Real. Relevant. Ready.

My Story:

My great grandmother, whose name I share, was from Aleppo, Syria.

The name Shafia means Healer, someone with courage and heart who brings peace and love to those who suffer.

I grew up in San Francisco amidst many cultures with a Chinese-Indonesian mother and a Syrian-Irish father. My maternal grandparents were refugees during World War II and came to this country for a better life, and my paternal grandparents lived through the Great Depression. 

My mom and dad were raised with the mindset that their parents’ sacrifices needed to be worth something and they created a life full of opportunity for my brother and me.

When I was 14, my parents moved abroad and I went to boarding school in Southern California. There, I found joy and love in other adult mentors, teachers, and friends. They became my family. Living in close quarters, you can’t hide! It was also during those adolescent years that I learned about relationships—and that how we treat each other matters.

My Bio:

Shafia Zaloom is a health educator, consultant, author, and parent whose work centers on human development, community building, ethics and social justice. Her approach involves creating opportunities for students and teachers to discuss the complexities of teen culture and decision-making with straightforward, open, and honest dialogue. She has worked with thousands of children and their families in her role as teacher, coach, administrator, board member, and outdoor educator. Shafia has contributed articles to The New York Times, The Washington Post and numerous parenting blogs. Her book, Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between has been reviewed as “the ultimate relationship guide for teens of all orientations and identities.” It has been described as a book that “every teen, and every parent and educator - and every other adult who interacts with teens - should read.” Shafia develops curricula and teaches kindergarten through graduate school students in schools across the country; provides workshops for parenting adults,  facilitates professional development for educators and consults for the film industry, hospitals and government organizations. She was honored by the San Francisco Giants Foundation in 2018 for her years long work with Aim High, a program that expands opportunities for underserved students and their teachers through tuition-free summer learning enrichment, and received the California state-wide (CAHPERD) Health Teacher of the Year Award for 2021. Her work has been featured by many media outlets including, The New York Times, USA Today, NPR, KQED, and PBS. Shafia is currently promoting her new book, Getting Real About Sex Ed: What Today’s Students Need, which has been reviewed as “Urgent, practical, inclusive and compassionate…a book for all teachers because it speaks to challenges, topics, and questions that all K-12 teachers will encounter.” She began her professional life working in residential treatment facilities for drug addicted youth in rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. There she facilitated psychoeducational and psychodynamic groups, educated residents in behavioral strategies for recovery, and incorporated parents, teachers, social workers and probation officers in the treatment of the whole child. That experience continues to inform her work as an educator today.

My Approach

My “Real. Relevant. Ready.” approach to Health Education creates a safe environment in which students and I “Keep it Real” and discuss the complexities of teen culture and decision making with straight-forward, open and honest dialogue. I have insight into and understand the lives of teenagers, the issues they face, and the daily challenges and successes they navigate. I provide medically accurate information on the topics we cover as well as credible resources that are relevant to what teenagers are interested in, grappling with, and need to know to make positive and productive decisions in their lives. I encourage students to self-reflect and be self-aware, as well as guide students to connect with their moral compass, so that they are ready to make decisions that honor their integrity.

My Values:

It all comes down to education and relationships.

Following in the footsteps of my grandmother, who helped raise me, I became a social worker. 

Eventually I realized Prevention and Education was the way I could make the greatest impact. So I became a health educator focused on the real issues teenagers wrestle with every day. 

In a culture that all too often pushes young people to disconnect, evade vulnerability, and prioritize performance, kids are looking for more connection and guidance. Helping young people learn how to cultivate healthy relationships is my deepest offering. 

My work may sound like it’s about consent. But in truth it’s really about love and connection. 

My goal is to help young people understand that strong, ethical boundaries of consent make the lessons of love safe and more powerful. I create spaces in which two skill sets intersect. One is about content: the concrete information young people need if they are to build healthy relationships. The second is the modeling of how to be in a relationship, one that is grounded in authentic connection, appropriate boundaries, healthy vulnerability, and effective communication. 

Additionally I try to support parents, because anyone who is a parenting adult is also a teacher. Our classrooms are in the kitchen, the car, when we say goodnight and are present after a really tough day. Curating the space to openly love is intentional and chosen. I hope you will join me in creating more of this space for all of our children.