Rethinking Organizations & Community Through Peer Programs,
Restorative Practices, Conflict Resolution, Conscious Communication
Naima Shalhoub, M.A.
Naima Shalhoub is an experienced Restorative Justice Practitioner (RJ), Educator, Community Organizer and Musician. She is passionate about the intersections of art, music, trauma healing somatic, practices, community building and transformation and centers compassion, systemic change, social justice and radical joy in the work that she holds in community. As a first-generation daughter of Arab refugee immigrants, her upbringing deeply informs the heart of her work.
Currently, she runs an independent RJ consultancy where she trains, facilitates and coaches for non-profits, schools and community. In this work she applies her 14 years as a professional musician composing, performing music, theater, as well as a recently trained integrative somatic trauma healing practitioner.
In 2014 she spent a year volunteering inside San Francisco County Women’s Jail where she facilitated weekly music sessions. Through this experience she discovered the concepts of Restorative and Transformative Justice which led to her taking a position as a Restorative Justice Coordinator with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). As well, she continued her work infusing music and performance with community building and circle practice more broadly in prisons, jails and juvenile halls.
Ms. Shalhoub also served as a Restorative Justice Coordinator at a TK-8 th grade dual immersion Spanish-English public school for two years with OUSD. During that time she facilitated hundreds of RJ practices including community building circles, repairing harm and conflict circles, welcome back circles, restorative conversations, music as community building, trainings and others. She also supported the school-wide implementation of Restorative Justice and started the school’s first Peer RJ student team.
Ms. Shalhoub then transitioned to teaching music at a public charter middle school in Richmond where she integrated her RJ practices inside the classroom and within the curriculum. She then worked with Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) as a Lead Trainer, Circle-Keeper, and as the Women and Girls Community Organizer. In addition to being a school-based restorative justice coordinator with OUSD, she has held roles in schools as personal and academic counselor, dean of students and restorative justice coach the last several years.
She has recorded two albums: Siphr and her debut album, Live in San Francisco County Jail (2015), features the incarcerated women with whom she had worked. She holds a Master’s Degree in Postcolonial Anthropology.