Shakiyla Smith-Sengu

Shakiyla Smith-Sengu is a member of the Board of Directors at Essential Partners. A scholar-practitioner and action researcher, Shakiyla’s work explores the conditions that enable people, organizations, and communities to navigate complexity and cultivate more loving and flourishing ways of living together. She is Vice President of Organizational Culture at the Fetzer Institute, where she leads efforts to advance sacred-centered organizational culture within Fetzer and with external partners. Her work explores organizations as sites of social, emotional, and spiritual development and as living laboratories for new ways of working and organizing that embody the world we seek to create.

Shakiyla brings an interdisciplinary background spanning intercultural education, public health, research, organization development, and philanthropy. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, a Master of Public Health from Emory University, and a doctorate in adult education and organization development from the University of Georgia.

Shakiyla is a longtime contemplative practitioner and trained yoga and meditation instructor. She is also a lover of beauty and a proud tree hugger who finds joy and restoration in nature.