ELISE

Elise (Ellie) Jayakar, MSW, Co-Founder
elise@uprootnyc.org

Elise is a facilitator, strategist, consultant, and organizer working towards creating the anti-oppressive world we all wish to live and thrive in! She is skilled at supporting organizations and individuals in their growth toward liberation through a lens of identity-affirming empowerment. In her work, she centers healing from -isms, through popular education facilitation, intergroup dialogue practices, community organizing principles, restorative practices, and social justice mediation.

For 7+ years, she has transformed organizations such as institutions of higher learning, schools, nonprofits, and health and wellness organizations through workshopping, holding space, strategizing, and curriculum development. Her work is often focused on social justice, anti-racism, social identities and identity development, and unlearning -isms.

EXPERIENCE & TRAINING

Elise is a formally trained inter-group and intra-group dialogue facilitator from the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan. She also holds a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, where she focused on Contemporary Social Issues and Advanced Clinical Practice. Prior to that, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, where she also completed a minor degree in Community Action and Social Change.

She is certified in Social Justice Mediation through the Social Justice Mediation Institute, completed training on restorative practices and conferences through the International Institute for Restorative Practices, and is dedicated to lifelong learning as a facilitator and someone invested in the work.

Her education supported her growth in developing a sharp lens to creating anti-racist shifts for individuals, groups, and institutional-wide change. She honors and appreciates all those, especially those with multiple oppressed identities, who have challenged, taught, and supported her in becoming the facilitator and person she is today.

ORGANIZATIONS ELISE HAS WORKED WITH