About The Company
What ATLA is Doing and Why
We’ve all had those moments: when we see a racially problematic post on social media or hear someone talk about how “those people” are different from us. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and think, “I don’t want to see that person again.” Or to simply ignore it. But it’s important to understand that none of us is immune from problematic thinking
At Authentically Transformative Leadership Associates, we work with leaders and individuals alike on how to do better when confronted with our own problematic thoughts and with those comments or behavior of others.
To some extent, leaders use DEI to firewall themselves off from having difficult conversations about race. Mostly because they don’t know how or where to have them themselves. Sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a step back and thinking about the situation from another person’s perspective. Other times, it requires an intentional effort to look at our own biases and try to correct them. Either way, we believe that personal growth is what makes us great leaders.
Racism is a complex issue. It affects every part of our lives, and we can feel its effects in our own lives, as well as the lives of those around us. ATLA offers a six session package known as How To Do Better: One on One Mentoring. Our goal is to help leaders facilitate these conversations in their organizations as well as individuals who are ready to take the next step.
About Us
Authentically Transformative Leadership Associates (ATLA) is a company that offers one on one mentoring and other support and information to facilitate people’s individual development journey.
At ATLA, we understand that the most important part of being a leader is being able to connect with others. But it’s not easy—especially when you’re trying to navigate culture and language differences.
We specialize in helping individuals, organizations and teams navigate the intercultural communication challenges they face. We help people understand the concepts they need to know in order to help them move forward.
Through our mentoring services, we teach you the processes we’ve developed for smoothing intercultural communication. We help people identify what actions need to be taken in order to bring their impact in alignment with their intentions. Something few of us can do without help—we underestimate some things about ourselves and overestimate others.
Our goal is to help you see where you are doing well and where there are opportunities for improvement. We help you recognize where your own blind spots are,—so that you can use those areas of growth to have a greater impact on the world around you.
At ATLA, we help leaders and individuals identify the problems and help them reach the point where they are conversationally competent in dealing with topics around race and find the right DEI professionals to handle any issues they might have.
About the Founder
Maya Jewell is a Belonging and Inclusion Practitioner, specializing in the development of cross-cultural communication skills, with a focus on supporting people through the process of learning to talk about race in an authentic way. She comes to this work naturally.
Maya believes that leaders must be able to address inclusion issues as strategically as they would any other business opportunity. Being raised in a very white town by a very black family laid the groundwork for a lifetime of experience navigating the complexities of cross-cultural relationships in all aspects of business, community and life, biculturality is Maya’s native tongue. Through her signature processes, Maya engages clients in the process of aligning their actions to their intentions, allowing them to reach their stated goals.
Maya leads individuals and groups through discussions aimed at dispelling myths many people hold as ‘common knowledge’ which fuel their fear and confusion about race as a topic, and hampers many in their desire to show up authentically in racial conversations. In addition, she guides individuals through managing the aftermath of cultural missteps.