Javonnie Shearn is the Executive Director and Founder of Up and Over, LLC. Up and Over’s mission is to provide youth with the fundamental supports, techniques and strategies to empower them to successfully navigate life’s challenges, thereby achieving and maintaining a position of mental, spiritual and emotional balance. Up and Over was the result of her willingness to start a program for women in recovery but decided she did not want to wait until a young person needed recovery before helping. 

As an advocate for youth, Javonnie has worked for six plus years creating and facilitating workshops, trainings and dialogues that support and equip youth, educators and parents. She has also worked with various school districts as a mentor and/or provided mentors through Up and Over’s programs. She has been speaking professionally for five years, covering a range of topics to both large and small audiences. he way she tells stories to connect the lessons she's learned and shares in both entertaining and emotional!

Javonnie’s other areas of interests include issues related to youth transitioning out of correctional facilities back into the public school system and/or the workforce and educating and supporting youth and young adults experience mental illness. Being a parent of an adult son with schizophrenia and having to learn to navigate the system, she knows the emotional, mental and physical toll it can take on everyone involved. She recently began developing a program called “Someone’s Someone” which will help parents advocate for their loved ones and in July of 2017 was appointed to the Oregon State Hospital Advisory Board.