Meet Jennifer Sarrett | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consultant; Founder & Director of Disruptive Inclusion

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Sarrett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
As a professor at Emory University whose work focused on inequities in health and society, I became an often called upon resource to provide on-campus trainings related to equity and inclusion. I found this work to be incredibly rewarding; it was all the great things I loved about teaching without the grading! To further explore my interest in this area, I started doing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work with Jennifer Brown Consulting while still as Emory. I felt like I was having the deep and direct impact on the community that I felt somewhat missing in my academic work.

As I became more familiar with the industry, I recognized I have a unique perspective to provide. I had been teaching the foundational concepts of DEI for years, without really realizing it and had developed the ability to ensure learners fully understood the intellectually and emotionally difficult concepts of inequity and injustice. Further, as a long time disability scholar and advocate I frequently rely on Universal Design, an approach to making places as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, without introducing barriers to anyone. I found—and continue to find—this a really useful framework for sustainable, impactful, proactive DEI and so developed an approach called Universal Design for Equity. This approach is comprehensive, proactive, and addresses intersectionality, all areas in which other approaches struggle.

Additionally, I have expertise in disability related inclusion and work with people with conviction histories, two communities who are increasingly relevant and discuss in DEI work. Finally, as a social scientist, I know how to use research skills to accurately assess organizations to determine their DEI needs. When I recognized I had the skills and the love of this work, I wanted to do it more full time. And so I created Disruptive Inclusion, where I can use my skills, expertise, and passion to drive the work and help organizations where ever they are in their DEI journey.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Like most people, my career trajectory has had many twists and turns. At UGA I studied psychology and first started working with autistic people (note: I use identity first language as it is preferred by autistic self-advocates). When I didn’t get into any clinical psychology graduate programs, I shifted and got my Masters in Special Education with a focus on autism from Vanderbilt University.

During that program, I was fortunate to participate in a program bringing European and American universities together for classes on special education. I traveled to Porto, Portugal for one of these classes and got lucky again when I was one of 2 students chosen to shadow a teacher on a home visit in a Romani camp. There were very few adults and the teaching session was done outside with many other children watching and getting involved. This was very different from the rigorous, data driven approach I was being taught back home and I started thinking about the way culture influences experiences of autism.

After traveling to places like New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Peru, and Ecuador—connecting with special education and autism organizations along the way—my interest in culture and autism grew. I took this passion to the Interdisciplinary Studies PhD program at Emory University. I studied medical anthropology, public health, bioethics, disability studies, history of medicine and more to prepare me to successfully complete a dissertation that compared parental and professional experiences of autism in metro Atlanta, GA USA and Kerala, India.

I graduated and stayed on at Emory as a faculty member in the Center for the Study of Human Health, where I developed and taught courses on equity and justice in health and my research shifted to studying intellectual and developmental disabilities in the criminal justice system. Wanting a more direct community impact, I shifted again to doing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting full time where I use my expertise in the concepts of inequities and research skills to help organizations start or improve their DEI practice.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love good food and so exploring our great food is a priority! I would definitely take my friend to explore the food on Buford Highway! I have some favorites—Yummy Spicy, Purnima, Lan Zhou, and El Rey Del Taco. Outside of Buford Highway, I would want to take them to Arepa Mia, Nina & Rafi, Chai Pani, and, of course, Waffle House. In terms of activities, a trip to that National Center for Civil and Human Rights is at the top of the list. I would also take them to the Beltline, east or westside, the Botanical Gardens, and at least one of our awesome in town hikes, like East Palisades or Sweetwater. Finally, I would want to check out some local music as one of my favorite venues—Star Bar, The Earl, 529, Variety Playhouse, The Basement, or Northside Tavern. Of course, I would try to introduce my friend to all of the amazing people I love here in Atlanta, family and friends. It would be a busy, but amazing, week!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have been deeply impacted by the work of philosopher George Yancy. Dr. Yancy is a professor at Emory and one of a very few black philosophers in the field. His work focuses on whiteness, racial embodiment, and African American philosophy. He has accumulated a host of accolades for his work as well as backlash and death threats. I was fortunate to see him speak at Emory twice and one concept he spoke on became central to my desire to use my privilege to increase equity for all. He noted that if you are white (which I am), you are racist. There are a range of ways this is true—from being conditioned to have racist ideas and assumptions through implicit and explicit cultural messaging to benefiting from racists policies and practices that are deeply embedded throughout our society. He noted that, as a man, he is inherently sexist for the same reasons. Thus, he notes, the best white people can be is an anti-racist racist.

I found this message equally shocking and inspirational. I realized that if those in the majority—where it be racial, class, ability, gender, sexuality or other forms of being in the majority—are so because other people have been discriminated against. Recognizing this is the best way to counteract inequities in your life. In other words, before I can become an advocate for racial justice and equity, I have to recognize my internal racism. I can then assert myself as an anti-racist racists in order to make real honest change in myself and my community.

I also admire Dr. Yancy for his bravery in the face of negative attention and multiple death threats. He talks of this often and his vulnerability in how these reactions impact him yet his dedication to keep up with the work is a great reminder that unpopular perspectives must persist and that resistance is often an indicator of areas of growth.

Website: https://www.disruptiveinclusion.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disruptiveinclusion/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/disruptive-inclusion/

Other: My personal website is https://www.jennifersarrett.com

Image Credits
I can’t find the photographers name but the picture of my talking in a white sweater was from this article: https://news.emory.edu/stories/2020/05/er_human_health_sarrett_covid_19/campus.html