ShaRhonda Crystal Knott Dawson

 
ShaRhonda Dawson, a Black woman with her hair pulled back from her face. She's wearing a pearl necklace and coral blouse.

ShaRhonda Crystal Knott Dawson is a social justice and disability advocate and co-founder of BRONDHOUSE, LLC, which offers a variety of services for individuals, corporations, non-for profits, and education and academic institutions. She also writes on politics, education, current events and social justice on her blog, and is a columnist for Education Post. ShaRhonda is a proud graduate of the national disability advocacy training program, Illinois Partners in Policymaking.

ShaRhonda Crystal Knott-Dawson received her master’s degree from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and her undergraduate degree from the Jacob Carruther’s School of Inner City Studies with a focus on the study of Western Civilization through an Afro-centric lens. ShaRhonda has over 15 years’ experience in nonprofit program management, and has worked over 20 years as a political organizer focused on engaging youth and people of color.

She is a proud Christian and Baptist; she is currently a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. She also attends Mass at her local Catholic Church, is obsessed with the studies of Jewish women during the First and Second Temple periods, and although she is a terrible meditator, is trying hard to incorporate the lessons of presentness into her Protestant Christianity. She really likes Jesus and is pretty spiritual.

ShaRhonda currently resides in the west suburbs of Chicago and is the mother of two wonderful, strong-willed girls and has a husband who should be appointed a saint for co-existing in the madness that is their life. ShaRhonda is a fighter of lupus and mental illness, and is a Black woman unafraid to speak the truth about racism. She is inspired by Frida Kahlo and Ida Barnett Wells.