About

About Me

Sefla Fuhrman is a talented, compassionate, and hard-working professional educator who focuses on helping people of all backgrounds achieve their goals and dreams. She strives to identify what makes people different, where their talents lie, and how to maximize them in pursuit of their lifelong goals.

Growing up, Sefla Fuhrman always knew that she wanted to spend her life helping people. This was evident early, even during her secondary education years. She was always one of the first people to volunteer for projects, and she always took the time to help her classmates with whatever they might have needed. She grew up hearing stories about her mother’s cousin, who was in one of the first Peace Corps Volunteer groups, and knew she wanted to volunteer as well. In 1996, she graduated with a BA in Anthropology from the University of Washington. 

Immediately upon graduation, Sefla Fuhrman joined the Peace Corps and served for two years as an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Guinea, West Africa. There she also honed her grant-writing and community development skills and secured funds to build an elementary school; received a grant to assist two women’s cooperative gardening groups in two separate villages; spearheaded the first seed bank in the country; received funds to obtain books for the empty library; and trained a librarian. Additionally, Sefla Fuhrman was a representative for the Women in Development group for Guinea, which assists women in attending school, gaining necessary training to start small businesses, and addresses accessibility of health care.

In 2001, she went on to earn her Master of Arts in Public Administration from Syracuse University. She was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Anthropology department and the Empowering Girls Program Manager for Girls Inc. of CNY. Shortly after graduating, Sefla Fuhrman received a very competitive management analyst internship with Clark County in Las Vegas, NV. While she was in graduate school and during her time in Las Vegas, she learned how to take her skills and apply them for the common good, combining the skills she learned in the classroom with real-life experience.

Sefla Fuhrman would earn her Ph.D. in Urban Studies from the University of New Orleans in New Orleans, LA. During her time in New Orleans, she was heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina, one of the costliest hurricanes in US history. Because of Hurricane Katrina, it took her an extra decade to complete her Ph.D., but that did not deter her. Due to the impact of this natural disaster, she lost all of her material possessions and had to start from scratch to rebuild her life. Still, she was dedicated to demonstrating the resilience that women in nontraditional fields have through her Ph.D., and she successfully finished the program. Even though the hurricane caused delays, she was able to finish her degree and help people who were in need at the same time.

In addition, Fuhrman's mother wrote a book about her, discussing the impacts of Hurricane Katrina from a cat's perspective. It is called The Adventures of Koubla and combines Fuhrman's love of cats and Katrina's massive impact on the people of New Orleans. This is a great book for people of all ages and demonstrates Fuhrman's love for the area.

While working on her doctoral degree, she completed dissertation research, focusing on women and non-traditional occupations. She took the time to interview a wide variety of people, figuring out what it was like to pursue a career that was not considered "traditional" for women, learning more about the obstacles they had to overcome as well as strategies they could share with other people looking to build a career in similar fields. She also conducted phone polls to look for common themes and cross-sections across society, taking lessons that she could apply to other areas of her work. She also focused on field work in the construction industry, learning what it was like to be a woman trying to build a career in a male-dominated field. During her dissertation research, she learned a lot, and she was able to defend her thesis well enough to get her Ph.D.

Taken together, Sefla Fuhrman has more than 25 years of experience in teaching and training. She spends significant time developing curricula for different lessons and focus areas. She has also worked to develop extensive participant progress monitoring systems. She has worked with people of all ages and skill levels, and with groups of all sizes. During the years that she has been an educator, she has also been heavily involved in converting courses from paper-based to electronic-based classes. Converting courses into a digital format makes them more accessible to people at all levels.

In addition, she has more than 25 years of experience working in both the public and private sectors. She works with diverse populations, helping them raise money, budget accordingly, write grants, and coordinate various programs to ensure they benefit as many people as possible. She also helps these programs meet tight deadlines so that they always meet or surpass expectations.

Sefla Fuhrman has more than 20 years of experience in research and consulting. She focuses on reporting, monitoring, and contract compliance. Data analysis is one of her strengths, and she focuses on key performance indicators to ensure all needs are being met during research and development projects. During the decades she has been in this area, she has helped nonprofit organizations, government agencies, universities, private companies, and collectives. The research she has done has been published in a wide variety of areas, and countless others have used it to improve their teaching methods.

Overall, Sefla Fuhrman is focused on community outreach, helping organizations of all shapes and sizes improve the lives of those they touch. She has decades of experience in this area and has fine-tuned her approach along the way. Every experience she has and every project she completes has something she can take from it. Then, she can apply those lessons to future projects, which enables her to better meet the needs of her clients and the lives of those she comes across. This unique approach has made her one of the most trusted educators and professionals in the field.

Even though she has spent a tremendous amount of time helping universities, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies, Sefla Fuhrman also understands the importance of work-life balance. She likes to spend time with her family and friends when she isn't working. She also likes to spend time outdoors, getting in touch with nature. She takes a lot of her experiences in the outdoors and those with her family members and friends and applies them to her work. That enables her to have a positive impact on everyone she interacts with.

In addition to all her hard work spent helping people, she has also demonstrated a love for animals. Fuhrman has spent a tremendous amount of time volunteering with animal rescue groups, particularly those that work with cats and kittens. While volunteering, she has learned much about cats, including cat socialization. She has even spent time bottle-feeding kittens to help them get the nutrition they need while also helping them develop their social skills. That way, when the kittens are ready to go to a new home, they are physically and socially ready as well. Volunteers like Sefla Fuhrman work hard to make sure that these animals get the love and care they need.