ABOUT ME

Ebony Mack hails from NYC, where she was born and raised. She graduated from City University of New York with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She later obtained a Masters in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was honored to be chosen to speak at the graduation ceremony for the latter. She credits a professor at CUNY with helping her gain her self-esteem to become a public speaker. She credits an early love of words with her perfect streak in Wordle (as of the writing of this bio).

Ebony has two decades of experience working with children and families in the nonprofit sector. She has had various positions in her career, including Counselor, Community Health Educator, Trainer/Facilitator, and Adoption Social Worker. She has worked with formerly incarcerated people, substance users, survivors of child sexual exploitation, along with children and families connected to foster care/adoption. Ebony has utilized evidence-based interventions and developed her own courses using peer-reviewed studies and data as a framework.

Ebony’s philosophy has two core beliefs: (1) everyone has experienced some form of trauma and (2) everyone has resiliencies that can help them overcome the trauma they have lived through. Each person has multiple capacities that can help them manage their unique difficulties. There is also a collective trauma that many experience, related to race, gender, class, ability, and sexual orientation.

Ebony is a proud wife and mother of three children. Her eldest joined the family at the age of 17. She also has a two pre-school aged children. Like many in the Black community she was “taken in” and informally adopted by her mother. Her experiences as someone who came close to entering the foster care system helped to ground her with a sense of humility that has remained with her to the present.