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A person with short, curly hair is smiling and wearing glasses, a light blue denim jacket, and a light blue t-shirt. They are standing against a light grey wall.

Meet Sumi (they/she)

A lot happened in 2005: Destiny’s Child split up, YouTube was officially launched, and I had to pick modules for my final year of my undergraduate degree at the London School of Economics. 

In a parallel universe where I made a different decision, I’m a criminologist. 

But I chose ‘race and ethnicity’ and caught the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) bug.

“You light up when you talk about DEI”

— Sumi’s best mate

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And here I am now, 20-ish years later, with the same passion but laser-focused on helping businesses like yours

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I’ve done lots of things, including:

  • Trained hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people on DEI (I really regret not keeping a tally).

  • Audited and trained big companies with more staff than a football stadium, national charities, political parties and an extremely prestigious institution that I wish I could tell you about but I can’t.   

  • Did an MA in Race and Ethnicity, a personal development coaching diploma (comes in handy for having change-convos), and because that diploma completely ignored systemic inequality, a Feminist Theory Coach certification. 

But at the end of 2021, I made a conscious pivot. I realised the greatest impact – and the most fun – was to be had working with service-based solo businesses and small do-good organisations. You're my absolute faves (but shhhh, don't tell the others).

Since then, I've helped more than 60 of you to actually do DEI, not just talk about it.

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How I work

Make it fun

I nearly did a PhD on humour as an anti-racist tool. But then I remembered how I called a helpline the day before my MA dissertation deadline because I was a sobbing mess. I still stand by my belief that humour is a powerful tool for social change. 

Keep it simple

There’s a lot of jargon and tricky topics to navigate. DEI isn’t easy, but I’m on a mission to make it as easy as it’ll ever get.

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Focus on action

Knowledge is important, but so is translating it into practice. That’s the bit that all of my clients struggle with, so that’s where I focus (obvs, if there’s a knowledge gap preventing you from taking that next step, I’ll close it)

Compassion without collusion

Or as someone (anonymously) wrote on a feedback survey “Sumi tells it like it is without being a d*ck” 

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Tell me who you are and I’ll tell you how I can help

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