About Us
JUST Listening fosters personal, organizational, and social change and transformation through the practice of conscious, intentional, compassionate, non-egoic and non-judgmental communication skills.
JUST Listening is premised upon the beliefs that:
- Being heard empowers the speaker
- People hold the solutions to their own problems within
- Skilled listening is creative, opening up new possibilities for all involved, and
can be - a powerful tool for personal and social change.
- Although rarely consulted or listened to, people on the social margins are the best
- source of information and ideas about the issues facing them.
- Skilled listening is possible only when one is actively cultivating self-awareness
and - regular habits of reflection.
I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to teaching my blood whispers to me.-Herman Hesse
Our Team
Sharon Browning
Sharon believes that listening justly is foundational to all personal and social change and transformation, and that Love is the fiery core of it all.
She has worked with JUST Listening since 2007, helping to build and promote its offerings and managing its many volunteer programs. She is the former Executive Director of Philadelphia VIP, the hub of pro bono legal services in Philadelphia. and served as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Law School teaching both Professional Responsibility in Public Interest Practice and in the Clinical Program. She was a consultant for the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and also taught for 15 years in the Sociology Department at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA concentrating on global and income inequality issues. Sharon facilitates workshops, staff retreats, and ‘difficult’ conversations for community groups, social services workers, teachers, healthcare professionals, lawyers, judges, law students, and mediators, focusing primarily on those working with marginalized individuals and groups. She served on the team of Radical Justice, a project facilitating anti-racism work in faith-based organization, and is also a trained spiritual guide and retreat director.
Brenna McGinnis
Brenna believes that we can use our creativity and collective wisdom to build communities & organizations that support the humans who are a part of them. She is a proven team leader and service designer with experience in the hospitality, non profit and healthcare industries. As Director of Social Services & Evaluation at Broad Street Ministry she managed the design and delivery of trauma-informed programs providing support to Philadelphians experiencing homelessness and poverty.
As Design Strategist at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation she worked with clinical and administrative partners to design and implement programs to support patients and healthcare workers, including the the Elevating Well-being Initiative designed to prevent healthcare worker burnout. She holds a degree in behavioral economics, certification in creating trauma-informed communities, and has extensive training in design thinking, data analysis and visualization.
Fred Magondu
Fred Magondu has been a member of the JUST Listening (JL) Core Team since 2017, shaping the direction of the work, creating workshops and facilitating numerous others. During his incarceration, Fred was also involved with other social justice organizations, (including Let’s Circle Up, Alternatives to Violence, Community Forgiveness & Restoration and Practical Discipleship) which sought to empower prisoners and community members to identify and surface responses and solutions to the issues facing. He is a father of four teenage children and now lives in Kenya where he established JUST Listening Africa (JULIA), which aims to introduce listening justly in Kenyan prisons, and in the community. Fred also works with the marginalized indigenous Taturu community of Chagana in Tabora Province. Tanzania.
JUST Listening Mentors
Donna Duffey
Lisa Feix
Judy Miller
JoLynn Mokos
JUST Listeners
Bernadette M. Cronin-Geller
Kathy Flaherty
Terrance Graham
Catherine Mannion
Kenneth Miller
Kevin Mines
Zach Nichols
Frank Palmieri
Kareem Sampson
Virgil Shaw
Tricia Way
Andre Wright