Ama Yawson

Are you looking for a dynamic speaker, trainer, storyteller, and edutainer for your next event? Ama Yawson, Esq. is THE choice. Ama Yawson has been a speaker and storyteller for twenty-nine years. She started in her youth when she entered her first oration competition and won! In 2014, she published her debut book, Sunne's Gift, and has performed it at over 100 venues across the country. She uses the story in motivational speeches and educational lectures on issues such as success, leadership, women's empowerment, financial wealth-building, social and emotional learning, diversity, implicit bias, micro-aggressions, sexual autonomy, and much more. She is prolific with respect to the diversity of audiences that she serves, as she speaks at K-12 schools, universities, private events, companies, and corporations. Her bio is below. Ama Yawson earned a BA cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard University, an MBA from the Wharton School, and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her articles have been published in MSNBC's The Grio, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, and other publications. Ms. Yawson has also appeared on The Today Show, Al Jazeera's The Stream, The Nate Berkus Show and Fox Business. On a weekly basis, Ms. Yawson can be heard on WBAI in New York 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio on her morning talk show entitled How to Make it in the City. In 2013, a painful experience in which a barber called her son a racial pejorative term and said that his hair was not pretty and should be shaved off inspired Ms. Yawson to venture into writing her first self-esteem building book, Sunne's Gift. Ms. Yawson was so personally moved by the story of Sunne's Gift, that she quit her high-paying job as a securities lawyer for Citibank in order to become a full-time author and educator through her company Milestales. She currently performs Sunne's Gift and her other books during her empowering training programs focused on leadership, diversity, cultural sensitivity, bullying prevention, sexual autonomy, social and emotional learning, cultural sensitivity, and other topics. Additionally, she partners with other thought leaders to provide schools, libraries, universities, churches, institutes, corporations, and other organizations with expanded training and development services. The customizable keynotes, assemblies, and training and development programs include dynamic storytelling, drumming, music, and dance, in addition to social science and legal research. These programs are perfect for Martin Luther King Day, Black History Month, Women's History Month, Earth Day, Bullying Prevention Month, Black History Month, and other commemorative months. Her clients include The New York City Board of Education and State University of New York. You may see her client list and other info at milestales . Ms. Yawson lives in New York with her husband and two sons. College/University Testimonial "I finally had a chance to review our evaluations from BC LEADS. I'm so happy to share that our students overwhelmingly enjoyed your presentation and were uplifted by your story and the lessons that you taught them. One student was so motivated by your story that she made up her mind to remain in school and finish. We don't always have the opportunity to know when our programs and services have directly impacted students in such a short time. We usually will find out from them directly later in their college career and it's usually during graduation. Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with our students. I hope to be able to work with you again and in making a difference in our students' lives" -Berkeley College, March 2016 Full-Day Corporate Training Testimonial "Ama was outstanding, totally engaged in the area for the entire time, and engaged the audience. Outstanding! -Carol Hertz, Mediation Professional Book Testimonial "There's a powerful and teachable theme here. Ama's choice of prose is quite rich for vocabulary building (i.e. "covet", "imbued", etc). Choosing biblical motifs was also a brilliant move and her guidance questions, which invite children to self-reflect add a magnificent touch as well. This is an ingenious way to convey diversity to children as a kind of eco-tapestry (I could not help the neologism). Thus, this work doubly serves as a tool for teaching children to cherish our fragile environment and its diversity." -Maksim Astashinksy, Higher Education & University Libraries Professional *Full recommendation and reference letters are available upon request