Our Team
Carla Vanzant - Co-Founder/Executive Director
Carla Vanzant is a change agent and community builder. With a Master of Arts in Applied Sociology in Nonprofit Leadership and Management, she has passionately worked to impact her community and this world by helping for-profit, nonprofit, and educational organizations across the country reach their full potential. Carla achieves this goal by providing consultation, coaching, and empowerment services to an array of nonprofit and community-based organizations.
In 2016, Carla co-founded Inspire Life, a nonprofit organization that embodies its mission to empower youth and families to pursue purpose, professions, and positive choices. Inspire Life is most known for providing high quality cultural, camp, and educational experiences to youth in the Central Jersey Shore. In addition to camps, Inspire Life provides resources and support to women and families to empower and strengthen individuals and communities.
In addition to her work in the nonprofit sector, Carla is also a diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging (DEIB) expert. Her work in this sphere centers around creating equitable spaces, combating diversity resistance, cultural competence & implicit bias education, and creating systems of accountability. Through her business, Vanzant Consulting, she partners with organizations, businesses, communities of faith, and other entities by providing training to C-suite professionals, staff members, and boards helping them realize their DEIB goals and evoke sustainable change.
Carla resides on the Jersey Shore with her husband and two sons, Semaj and Seth. Her passions include family, traveling, whales, and seeing communities flourish.
Semaj Vanzant - Co-Founder
Dr. Semaj Vanzant, Sr. has over a decade of experience as an organizational culture architect. He provides transformational coaching and consultation services designed to positively shift the cultures of businesses, non-profit organizations, family foundations, churches and their governing bodies. Semaj specializes in designing, implementing, and directing innovative programs that meet critical community needs.
Currently, Semaj serves as the Director of the Launch Center at Interfaith Neighbors where he has the opportunity to impact the lives of people in the Asbury Park community and beyond. He is also the founding pastor of Encounter Christ Global Fellowship, a burgeoning ministry in Neptune, NJ.
In 2016, Semaj co-founded Inspire Life, a nonprofit organization that embodies its mission to empower youth and families to pursue purpose, professions, and positive choices. Inspire Life is most known for providing high quality cultural, camp, and educational experiences to youth in the Central Jersey Shore. In addition to camps, Inspire Life provides resources and support to women and families to empower and strengthen individuals and communities.
In preparation for this work Semaj graduated Magna Cum Laude, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Minor in Psychology from Gannon University, his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his Doctor of Ministry from St. Paul’s School of Theology, where he completed a dissertation entitled, “Loved Not Judged: Developing Communities of Faith with Cultures of Love and Grace.”
When not engaging in this work, Semaj enjoys spending time with his wife and children, traveling the world (especially warm places with beaches), solving “Escape Room” puzzles, whale watching, and visiting zoos and aquariums.