts, developed curriculum, and trained hundreds of social justice leaders in the arts of collaboration, facilitation and social change. Jen was a member of the Board of Directors at Resource Generation (a group that organizes young people with wealth and class privilege towards equitable distribution of land, wealth and power) 2009-2017. After the murder of Michael Brown by a white police officer in 2014, Jen worked with other folks in the RG community to launch and lead the It Starts Today campaign, organizing $1.4 million in funding to more than 100 Black-led groups "organizing for Black liberation" across the U.S. Jen's certifications include being a licensed trainer with IISC, Transforming White Privilege: A 21st Century Leadership Capacity, and VISIONS Inc.
Jen most often works in partnership with Black-women led consulting and facilitation firms, including:
- Community Build Ventures
- Interaction Institute for Social Change
- The Art of Community
- VISIONS, Inc.
- Weekes In Advance Enterprises
Jen holds a B.A. in religion and anthropology from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University. Jen is also a parent of a toddler, a lover of ancient trees and oceans, a textile crafter, an (out of practice) accordion player, an enthusiastic transplant to the South, and a cook.
Photo above by Crystal Monds
