The Queer Leadership Lab is a collaborative space to disrupt, innovate, and transform our leadership.
In the Lab, we challenge the status quo, weaving threads of racial and gender justice, liberation, and radical love into the fabric of our work. It's a dynamic environment where innovation and profound connection thrive, nurturing a community dedicated to queering leadership.
Through coaching, workshops, and the exploration of new ideas, we invite folks to join us in creating a future where leadership is diverse, equitable, and unapologetically queer.
is the founder of Rooted Respite, an online burnout support community serving activists, DEI practitioners, faith-based changemakers, and others committed to creating a more equitable world. As a Black transgender entrepreneur, Taj’s work amplifies anti-oppressive thinking and a worldview dedicated to bringing people back into relationship with themselves, each other, and the land.
Taj is a coach, writer, and speaker with a creative passion for music and literature, particularly sci-fi and fantasy. His written work explores the ways sci-fi overlaps with spirituality, justice, and identity to create hopeful futures.
His writing appears in Sojourners, Huffington Post, and the Harvard Divinity Bulletin. His own transition story was published in Austin Hartke’s book Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians. He holds a BA in Politics from UC Santa Cruz and an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School.
To learn more about Rooted Respite and work with Taj, visit www.rootedrespite.com
is known as the Queer JEDI, is a distinguished leader, educator, and strategist, widely recognized for their profound impact on racial and gender justice. As the Owner and Principal of Brick 13, Dr. Self leverages their extensive experience to guide organizations through transformative change, operationalizing equity, and fostering inclusive environments across various sectors.
A former Pac-12 basketball player for Cal, Dr. Self attributes their early experiences as a gender outlaw and athlete as the foundational impetus for their lifelong dedication to intersectional justice. These formative years not only shaped their resilience but also their unique perspective on teamwork and leadership, qualities that have underpinned their professional endeavors.
Dr. Self served as the Founding Director of the University of Washington (UW) Q Center and as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UW's School of Social Work & Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies. In these roles, they pioneered anti-racist and intersectional frameworks within Higher Education LGBTQIA+ Student Services, setting new standards for inclusivity and support.
An accomplished author, researcher, and international speaker, Dr. Self's work extends beyond academia into hands-on strategy, coaching, and consulting. They are a Leadership Tomorrow ‘24 participant and a dedicated mental health provider, underscoring their holistic approach to leadership and development.
Throughout their career, Dr. Self has collaborated with leaders across non-profits, government, and corporate sectors, imparting expertise that drives systemic change and elevates DEI initiatives to new heights. Their work not only challenges the status quo but also provides practical, actionable solutions that lead to sustainable outcomes.
Dr. Self's commitment to truth-telling and advocacy for marginalized communities, combined with their strategic vision and empathetic leadership, make them a compelling voice and an invaluable asset to any organization committed to genuine, impactful change. As a parent, spouse, partner, and survivor of both emotional and physical traumas, they bring authenticity and profound insights into the dynamics of resilience and transformation.
Whether addressing corporate leaders, educational institutions, or international conferences, Dr. Self's dynamic presence and innovative perspectives inspire action and foster a deeper understanding of what it means to lead with integrity and compassion in today's complex world.
is a queer leadership coach with a rich background in leadership development facilitation and consulting. Liz specializes in coaching queer folks to build radical leadership confidence, emotional intelligence skills, and their personal leadership style. They believe that each of us is inherently brilliant and that the best solutions to our leadership challenges are found in our deep knowledge of ourselves.
In the beforetimes, Liz spent over ten years in the corporate space (retail and technology) as a coach, leadership development program leader, and organizational effectiveness consultant. A leadership development practitioner to the core, you’ll find Liz coaching individuals and teams, facilitating, nerding out about EQ, or ruminating on wholehearted leadership over a cup of (decaf) coffee.
Liz is: an eternal optimist, a bit of a chaos witch, a frequent teller of not-that-funny jokes, a lifelong artist (current love: watercolor), relentlessly curious, a deep empath, and despite all outward appearances, definitely an introvert.
Known for their engaging, humorous, and creative presentation style, Liz invites leaders from all backgrounds to consider how we might ‘queer’ leadership by disrupting dominant cultural norms and holding space for humanity at the center of our workplaces.
is a writer, researcher, scholar, and graphic designer based in the Philippines. She works with Liz as the Operations Lead for Liz Cruz Consulting. Allison has over a decade of media, communication, and marketing experience from various industries. She has taught media & communication courses and worked on research projects in known state universities in the Philippines prior to focusing on leading efforts on media & communications, creatives, research, and project management for various organizations, both local and abroad.
A master's candidate in the MA in Media Studies (Broadcast) program at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Allison specializes in media and gender studies, media culture and practice, postmodernism, and popular culture. She has published critical work on media studies and recently co-authored a chapter in Bangtan Remixed: A Critical BTS Reader (Duke University Press) and an article on Queer Theory (with Dr. Jen Self) in the Encyclopedia of Social Work (Oxford Reference). She co-authored a chapter titled "Taylor (Sheesh)’s Version: Recreating and Co-Creating Taylor Swift Through Filipino Drag and Fandom Participation" in the forthcoming collection Taylor Swift: Culture, Capital, and Critique (Routledge). Her current research projects explore myths about women in Darna texts, “queering” Darna, co-creation dynamics between the virtual KPop group PLAVE and their fandom PLLI (team project), and examining popular texts through critical-cultural, feminist, queer, indigenous, and intersectional lenses.