Tanynya Hekymara is dedicated to Restorative Justice, equity, and wellness. Her unique experience in every element of organizational leadership allows her to be a mindful, bold, and courageous truth-teller. Tanynya delivers necessary truths, reshapes narratives and systems, through providing strategies of support using intentional plans of action that brings the complex composition of a community into the work. It is her abiding passion to bring about transformational change in educational, professional, and community spaces, to include all voices, and to inspire communities to seek connection and justice.
Her philosophy of change is that such transformation must occur on five levels: personal, interpersonal, institutional, systemic, and cultural. All levels should be tended to at all times. However, a strong foundation starts with setting the organization up for success. Community accountability can be measured and upheld when training and practice have occurred, and there is steady work toward goals recognizing that some areas may move more quickly than others.
She began her career as an educator and community organizer at the University of Southern California (USC). She was tasked with increasing the transfer of Black and Latina/o students from Community College to USC. The disparities in resources, counseling, preparation, and support for the communities she was trying to recruit became more apparent. Tanynya has been working to close systemic gaps ever since. As the Director of Admissions and Civic Engagement at The Oaks School, she successfully increased the faculty of color by 45%, student diversity by 14%, created equitable hiring process, bias reporting protocols, affinity groups, restorative processes, harmful library book analysis and inventory, anti-bias curriculum, and programming to continue forming a community of belonging.
In her current role as a Restorative Justice and Culture of Belonging Consultant she synthesized and creates strategies to continue momentum towards the Multicultural Process of Change through coaching, professional development, and transforming systems, to support for this valuable work within schools, community organizations, universities, and companies.
Tanynya Hekymara continues to organize, volunteer, and teach in the community as a Mediator, Racial Equity Institute Trainer, USC Legacy through Leadership Mentor, California Anti-Racism Alliance Leadership, LMU Center for Urban Resistance Trainer, The Core Collaborative Restorative Consultant, and as a Southern California Restorative Culture Consortium Advisory Council member. Certified in Vinyasa, and Kemetic Yoga, she guides yoga for seniors and elementary school students in Inglewood California.
