Struggling with burnout or seeking fresh ways to thrive?
I’m dr. elita layà (they/them)—a Black, queer, trans nonbinary, neurodivergent, and first-generation scholar-practitioner dedicated to helping people and institutions (re)center healing work.
As a motivational speaker and strategist, I support teams and individuals in navigating burnout, building radical belonging, and transforming oppressive conditions into life-affirming practices. With over a decade of experience across K–12 education, higher ed, and nonprofit leadership, I help organizations interrupt harm, realign with purpose, and cultivate cultures rooted in collective care.
I help people and organizations thrive by:
- Identifying and transforming root causes of burnout—not just treating symptoms
- Building boundaries that foster trust, humanity, and deep collaboration
- Reclaiming joy and purpose through trauma-informed, anti-oppressive practices
- Leading powerful conversations that move people from performative DEI to actual culture change
Through custom keynotes, workshops, and consulting, I bring not only lived experience but also rigorous expertise as a former counselor, interim head dean, DEI director, and cultural strategist. Expect engaging storytelling, reflexive practices, and actionable tools—whether you’re bringing me into a boardroom, a classroom, or a healing circle.
Education & Professional Background:
- Ph.D. in Urban Education Leadership
- M.A. in Counseling Psychology (School Counseling & Clinical Counseling)
- M.A. in Cultural Studies
- I’ve taught graduate-level courses on cultural psychology, trauma-informed counseling, personal and professional development, and social justice.
- My leadership roles have included Head Counselor (Dean), Senior Director of Culture and Social Justice, Districtwide DEI Coordinator, and an Engagement and Evaluation Strategist with the Center for Critical Mentoring and Youth Work.
- I currently serve as Principal Consultant and Healing, Liberation, and Belonging at Twalo (Rhyzara)
Speaking Topics & Signature Workshops:
- Burnout Prevention & Nervous System Restoration: Practical tools for navigating stress, setting boundaries, and reclaiming emotional bandwidth in high-demand environments.
- Leadership Development & Team Alignment: Guiding organizations to shift from crisis management toward collaborative clarity and trauma-informed synergy.
- Anti-Oppressive Practices & Systemic Change: Moving beyond checkbox DEI into structurally accountable, equity-centered work that starts at the root.
- Queer & Trans Inclusion Across Sectors: Creating affirming spaces that honor and elevate gender-expansive leadership and lived realities.
- Healing Justice & Restorative Culture Shifts: Centering care, relational accountability, and resilience-building in organizations, schools, and movements.
- Youth Leadership & Student Activism: Tools for adult allies and educators supporting critical mentoring, intergenerational organizing, and abolitionist dreaming.
- Critical SEL for Educators: Reimagining SEL through a justice lens—centering identity, trauma, and systemic inequity to better support students and staff.
- Dismantling Imposter Syndrome: Unpacking the systemic roots of self-doubt and reclaiming worth through radical affirmation and collective belonging.
Why Work With Me?
- My liberatory methods are informed by experience across sectors and rooted in tangible actions and reflections, not just theory.
- I bring a trauma-informed, somatic, and identity-anchored lens to every space I enter.
- My sessions are custom-designed—no recycled templates. I respond to what your team is navigating right now.
- Clients consistently report increased clarity, improved morale, and deeper connection to purpose and self.
- Most importantly? I don’t teach resilience. I help us collectively remember and reclaim joy, care, and connectedness—to the work we do and to each other.
Reach out to explore a tailored keynote, workshop, or consulting offering for your team, students, or community.
Whether you're a university, nonprofit, conference planner, or healing practitioner collective, I offer transformative spaceholding that is equally tender and truth-telling. I don’t perform healing—we co-create the conditions where it can actually begin: healing, liberation, belonging.
Let’s collaborate. Together, we reclaim liberatory minds, bodies, and futures.
