About
Meet Jaz
Jaz Gray is a researcher, patient advocate, transformational speaker, content creator, and social entrepreneur from Memphis, Tennessee. She speaks, moderates panels, and leads workshops on a range of topics including the power of stories, the representation of disability in the media, healthy self-image, quality patient care, empowerment, bullying, resilience, and divine purpose.
Jaz has been featured on affiliate networks for NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. She has worked for media publications including the Nashville Tennessean and the Louisville Courier-Journal and entertainment corporations including Cartoon Network, BET, and Paramount Pictures where she co-founded an ad-hoc committee to address health-related diversity. Jaz’s work has been featured in publications including the women’s empowerment bestseller “Storealities: A Collection of Stories by Empowering Women to Empower Women.”
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Her first short film, a day-in-the-life documentary called Ryan's Story, premiered at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA. Since 2006, her nonprofit Jaz's Jammies Inc. has donated over 6,000 pairs of new pajamas to sick and displaced children and created philanthropic opportunities for over 2,000 people. The organization has expanded to organize lively, themed pajama parties for kids in children’s hospitals including the signature Jaz’s Jammies Carnival of Dreams. Jaz is passionate about empowering marginalized, misrepresented or stigmatized groups of people. She is motivated to use every gift and opportunity to glorify God and help transform lives.
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She holds a B.S. from Middle Tennessee State University where she graduated summa cum laude and was awarded both the Community Service Award and the President’s Award. She holds an M.A. from Syracuse University where she was a Turner Diversity Fellow and Graduate School Master’s Prize recipient. She was also one of 20 students selected for the 2010 USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team. Jaz has conducted communication research in Ghana and the U.K. as well as presented research in China. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication as a Roy H. Park Doctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she is an instructor.
Accomplishments
Education
Philanthropy
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JAZ'S JAMMIES:
MISSION
Our mission is to show children love through pajamas and provide communities with the opportunity to serve others. Through fulfilling the need for pajamas in children's hospitals and homeless shelters, we provide comfort and normalcy for children enduring challenging times, uplifting both the children and families we serve.
Producing
Jaz has also added producing to her list of accomplishments. See below:
I am passionate about empowering marginalized, misrepresented or stigmatized groups of people. We can make a difference.
- Jaz Gray
My Mission
To encourage other believers and facilitate transformational change in the lives of the disempowered and dispirited.
