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Kadijah Means
Kadijah Means is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategist serving on the Board for Nonviolent Communication Santa Cruz. She integrates the principles of nonviolent communication and harm reduction into anti-oppression education. Kadijah has guided organizations in the private and public sectors into deep introspection around topics of identity and how they shape our daily interactions and organizational outcomes. With careful attention to the universal needs that drive our undesired behaviors, Kadijah facilitates challenging conversations about gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability without relying on guilt, coercion, or even praise.
Before launching her independent consultancy, she spent many years as a Grassroots Community Organizer in the Bay Area. Majoring in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), she immersed herself in the theoretical intricacies of race and gender. Her dedication to improving the material well-being of marginalized people globally, her experiences in activism & organizing, and her commitment to political education motivated her transition into Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work.
Through her work, she invites us, "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing," into a space the poet Rumi imagined could transform conflict into connection. Kadijah adopts a holistic approach to professional development by fusing empathetic introspection and critical theory.
She is featured on various podcasts, most notably NPR's This American Life, where she discussed racial identity development in children. For more information on fostering community, nonviolent communication, and anti-racism philosophy, read her chapter, "How To Address Racism In Schools," in Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom (2019) or watch her introduction to NVC series on Tik Tok.
“Kadijah devises energizing skill-building workshops by employing innovative pedagogical methods.”
During these sessions, she uses a firm and empathetic approach to navigate the implications of intolerance for all stakeholders. She contextualizes unmet needs, encourages people to respond rather than react, and increases safety by clarifying boundaries and expectations in the workplace. Her work is grounded in compassionate interventions that resolve harm without diminishing the impact on the communities involved.
For more information on fostering community, nonviolent communication, and anti-racism philosophy, read her chapter in Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom (2019).
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