About AnaYelsi
Born in Venezuela, AnaYelsi Velasco-Sanchez (she/her/hers) is an IndoLatinx mujerista working to create and agitate her way through the Latin diaspora. She is a highly skilled and compassionate public educator who utilizes her signature Interlocking Justice methodology to catalyze an embodied response in her clients. Interlocking Justice is a holistic, accessible, and sustainable approach to justice and liberation work that AnaYelsi teaches and speaks about nationwide. She empowers individuals and communities with her diverse skill set, which includes education, coaching, consulting, writing, and art.
She founded the Interlocking Justice Institute and offers her services through her business, AVS Consulting, working with various clients, including colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, faith communities, businesses, and individuals seeking to build an accessible and sustainable movement for liberation. AnaYelsi also founded En Conjunto—a collective providing support, community, resources, and collaborative opportunities to People of Color working independently at the intersection of justice and spirituality. AnaYelsi serves on the board of the Festival Center in Washington, DC, and is the Co-Director for The Well DC’s Justice Ministry.
This is about Interlocking Justice
While DEI certified, AnaYelsi is not a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Educator. She values the content incorporated into DEI trainings but she is an Interlocking Justice educator and is focused on partnering with those interested on taking not just the first but the next (and the next and the next…) step in their work.
WHY NOT DEI?
Organizations have embraced the corporate model of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work because they recognize the importance of creating a safe and welcoming environment for all employees; and they recognize the positive impact DEI work can have on things like employee retention and performance; workplace productivity, innovation, and creativity; and public perception.
Despite the efforts made by organizations to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, the traditional approaches used have yet to yield substantial results. Many companies have struggled to fully embrace and implement these initiatives due to a lack of understanding or commitment to the values they represent. As a result, they have yet to achieve much success. Moreover, traditional DEI work has often failed to effectively address and dismantle systemic oppression and discrimination, resulting in decreased employee morale and retention. Organizations must adopt more innovative and effective strategies that prioritize the empowerment of marginalized communities and engage in collaborative, community-based justice work.
With AnaYelsi, conversations about implicit bias and microaggressions may be a starting place but they are never the focal or end point. She contracts with colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, faith communities, businesses, and individuals that seek to build an accessible and sustainable movement for liberation that accounts for the need for both personal transformation and structural change.
This is the kind of change that means more than checking a box or meeting a legal requirement. It’s a cultural and systemic shift that means time, discomfort, sacrifice, and commitment and she’s ready to walk you through it.
Committed to this vision, she is working independently – moving outside of traditional models of justice work that hinge one’s ability to pursue justice on their relationship with systems and organizational hierarchies. She is trusting in the community of justice-seekers to partner with her in this endeavor – freeing her to go when called and to act and speak with the integrity necessary to fulfill this vision- including her commitment to make her work economically just and financially accessible. Because of people like you, she is able to regularly offer pro bono/low-cost services to those that can not afford her rates. For example, free long-term consulting to the executive directors of Brave Commons (an LGBTQ justice non-profit organization).
In 2019, Sojourners Magazine recognized AnaYelsi as one of “11 Women Shaping the Church”
AnaYelsi loves disappearing for hours in an art museum, feeding people a homemade flan of which she is unabashedly proud, reading everything she can get her hands on, and watching an absurd number of problematic made-for-tv holiday romcoms.
AnaYelsi lives in Washington, D.C. You can follow her on twitter at @brwneyedamzn and on Facebook.
Interested in booking AnaYelsi? Click below to learn more. Send all inquiries to contact@anayelsi.com.