Intersections: A conversation on layered identities, equity, and leadership

Identity is an amalgamation of characteristics that helps define who we are and influences how we are perceived, but what happens when historic and systemic oppression intervene and those characteristics now intersect in a way that results in disadvantage? 

In this conversation, you’ll hear from Jonathan Allen (LAW’19), Co-founder of The Leadership Brainery and Sasha George (LAW’16), Honors Attorney, Regional Counsel, US Environmental Protection Agency as they explore intersectionality, equity, and leadership. 

About the panelists:

Jonathan Allen (LAW’19)
Co-founder of The Leadership Brainery

Jonathan L. Allen, J.D., M.T.S. is a champion for equity. He is Co-founder and Director of Development for The Leadership Brainery, a Boston-based nonprofit fostering equity by providing college-enrolled diverse young leaders, who are working for the greater good, with opportunities to advance their education, build inclusive networks, and gain access to impactful and high-wage careers. Jonathan is also committed to public service, and recently ran for Boston City Council in the Fall 2019 election. In response to the pandemic, Jonathan worked at Partners in Health as a supervisor on the Community Contact Tracing Collaborative working to stop the spread of COVID-19 throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — through which he helped develop protocols and train teams for equitable data collection.

Jonathan followed his maternal and paternal grandmothers’ footsteps and began preaching at age 11, and was ordained at age 20. Recognized as a social engineer and an advocate for love and equity, his beliefs surrounding transformative leadership, collective responsibility, political spirituality, and social and emotional intelligence have influenced individuals and groups throughout the world.

As a first-generation college student, he became freshman and sophomore class president, junior senator, and Student Body President of Grambling State University. After receiving his BS in Business Management, Jonathan worked to expand services for a pediatric day healthcare center for chronically ill children until departing to earn his Master of Theological Studies degree from Southern Methodist University | Perkins School of Theology.

Jonathan is a 2019 graduate of Boston University School of Law, where he was an active leader. He has participated in international arbitration and mediation competitions and served as the president of the Black Law Students Association. Jonathan has written speeches for U.S. Congresspersons while studying Faith and Politics under former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry at Wesley Theological Seminary. He was later a fellow at Free Speech for People, research assistant to the Honorable Geraldine S. Hines of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, research assistant to Rev. Cornell Brooks who is former President and CEO of the NAACP, and fellow at Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice.

His honors include the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association’s Honorable Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland Leadership and Juvenile Advocacy Award, the American Public Health Association Campus Leadership Award, and BU Law’s Emmanuel Hewlett Award. He has been highlighted for making cultural inroads by More than Esquires Network, Move To Amend, Daily Free Press, The Rainbow Times, Boston Lawyers Group, The Fight Magazine, Arts & Understand Magazine, and Forbes Under 30 Scholars.

Jonathan lives in Brighton, MA with his partner of eight years, Derrick Young Jr. (LAW’20), a strategist and nonprofit executive.

Sasha George, Esq. (LAW’16)
Enforcement Counsel, US Environmental Protection Agency

Sasha George (LAW’16) is currently an Enforcement Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England Office of Regional Counsel primarily focusing on Clean Air Act enforcement, Hazardous Waste Counseling, Civil Rights Counseling, and Environmental Justice Counseling. There, she also fills the role as the region’s Black Employment Program Manager, the EPA’s National Black Employment Program Legal Review Committee Chair, and is an integral part of the region’s Environmental Justice Task Force.

Prior to her current role, Sasha worked at Earthjustice as its Healthy Community’s Honors Attorney for a little over 2 years after graduating BU, and served as the EPA’s Honors Attorney for almost 2 years before being converted to a federal attorney-advisor. During her time at Earthjustice in D.C., she was the Environmental Justice committee member on D.C.’s Climate Change Resiliency Committee, working with and counseling the D.C. Mayor.

During law school, Sasha clerked at the Department of Justice’s Environmental and Natural Resource Division, the EPA’s New England office, and at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs severing as general counsel to the Massachusetts governor. Sasha co-founded BU Law’s Environmental Justice Clinic (now an environmental law clinic/symposium) while serving as President of the Environmental and Energy Law Society and Vice President of the Latin American Law Student Association. While in the Clinic, she worked with the local non-profit Alternative for Community and Environment (ACE) and Conservation Law Fund (CLF). She was also a proud co-director and member of Follies’ Contraband, and participated in the Public Interest Law Journal for a year.

Sasha currently sits on BU Law’s Young Alumni Council as co-chair of the Public Interest Committee, and is an Ambassador Alum for Black Millennials For Flint. (BM4F’s IG: @blackmillennials4flint)

Sasha was born and raised in Quinnahung, land of the Weckquaesgeek people, also known as the South Bronx, NYC. (Hunts Point for those of you who know.) Currently living on lands of the Massachusett, Nipmuck, and Wampanoag people also known as Cambridge, MA. She formerly lived in D.C. Her parents are from Ayiti (also known as the Dominican Republic) and Borike (also known as Puerto Rico), land of the Eyeri-Awarak people (also known as the Taino people). Sasha identifies as Black, a lighter-skinned Black person, a BIPOC, a QBIPOC, a Latina, a Latinx, a Blactina, and an Afro-Indigenous womxn. Both of her parents are African and Indigenous descendants. Sasha is cis, queer, and pansexual, and her pronouns are she, her, and ella.