Dr. Gabrielle Grant is a conflict transformation practitioner, executive director of a non-profit, researcher, and a university professor. She has a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University and has spent her career working in a variety of different fields to change systems and advocate for children and families. Dr. Grant, or Gabby as we know her, is committed to changing society through restorative justice and conflict transformation by teaching, training, facilitating, and mediating non-violence techniques from Southeast Asia to Southern Appalachia. She believes in showing up, being vulnerable, and moving past fear to hold space for others to do the same.
Leaving home at 18 for college, and thinking she’d never, ever come back to small-town North Carolina is something that Gabrielle Grant reflects on now. “I feel like the universe had a much bigger plan for me, and I wasn’t always on board, but now I’m ready to roll with it,” she explains.
Feeling more at peace than she ever has before, Gabby couldn’t be happier to be back in the rural community where she grew up, working to make a difference in an area short on resources. But, it was her time abroad, working in countries across southern Asia, and practicing a few lessons learned from Brené Brown’s work - like setting boundaries, and showing up, even if that means failing - that helped to create her roundabout path back to where she first started.
Joining us to share her story, Gabby talks about what restorative justice is and how she made it her career, why it’s critical to understand your values and use those to set your boundaries, creating ‘home’ in a variety of places, and making the choice to not have children (and why the choice is not reflective of a woman’s value or worth).
