I’m Jahan – it means “world” or “universe” in arabic. (My mom is Jamaican but loved the name, so, there it is.) I’m a born and raised New Yorker and love sharing that fact…even when no one else cares!

I’m never not reading two to four books simultaneously, summer is my favorite season, and as my little sister tells me, I suffer from “eldest daughter syndrome” (lol – if you know, you know). Nourishing conversations and good food make me come alive. I live in Brooklyn with my husband.

And now, the fancy professional stuff: Prior to Joyous Rebellion, I co-founded Project Inkblot. Our team partnered with tech and media companies to build equitable products and services using our proprietary framework, Inkblot Design™(ID). We created and facilitated dozens of virtual and IRL programs on racial equity, design and technology and have led keynote addresses at conferences, and been featured on design podcasts from Design Better to Tech Wrap Queen.

Past work has also included building high profile mission-driven campaigns, working as an Account Manager at Time Out New York and Editor for BRM – in addition to co-founding an arts and social impact online publication.

I earned a B.A. in Communications and Culture from Clark University and am the recipient of the Kate Spade and Company Fellowship as a former member of the New Museum Incubator, NEW INC. I’m a certified yoga instructor and very into mind/body/spirit stuff. I’m also a program junky, insatiable for new skills and ideas to create better human interactions and foster community.

I live in the sleepy woods of Western Massachusetts, and spend most of my days centered on creating a cozy life.

That’s a huge departure from years past, where operating Project Inkblot – an equity design consultancy that Jahan and I cofounded – had us running around ragged, working with high profile media, technology and advertising clients. Our roster included Viacom, Visa, Shopify, Comcast and more. We made meaningful impact and did interesting work, but never quite found inner enjoyment. That seemed to be a recurring career pattern hiding in plain sight for years.

I’ve worked everywhere from gas stations, to coaching CEOs, running life skills trainings at juvenile detention centers, to being an editor-in-chief, a music journalist, a florist, a healthcare marketer — trying on many other strange and enchanting jobs and roles in between. If there was a superlative for someone with the most colorful CV, I likely would win it. I’ve even peddled goods on NYC trains for just one day, and though it was short lived, it stays on my collection of work and life experiences worth bringing up when given the right occasion and audience. Through it all, like many others, I was looking outward for confirmation that I was on the right track.

It wasn’t until my dad was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, and I shifted my priorities to become a full-time caretaker (and then subsequently losing my dad in December of 2023, and then my cat Qua, only two weeks later) that what was formulating from the gut level, was too loud to be silenced. It was time to create something entirely new. Something life-giving, profound, inspiring, full of mischief—and most importantly—sourced from within. That, my friends, is Joyous Rebellion. Thanks for staying with us throughout the course. If we’re new to you, nice to meet you!