Jarrod Schwartz

Jarrod is an educator and consultant with more than 30 years of experience working with schools, nonprofit organizations, healthcare providers, businesses, government, and communities. Jarrod’s unique approach draws upon the fields of social justice and organization development to foster inclusive, multi-stakeholder processes that result in community and social change. He is the Founder & Principal of Equity Praxis Group, a mission-driven consulting practice supporting organizations, communities, and individual leaders in fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ). EPG helps people put cutting edge DEIJ and organization development theory into practice in order to transform their organizations, communities, and, ultimately, our world. Jarrod has over 20 years of experience designing and facilitating DEIJ training to public and nonprofit healthcare providers and agencies including physicians, physician assistants, administrators, mental health providers, medical students, and support personnel. Trainings have focused on issues of cultural proficiency in healthcare, racial equity in healthcare, implicit bias, language justice and access, improving services to LGBTQ+ patients, effective communication during patient intake, and more.

Prior to launching EPG, Jarrod served for 20 years as the Founding Executive Director of Just Communities Central Coast – a non-profit social justice organization that works to ensure every school, workplace and community in California’s Central Coast is a place of opportunity, not a place of limitation. In the late 1990’s, as the Program Director for The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), Jarrod directed a comprehensive community change initiative to address racial inequality in education and community leadership in St. Louis, MO. In 2001, Jarrod was invited to California to launch a new NCCJ office to serve the communities of the Central Coast. In 2007, this organization became Just Communities.

Jarrod holds a Master’s Degree in Organization Development from American University and the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. He is an Associate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems, an Adjunct Faculty Member for Antioch University’s Masters of Arts in Education program. He has served on numerous local and national nonprofit boards. His personal and professional mission is to foster social justice and build community through transformative educational experiences for individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. Jarrod is the proud father of twin girls – Sydney Michelle and Alix Peyton.