“I am unashamedly a product of racially segregated school systems in North Carolina, except one year of forced busing for the sake of integration.  When my daughter was twelve and facing a one-hour bus ride each day to attend her first year of junior high school, I shifted from leading Brownie troops and directing children’s plays to organizing neighbors to seek equality in our schools, neighborhoods, and city.”

"What fired me up about social justice as a young teen growing up in St. Petersburg, Florida was my curiosity about radicals, especially in the vein of Black liberation and feminism. I decided to go to the source- our local "Black militants".  As a result, I found myself reading long handwritten letters sent from prisoners who were being abused by incarceration practices, including medical and psychological experiments. Some could not control their bodily functions. I also saw how people were being locked out of the voter registration and voting process. I knew something had to be done, and I had to be part of the solution."

“I grew up as a jewish girl in lower Manhattan where my Dad had a neighborhood candy store. I saw the neighborhood gentrify and become the East Village and I became acutely aware of class and race differences at a very young age.  In the summer of 1968 I turned that knowledge to activism against the Vietnam War and so it began…”

“I grew up in a comfortable family and had many privileges that most people don’t have. When I attended a Quaker college, studied in Bogotá, Colombia, and majored in Latin American studies my perspective on the world and the role of the US changed dramatically. My work in the Central American solidarity movement in the 1980s, especially with Salvadoran refugees here and in El Salvador, re-focused my purpose entirely. My 20+ years in immigrant rights, among other issues, helped me find my current political purpose as a support to others “in the trenches” of justice work.”

“The dawning of my social awareness was highlighted by the presence of armed national guardsmen on my college campus for two successive years.  I have carried my passion for social justice throughout my career which began in the early 1970's as an Alinsky trained VISTA volunteer community organizer.”

"I was raised in Washington D.C. in the late 60’s/early 70’s in my extended family where civil rights marches and peace rallies were regular outings. At age 21, I was lucky to get a paid organizing job in California that led me into a decade and a half working closely with the FMLN and civilian opposition groups in El Salvador -- leading delegations to the war zones, organizing against U.S. military intervention, raising funds and supporting cooperative agriculture throughout Central America. From the early lesson that dissent and solidarity were normal, over time I learned how people’s movements have the power to affect national and international events. My work is guided by those powerful feelings of unity in action, and lessons-learned across generations, across borders and across communities.”

Naomi A. Folami Randolph is a consultant and trainer in the areas of organizational development, program development, strategic planning, leadership development, community building and organizing, diversity, and organizational coaching.

Her experience as an employee, director, volunteer, and board member in the nonprofit sector inspired her to establish Insight Consulting Services. Insight was founded on the principles of helping organizations hold fast to their organizational vision in order to facilitate social change for our society as a whole.

Over the past 20 years Ms. Randolph has had the opportunity to work with grassroots organizations, faith based groups, community development organizations, small businesses, corporations, and local, state, and federal government entities, and she has worked with rural, urban, and international communities.

Ms. Randolph is also the founder I am Worthy Enterprises; an organization designed to celebrate, educate, heal, and affirm women. She believes that restoring the practices and wisdom of indigenous cultures will transform communities.

Naomi has been a faculty member at Duke University Nonprofit Management Institute and NeighborWorks America.  She has also worked in Development for the Greensboro Leadership Development Council, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, and the Department of Health and Human Resources.  She is a Technologies of Participation (TOP) certified facilitator and has received numerous awards for her leadership skills and excellence in training.

“I wanted to go south in 1963, to Alabama, to join the Civil Rights Movement.  I was an 8-year-old Ohioan and my parents said no.  I bided my time and at 15 joined a group of young people who helped close down Applecreek State Hospital at the dawn of the Deinstitutionalization Movement.”