Djelani

Get to Know Me

As a fully-certified Mindset Specialist for the past seven years and a credentialed educator for more than 30 years, I help clients in creative and career pursuits to achieve their personal and professional goals. The essence of my work focuses on engaging clients towards self-growth by first facilitating individuals and teams in identifying their core strengths so that they can overcome challenges and discover their most powerful creative self. I specialize in creating personalized plans and providing tools to guide clients forward that help activate their desired goals through intentional systems that support their unique brilliance and transformation in making a positive influence in the world. With a solid background as a teacher, activator, writer, and performer, I have enjoyed a long history of supporting creative individuals in finding their most powerful Self.  In addition to coaching, I consult with creative organizations dealing with issues of diversity,  cultural analysis, optimal achievement and change.  

​

I completed a BM in Music, an MA in Theater, an MFA in Film Producing and I hold a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA.  I am a graduate of the CaPP Institute's Executive Coaching and Positive Psychology Program and I am a member of ICF, International Coach Federation.   Besides coaching, I have worked as an Education Specialist with children with disabilities in Los Angeles Public Schools, a college access coach and facilitator, as well as a Restorative Justice Facilitator in highly trauma informed schools, helping schools to create positive environments for student successes in all areas of their lives.

​

Because I like living life from the edge, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 11,000 feet.  I have had such adventures as taking a boat up the Niger River in Mali, West Africa to visit the ancient city of Timbuktu. I’ve visited the castles of enslavement in Ghana and Senegal.  I have studied the genocide in Rwanda and the wars in Uganda. I’ve zip-lined over the canopy in Costa Rica.  In total, I have traveled to more than thirty countries around the world, experiencing life changing adventures in each location. 

I love learning about new cultures and languages, having completed extensive studies in France, Morocco and Senegal.  My favorite travel adventures include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, going on a safari in Kenya, and riding camels across the Sahara Desert.  As a continuous student of French, I have experienced more than 20 visits to Paris.  I participated in three Fulbright GPA projects in Morocco for three summers and I was selected to Participate in a summer program for the National Endowment of Humanities in 2021.

As an actor, my favorite role was performing as HUD in HAIR!  At UCLA, I studied screenwriting with top teachers and was a finalist in the Diane Thomas Screenwriting Competition. Currently, I am developing a one-man theatrical drama that explores my life-long search to find belonging around the world as well as a social justice documentary set in the countryside in Senegal.  My first book of poetry, "They Came with Empty Hands," is set for release in the Fall of 2022. 

​

Because I love living life out loud, I have completed six marathons around the United States and I completed the first California AIDS Ride, a 500-mile bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money for AIDS organizations.   Come along with me and let's create a great adventure together!