We were lucky to catch up with Sajdah Ali recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sajdah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business
They say entrepreneurship will take you places — but I never imagined it would strand me in one.
In January 2020, I landed in the British Virgin Islands on what felt like a dream assignment. I had been contracted by the BVI Ministry of Education for three months to provide staff development training and curriculum design for their special education department. It was my first official international contract, and I was electric with excitement. I remember thinking — this is it. This is where the business starts to show the world what it can do.
I was supposed to be home in North Carolina by the end of March, long before the whispers of a strange new virus became a global emergency. But the world had other plans.
Two weeks before my scheduled departure, both the BVI and U.S. governments closed their borders. No one in. No one out. Just like that — I was locked in a foreign country, alone, with no timeline, no roadmap, and no certainty about when or if I was getting home. The word “shocked” doesn’t even begin to cover it. I was bewildered. Devastated. My mind was cycling through every emotion at once while the world outside was quietly unraveling into something none of us had ever seen before.
My business back home had just started gaining real momentum after a period of rebuilding and restructuring. That BVI contract was supposed to be the launchpad — proof that my work had reach beyond borders. And now, those very borders had closed around me.
But here’s what I’ve learned about adversity: it has a way of revealing who you really are when the comfortable options are gone.
Instead of surrendering to fear and uncertainty, I made a decision. If I’m here, I’m going to build something here. Together with my partner at the time, I pivoted and established an academic clinic — the first of its kind on the island — specifically designed to serve students with disabilities outside of the traditional school system. We created a space where young people could receive academic support, social-emotional care, and pathways toward their personal goals, all in a country that had never had access to that kind of specialized service before.
The clinic was a success. What began as a crisis became a contribution — a model that the BVI could carry forward long after I was gone.
When I finally made it back home, I wasn’t the same entrepreneur who had left. I had been tested in a way I never anticipated, and I had passed — not by having all the answers, but by refusing to be paralyzed by the questions. That experience taught me that your greatest opportunities are sometimes hidden inside your most terrifying moments. You just have to be bold enough to look for them.
Sajdah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Sajdah Ali, and I’ve spent the last two decades doing one thing with relentless intention — making sure people have access to the education, tools, and systems they deserve.
My journey didn’t begin in a boardroom or with a business plan. It began with a belief: that education is the most powerful force for human transformation, and that far too many people — students, educators, communities, entire nations — are operating without the support systems they need to thrive.
I started my career in the nonprofit sector, working in developing countries to help build educational infrastructure from the ground up. In regions where resources were limited but human potential was boundless, I helped lay the foundation for systems that could uplift entire communities. From there, my path expanded into strategic consulting, project leadership, and program development for governments, private firms, and international organizations. I’ve worked everywhere from U.S. classrooms to Tanzanian ministries to policy programs in the Caribbean, the UAE, and beyond.
Today, I lead two certified consulting businesses headquartered in Durham, North Carolina — Assay World Consultants and IEP Consultants — both certified as Women and Minority-Owned Businesses (WBE/SBE). Together, these two divisions represent over 20 years of expertise, a global reach, and a deeply human mission.
Assay World Consultants is my global strategy arm. We partner with governments, corporations, and institutions to design and deliver transformative education and workforce solutions — from curriculum development and instructional design to DEI consulting, regulatory compliance training, educational technology implementation, and strategic program design. Whether a client needs a single training module or a nationwide educational reform initiative, we meet them where they are and build toward where they need to go.
IEP Consultants is where my heart for inclusion lives loudest. As a licensed special educator with a Master’s in Special Education and ongoing doctoral studies in International Education and Globalization, I have dedicated a significant chapter of my career to advocating for students with disabilities and the educators who serve them. IEP Consultants provides tailored IEP development, school-based disability programming, inclusive education design, workforce and staff development, assistive technology solutions, and instructional support across K–12, community college, university, and professional school settings.
What sets us apart? It comes down to four things. First, lived global experience — with work spanning more than a dozen countries across multiple continents, we don’t just understand diverse education systems intellectually; we’ve built within them. Second, cultural intelligence — we don’t apply cookie-cutter solutions; we take the time to understand the cultural context, the community, and the people before designing any strategy. Third, depth of expertise — with a career spanning Special Education, Curriculum Design, Workforce Training, DEI, EdTech, Adult Learning, and Higher Education, we bring a 360-degree perspective to every engagement. And fourth, purpose — this work isn’t transactional for us. Every contract, every training session, every curriculum we design is tied to a larger vision of a more inclusive, equitable, and opportunity-rich world.
What am I most proud of? Honestly — the firsts. Being the first to design and deliver a series of special education workshops for teachers and administrators across the state of North Carolina through the NC Center for the Advancement of Teachers. Establishing the first clinical-based academic support center for students with disabilities in the British Virgin Islands. Developing a school feeding program that reached over half a million students in Arusha, Tanzania. These weren’t just projects. They were gaps in the world that needed filling, and we filled them.
What do I want potential clients, partners, and followers to know? That when you work with Assay World or IEP Consultants, you are not getting a vendor. You are getting a partner who is deeply invested in your mission, your people, and your outcomes. We show up with precision, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to excellence — because the communities we serve deserve nothing less.
Global expertise. Local impact. Human-centered at the core.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
Honestly? I never set out to be an entrepreneur. I set out to change lives — and eventually, the work itself made the decision for me.
It started in the classroom. In the early 2000s, I was a licensed special education teacher, showing up every day for students who the system too often overlooked. I was passionate, I was trained, and I was good at what I did. But I kept seeing the same pattern everywhere I looked — educators who didn’t have the tools they needed, schools that didn’t have the systems in place, and children with disabilities who were falling through the cracks not because they lacked potential, but because the adults around them lacked support.
So I started doing something about it — quietly, on the side.
While teaching full time, I began taking on training work, designing professional development workshops, and consulting for schools and organizations that needed guidance on special education programming, inclusive practices, and curriculum design. It wasn’t a business yet. It was just me, answering a call I couldn’t ignore.
Then the NGO work began to open doors I hadn’t even known existed.
Through my nonprofit work, I found myself traveling internationally, partnering with organizations to help build educational infrastructure in communities with enormous need and enormous heart. I worked with the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teachers, where I designed and delivered the first-ever series of special education workshops for teachers and administrators across the entire state. I collaborated with the NC Department of Health and Human Services on developing a systemwide assessment model for children with disabilities across Durham. I partnered with Sister Cities International to design and implement a school feeding program that reached over half a million students in Arusha, Tanzania. I developed a graduate student teachers study abroad program through North Carolina Central University — taking future educators to Tanzania to learn, serve, and grow.
Each opportunity led to another. Each country, each contract, each classroom left me more certain that this work — this specific intersection of education, training, and systems design — was what I was built for.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it, the side hustle stopped being a side hustle.
It was gradual. There was no single lightning bolt moment, no dramatic resignation letter. It was the slow, undeniable accumulation of evidence that the consulting work had outgrown its “extra” status. The contracts were growing. The impact was compounding. The demand was real. And my heart was telling me what my calendar had already confirmed — this was the work.
By the mid-2010s, I had made the full commitment. Assay World Consultants and IEP Consultants became the vessels for everything I had spent over a decade building — the expertise, the relationships, the global perspective, and the deep, unshakeable belief that education done right can transform not just individuals, but entire communities and nations.
Looking back, I don’t think of those early years as a side hustle at all. I think of them as my apprenticeship — years of showing up, learning, serving, and quietly building the foundation for something much larger than I could have planned. The business didn’t replace my passion. It became it.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Reputation isn’t something you build by talking about yourself. It’s something that gets built in the quiet moments — when you show up anyway, when you solve the problem no one else could, when you stay when it would have been easier to leave.
Looking back across my journey, I can identify a few things that I believe have been the foundation of whatever reputation I’ve earned in this space.
The first is consistency of purpose. From my earliest days as a special education teacher to designing curriculum for governments across multiple continents, the throughline has never changed — I am here to make sure people have access to the education and support they deserve. Clients, partners, and communities can feel when someone’s work is driven by genuine conviction versus a paycheck. I’d like to believe they’ve always been able to feel that in mine.
The second is a willingness to go where the work is needed most. Building a reputation in this industry isn’t just about being excellent in familiar territory — it’s about being willing to step into complex, underserved, and unfamiliar spaces and deliver anyway. Whether it was designing the first-ever special education workshop series for the state of North Carolina, building educational infrastructure in Tanzania, or establishing a first-of-its-kind learning clinic for students with disabilities in the British Virgin Islands — I have consistently shown up for the firsts. The gaps nobody else was filling. That kind of work gets noticed. Not because you’re seeking attention, but because the need was real and the results were undeniable.
The third is how I handled the unexpected. Nothing tested my professional reputation quite like being locked in a foreign country during a global pandemic with no timeline for getting home. That moment could have defined me as someone who fell apart under pressure. Instead, it became one of the clearest demonstrations of who I actually am as a consultant and as a leader — someone who pivots with purpose, who finds the opportunity inside the crisis, and who leaves every place better than she found it. The academic clinic we built in the BVI during COVID wasn’t just a business decision. It was a statement about my values. And people remember that.
The fourth is breadth without sacrificing depth. One of the things that I believe sets me apart — and that clients have come to trust — is that my expertise isn’t siloed. I bring over 25 years of experience spanning Special Education, Curriculum Design, Workforce Training, DEI, EdTech, Adult Learning, Higher Education, and international program development. That breadth means I can meet organizations at any point in their journey and speak credibly to the full picture. But I’ve never traded depth for range — every area I work in, I work in with rigor, with evidence, and with licensed expertise behind it.
And finally — the work itself has always been my loudest endorsement. From the NC Department of Health and Human Services to Durham Public Schools, from Brevard County to the British Virgin Islands Ministry of Education, the clients who have trusted me with their most pressing educational challenges have done so because someone else who trusted me pointed them in my direction. That kind of word-of-mouth credibility only comes from one place — doing the work exceptionally, every single time.
Reputation, in my experience, is simply the accumulation of moments where you chose excellence over convenience, people over profit, and purpose over playing it safe. I’ve tried to make that choice consistently. And I believe that consistency — more than any marketing strategy or business development plan — is what has carried my name forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://AssayWorld.com
- Instagram: @iep_consultant, @iamsajdahali
- Linkedin: Assay World Consultants, IEP Consultants, Sajdah Ali, M.Ed
Image Credits
@tyrone.aiken.7