Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Hyphens and Spaces was very attuned to our needs throughout our entire engagement. They are deep listeners with thought-provoking questions and challenging insights about power and the ways we relate to each other. We appreciate how quickly they dove into our team's dynamics. They always kept our team's diversity of geography and culture in the heart of the discussion. Through these workshops, our team developed a deeper understanding of the biases underlying individual perspectives and also practiced tools to help shift our thinking and relate more constructively.

I highly recommend Hyphens and Spaces for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) consulting for your organization. In my role, they have worked directly with me, my staff, and our board to help implement our racial justice initiatives. Having worked with several JEDI consultants throughout my career, what makes Hyphens and Spaces exceptional is their adaptability. Unlike many consultants who rigidly stick to their predetermined methods even when they're not working, Hyphens and Spaces takes a different approach. They excel at analyzing both immediate challenges and deeper systemic issues, creating solutions that effectively address both. Their strength lies in their responsiveness - continuously adjusting their approach based on real-time feedback and observations. Rather than forcing organizations to fit their methodology, they adapt their services to meet each client's unique needs.

Samira (Co-Founder of Hyphens and Spaces) is a talented facilitator who has successfully led difficult conversations for diverse groups of people at the Islamic Center at NYU. For over 5 years, Samira has led multiple workshop series allowing people to access their spiritual selves as they explore topics on power and privilege, mindfulness, purpose and values, and much more. In her work, Samira compassionately guides individuals through the process of examining their own perspectives in order to build empathy, understanding, and allyship while being unafraid to gently push individuals outside of their own views.

I had the pleasure of working with Samira (Co-Founder of Hyphens and Spaces) when our organization engaged Samira to lead our team (consultants in the field of higher education) in a series of DEI workshops. She created a safe space in which we were able to open up and share with them and our colleagues. As a result of our work with her, we were able to identify our policies and processes that needed to be changed and took steps to create action plans to reinforce our lessons learned. She was very thoughtful, caring, and knowledgeable and approaches her work with a high degree of emotional intelligence.