All the Seasons at Once | Dr. Sommer Jabber-Pearson
with Dr. Sommer Jabber-Pearson
About this episode
On LinkedIn, Dr. Sommer Jabber Pearson’s life looked like a highlight reel. Off it, she was returning pop cans for grocery money and wondering how to make the mortgage. In two and a half years, nearly everything in her life changed at once: a doctorate, a marriage, a new job and a layoff without warning, a business started out of necessity, and illness and loss in her family. As a first-generation Palestinian American, she carried all of it alongside the daily news from her family’s homeland. And very little of it showed from the outside. Dr. Nicole, talks with her about the distance between the public story and the private one, and why the title "Dr." still doesn't sit easily with her. Sommer also shares something her mother taught her: that joy and grief must coexist. It's a perspective that unsettled Dr. Nicole's belief that life's seasons arrive one at a time, and it may change how you understand your own. Because sometimes our seasons arrive together, celebration and loss at once, and we have to make room for both.
Show Notes
Guest Links
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sommer-jabbar/
Guest
Dr. Sommer Jabber-Pearson
Dr. Sommer Jabbar-Pearson is a community-centered leader who is dedicated to advancing equity, belonging, and access to opportunities in the realm of education and other systemically oppressive systems. Currently, she serves as the Director of Advancement at AYA Youth Collective. In this work, she is able to strengthen programming for youth experiencing instability through innovative fundraising, community partnerships, and fierce advocacy. Sommer has over a decade of experience in education. She has supported educational efforts spanning from early childhood through adult learning. Sommer’s doctoral studies focused on the experiences specific to immigrant, refugee, and first-generation American students. The research Sommer conducted examined how this population navigates the American school system, and how educators can strengthen a student’s sense of belonging to increase success, for both the student and school. Sommer’s leadership and passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging has far extended beyond classrooms and schools, into nonprofit organizations. It is here where Sommer has guided strategic planning, organizational change, and fostered spaces of belonging. Sommer is the recipient of the 2024 Good to Great Award for Young Non-Profit Professionals Network of Grand Rapids, as well as one of the 3 Women to Watch Under 40 2025 through West Michigan Women Forward. Further honoring her community to transformative leadership and community wellness. Rooted in her own experience as a first-generation American, Sommer is able to draw on her past personal and professional experiences to become an expertise in the work of belonging. She is passionate about building systems and communities that insure all individuals, especially those who have been historically marginalized, are seen, valued, and empowered to thrive
