Natural Inclination is a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm that provides critical race theory-aligned “antiracism” workshops, consulting, and speeches on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

According to the right-leaning Parents Defending Education’s “consultant report card” for Natural Inclination, the firm has done business in the South Middleton School District of Pennsylvania. Additionally, according to the firm’s testimonials page, it has also done business with Hill Top Academy, a K-12 school within the Capital Area Intermediate Unit of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. ^{1 2}

Background

Natural Inclination was founded in November 2019 by Amber Sessoms, a social justice activist, in Pennsylvania as a limited liability company. At the time, Sessoms was working as a school psychologist in the Central Dauphin School District in Pennsylvania, but later left that position in March 2021. ³

The firm offers a variety of services to clients to help them attain critical race theory-aligned “antiracism” objectives as part of its “3D Power Tools Framework,” including assessments; “office hours” (60-minutes per month of virtual conversational support); “Monologues” (keynote speeches and writing sessions); and “Framework,” which, according to the firm’s website, helps clients build “liberatory leadership” by understanding “the power of devaluation of minoritized groups,” “the power to disrupt devaluing beliefs,” and “translating” the aforesaid understandings into “a powerful stance of divestment from policies and practices that maintain inequity.” ⁴

According to the right-leaning Parents Defending Education’s “consultant report card” for Natural Inclination, the firm has done business in the South Middleton School District of Pennsylvania. Additionally, according to the firm’s testimonials page, it has also done business with Hill Top Academy, a K-12 school within the Capital Area Intermediate Unit of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. ^{5 6}

Activities

On September 8, 2021, the South Middleton School District signed a contract with Natural Inclination to hire Sessoms as a consultant as part of its new “JEDI” program to foster “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.” Later, in October of that year, South Middleton School District superintendent Matt Strine along with various school staffers gathered for the inaugural meeting of the JEDI steering committee, which focused on the creation of a strategic plan to build “safe” spaces for students wherein they could “develops their own agency and social responsibility by recognizing, naming, and critically interrogating the world to make sense of injustice.” ^{7 8}

According to Parents Defending Education, the JEDI program “represents a Trojan horse for ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’ ideologues” to facilitate the introduction of “key principles of critical race theory.” ⁹ In that vein, according to The Sentinel, a local Pennsylvania paper, in March 2021, roughly 100 parents calling themselves “South Middleton Parent Advocates” met with Superintendent Strine to voice their concerns about the JEDI program. ¹⁰

Amber Sessoms

Amber Sessoms is the founder and principal consultant of Natural Inclination. During the firm’s founding, Sessoms was working as a school psychologist in the Central Dauphin School District in Pennsylvania. However, she later left that position in March 2021. She is the vice chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Professionals of Central Pennsylvania and an executive board member of Girls on the Run Lancaster, an afterschool athletics program. ¹¹ Sessoms is also a member of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Work Group, the Pennsylvania Equity State Systems of Support, HEAL PA Trauma-informed Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania School board Association Equity Task Force, and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. ^{12 13}

1. “About Our School.” Capitol Area Intermediate Unit. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://www.caiu.org/students-families/grade-k-12-students/hill-top-academy/about-hill-top
2. “Testimonials.” Natural Inclination. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://www.aninclination.com/testimonials
3. “Natural Inclination.” Parents Defending Education: Consultant Report Card. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/natural-inclination/
4. “3D Power Tools Framework.” Natural Inclination. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://www.aninclination.com/3d-power-tools
5. “About Our School.” Capitol Area Intermediate Unit. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://www.caiu.org/students-families/grade-k-12-students/hill-top-academy/about-hill-top
6. “Testimonials.” Natural Inclination. Accessed December 6, 2021.  https://www.aninclination.com/testimonials
7. “Natural Inclination.” Parents Defending Education: Consultant Report Card. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/natural-inclination/
8. “Diversity and Inclusivity.” South Middleton School District. Accessed December 6, 2021. http://www.smsd.us/welcome/equity__diversity__and_inclusion
9. “Natural Inclination.” Parents Defending Education: Consultant Report Card. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/natural-inclination/
10.  Cress, Joseph. “The Diversity Initiative: South Middleton parents voice concern about influence of diversity initiative on curriculum.” The Sentinel. Aril 9, 2021. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://cumberlink.com/news/local/education/the-diversity-initiative-south-middleton-parents-voice-concern-about-influence-of-diversity-initiative-on-curriculum/article_43a671ca-27ba-5570-a6a3-eec7dddebb54.html
11. “Our Programs.” Girls on the Run Lancaster. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://www.gotrlancaster.org/Our-Programs
12. “Official Bio.” Natural Inclination. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://www.aninclination.com/about
13. “Natural Inclination.” Parents Defending Education: Consultant Report Card. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/natural-inclination/