J. Nadia Headley
J. Nadia Headley
Nadia is deeply empathetic, kind to a fault, highly energetic and hopelessly optimistic. She has been through so many phases of life. There have been exhilarating highs and unimaginable lows. Somehow, she always manages to see the good in moments when the bad is overwhelming. Those small glimpses of hope empower her to withstand and fuel her to continue. It all boils down to the immense support she has been fortunate enough to receive from so many people. At the end of the day, it's about people. When she was graduating as a member of the President's Society, the highest honour society at St. John's University and when she was battling breast cancer; when she was traveling the world and when she lived in fear of a psychologically abusive ex; when she was enjoying the beauty of her family and when her family was at the food bank; when life was high or when life was low, the right people were always in place to help her
enjoy the feast and endure the famine. Hailing from the most easterly Caribbean island, Barbados she named her business Twenty One Fourteen Consultancy services to commemorate the dimensions of her island: 21 miles long by 14 miles wide. As a proud Caribbean woman of African descent, she has also lived in St. Vincent, USA and Canada, sharing her light and bubbly spirit everywhere she goes.
As a Social Development Specialist, having served as the youngest United Nations Coordination Officer in Latin America and the Caribbean, she is diplomatic, poised and operates with the highest level of professionalism. As the founder and trustee of Small Enterprises for Education and Development (SEED) she has seen the ins and outs of nonprofit start up and intimately understands the challenges faced on the impact level. She has added many transferable skills to this breadth of experience, making her service offering to clients surprisingly comprehensive with a one-stop-shop boutique of services for her highly focused niche. Nadia believes in creating space for others and employs a roster of consultants who support clients, providing them with meaningful work and opportunities to develop themselves personally and professionally. Most of all, Nadia just loves to laugh and is determined to pass a better world on to her daughter. Nadia’s big audacious dream is to build an environmentally and economically self sustained parallel school system in the Caribbean. Until then, she continues to focus on youth development and education in the Caribbean and on a global movement to encourage more visionary women to tell their stories to unleash their own power.
Current Positions:
Executive Director - Oakville Parent-Child Centre
Director - The Olive Branch of Hope
Director - Nanny Angel Network
Founder and Trustee - Small Enterprises for Education and Development (SEED)
Strategic Director - Twenty One Fourteen Consultancy Services
Author - Embracing the Valley
Recording Artist - Memoirs from the Valley