Yabome Gilpin-Jackson

Change agent, Connector, Consultant, Global soul, Public servant, Writer/Editor

Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson (she/her/hers) is a global citizen born in Germany, raised in Sierra Leone, and educated in Canada and the U.S. and is a multi-award-winning scholar-practitioner in human & organization development and a Tedx speaker. Among other awards in Canada, UK and the United States, she has been named International African Woman of the Year by UK-based Women4AFrica, and received the prestigious Harry Jerome Professional Excellence Award given in recognition of Black-Canadian achievements as well as is a 2024 100 Accomplished Black Women honoree. She is an executive leader, consultant and educator in academia and across the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Her background and areas of expertise include Leadership, Organization Development, social change consulting, executive & Board coaching, facilitation and subject matter expertise in social change and justice work related to systemic equity, diversity and belonging. Dr Gilpin-Jackson holds a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University where she is a post-doctoral Institute for Social Innovation Fellow. In addition to being Founder and Principal at SLD consulting, she has served in Executive Leadership roles within the British Columbia Public Sector, in healthcare and a Crown corporation and is Simon Fraser University’s first Vice-President, People, Equity and Inclusion. Yabome is community-engaged and has served on a variety of non-profit Boards and is past Chair of her international professional association, the Organization Development Network. Her inspiring talk at TEDxSFU is about how to get past disconnection to social change. Her publications include, Transformation After Trauma, The Power of Resonance, co-editor for the 2022 Palgrave Handbook of Learning for Transformation, the We Will Lead Africa book series and short story collections about global African experiences: Identities, Ancestries, Destinies. When asked about her work in the world, Yabome describes it as “developing our human capacity to be, think and do things differently and better.” If you ask what she is best known for, she will tell you, her wicked laugh!

Family. Building bridges to belonging. Building leadership and systems capacity for change to move people form where they are to where they want to go. Transformational leadership, learning and change. African leadership narratives (#WeWillLeadAfrica) and storytelling. Reading and Writing

Love is the most effective social justice/social change tool. One way Yabome has shared this idea is through a Tedx talk that is a call to action for EVERYONE to move beyond denial to the commitment of saying yes to the urgent social change issues of our times and how to use the transformative power of our own stories to sustain the journey to change when the going gets tough. . https://www.ted.com/talks/yabome_gilpin_jackson_how_to_get_past_disconnection_to_social_change/transcript

Change, Leadership, Leadership Development, Narrative, Organization Development, Social Change, Storytelling, Transformation

2020 TedxSFU speaker 2024 TED Conference attendee