National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

Rajni Shankar-Brown, MA, M-MA, MBA, PhD
Educator, Author, Human and Civil Rights Activist

Dr. Shankar-Brown is a leading expert on transformative systems change and sustainable educational practices to advance justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, and a lifelong champion for ending and preventing poverty and homelessness. She is an award-winning professor and the JBD distinguished chair of social justice education at Stetson University. She serves as a strategic partner of the United Nations, the Equity Co-Lead for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a lead steering member of the National Environmental Justice Institute, and the Past President of the National Coalition for the Homeless Board, making history as the first woman of color to hold this position and to be elected for two consecutive terms. She founded a mentoring and arts program for youth experiencing homelessness, and the annual Ending Poverty and Homelessness Conference, a collaborative grassroots movement centering equity and youth with lived experience.

Dr. Shankar-Brown is also a published author of leading education articles and books, a racial and intersectional equity coach, a community organizer, a cultural strategist, a dancing poet and accomplished artist. Her poet stage name is “Rising Lotus” and she is ranked internationally in spoken word poetry. She is also a devoted Amma (Mom) who loves masala chai and sunflowers!