Ymani Hawkins

“Mental wellness is the linchpin of IDEAS work. Without it, there can be no individual growth, organizational change, or true systemic evolution.”
– Ymani Hawkins

Ymani Hawkins, program manager with IDEAS Generation, is a diversity and mental wellness coach who marries mental wellness techniques, psychological principles, and evidence-based therapies with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) best practices.

As founder of the consultancy DEEP-ish, Ymani addresses implicit bias, microaggressions, racial trauma, racial battle fatigue, and psychological unsafety via self-care awareness, emotional intelligence strategies, and mindfulness techniques. Her insights have been shared with business, arts, and media sectors as well as religious institutions and nonprofits. Past clients include Meetup, Unqork, New York University, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, Horizon Media, IMANEE, and The Living Church.

Previously, Ymani served as a diversity consultant for Holistic Inclusion Consulting and The Equity Leadership Group delivering talks, training, and coaching for primary educational systems and environmental agencies. Prior to that, she worked as a psychotherapist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy. In this role, she treated patients of all ages with anxiety disorders, depression, and other cognitive and behavioral diagnoses. She has also delivered outpatient treatment services to adults experiencing severe mental illness such as dissociative disorders, psychosis, schizoaffective disorders, and schizophrenia.

Ymani holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the Silver School of Social Work at New York University (NYU); a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in interpersonal communication studies from Kean University; and has performed ethnographic research in Siargao, Philippines, and studied communications in Athens, Greece. She possesses certifications in cultural awareness, suicide prevention, crisis response, applied suicide intervention, and mental health first aid.

Among her achievements and activities, she is the immediate past co-president of NYU’s Black Women’s Social Work Coalition (BWSWC), founding co-president of the Silver Black Alumni Network (SBAN), and a member of the Society of Emotional Intelligence (SoEI) International. Ymani endeavors to use her unique perspective of the world to drive sustainable change in the mental wellness and DEI space.