Last week, I dove deep into the support system that is my academic home (SPSSI). If you are a social justice academic in need of such a home, check out SPSSI, but I promise this newsletter is not meant to be a marketing ploy for the society!



This particular conference was full of SJAs conducting research on everything from white collective narcissism to sex trafficking to challenging ableism to omission bias against indigenous people. I was surrounded by my people. And they are not alright. 

We are beyond our limits

For the past 3-4 years, my work has revolved around offering group programs, hosting retreats, and coaching SJAs ready to reimagine their lives, labor, careers, health, and next adventures. Listening to so many stories of burnout, desperation, depression, anxiety, and "I need to get the hell out" made it clear we have an academic epidemic on our hands. Those of us focused on social justice while working in higher ed are now beyond-beyond-beyond our limits. We endured pressure to do more with less, take on more students, teach more courses, get more grants, publish 50 papers to get tenure, and serve on every committee, all while spending your evenings and weekends supporting marginalized students. As SJAs share their stories with me, the same dysfunctional patterns emerge over and over.

Thanks to my amazing friends and colleagues, Dionne Stephens, Asia Eaton, Desdamona Rios, and Jamie Franco-Zamudio, we hosted a symposium (all talk summaries here) on how we each began to unlearn the harmful academic myths that kept us locked into miserable circumstances. Our talks touched on leaving a tenured position, taking leave to free the mind, exploring non-profit careers, creating a justice-focused doctoral program, and starting a business to support SJAs. We shared our fears related to making big changes, how other people pushed us to conform and stay small, and the rewards that came with creating our own authentic ways to live and work.



The response was overwhelming. One attendee got choked up as she thanked us for the session, and shared that she felt less alone knowing what we went through. Over the next 2 days of the conference, countless conversations with my colleagues confirmed the following:



The SJA kids are not alright. 

We cannot go on pretending this is working. 

Curating YOUR creative career

Are you ready to take the leap? Let's frame that in a less scary way. Are you ready to at least begin to explore the idea of what YOU want? Can you at the very least give yourself the psychological benefit of questioning your own academic socialization? Sure, some of that socialization has served you well and will continue to serve your goals. But unless you question the beliefs and emotions driving your career, you may always be motivated by myths that no longer serve your life, happiness, and justice legacy. In fact, we need to start with questioning your goals to make sure they really are what you want versus what the academia has told you you should want.



What if you could reignite your soul's work? What if you could spend more time on what you love and leave much of the rest? 



You can. That's why I am here in your inbox.

Your career journey: over the next 6 months

As nervous as it makes me to do so, I am committing to you all - right here and now - to create a path for you to do this essential questioning, reimagining, and deprogramming of harmful academic messages that keep you trapped. There are 6 steps in the creative career process that I developed over the past 3 years. Here's the plan.



What to expect July - December 2023

Each month, I will create and release one of the 6 steps so that anyone who wants to take back their power and agency can start the journey. That means each month will bring you a new course full of content, reflective exercises to unlock what you want out of life and career (these cannot be separated). 



We had a blast in the 6-month group coaching program I offered, but only so many people have access to funds for something that time-intensive. Moving the program to these affordable courses will allow many more SJAs to go through the process!!



July course - Reignite Your Soul's Work

Currently, I am working hard to get the first course ready for you all. To get started, we have to question what we want, what we think we want, the source of our goals, and if those goals are really the goals that will move us into a career path free of outside influence. For the first step in the process, I will walk you through how to get back in touch with what light's your soul on fire, identify and critically question career goals, and consider your unexplored options and possible pathways.



Get ready! The Choose Your Own Adventure process has led to major positive changes in the lives of participants. And I want that same change for you.