ABOUT US

A Better Force was created with the vision of making the world a more equitable place by giving people, communities, and organizations the tools to transform and empower themselves. Early in their careers, Saamiya and Sarah realized that many leadership trainings focus on short term, feel-good messages that overemphasize individual progress, instead of offering strategies for long-term, systemic change. The trainings also did not take issues of equity into account, which made the solutions impractical for BIPOC and other historically marginalized groups, who often have to overcome significant structural barriers in their lives. As immigrants in the US who were also women of color, Saamiya and Sarah started A Better Force to bring their unique voices into the leadership training industry and offer solutions that are rooted in equity and systemic change.

Our Company and Team

Saamiya Seraj, PhD

Saamiya Seraj is the co-founder and CEO of A Better Force, where she coaches young professionals, facilitates workshops and courses, and consults with companies on their equity and management issues. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a PhD in Civil Engineering in 2014. After her PhD, she worked for five years in the construction industry, improving safety and quality standards on construction sites, and advocating for building designs that took occupants’ well-being and mental health into account. While working in industry, Saamiya realized that there was a lack of effective leadership training, which took systematic inequities into account. She started hosting workshops and conversations around this topic, which eventually led to the creation of A Better Force. She’s passionate about empowering individuals, especially BIPOC professionals, and helping companies create a thriving and equitable work culture. Saamiya grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh and currently lives in Austin, TX. Among her volunteer roles, she serves as chair for the GAACC Women’s Club, the VP of professional development at Ascend Austin and organizes various community celebrations like the Eid Celebration and the Mid-Autumn Festival in Mueller since 2022. She is a Leadership Austin alum and is a recent cancer survivor of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

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CO-FOUNDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Sarah Seraj, PhD

Sarah Seraj is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at A Better Force, where she facilitates workshops and courses, and consults with companies on improving workplace culture by using the latest findings from the social sciences. In her data consultancy work, she uses computational language tools to answer social psychological questions and come up with best practices for companies. As a woman of color and an immigrant, one of the main goals of her work is to have more inclusive spaces for women, BIPOC, and other underrepresented groups by tackling systematic inequalities in organizations. Sarah started her career in environmental engineering but transitioned to the field of psychology when she realized engineering problems had social and psychological aspects that were often ignored in traditional solutions. This led to her doctoral degree in Social Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where her research focused on social upheavals, cultural changes and racial issues. She is currently based in Austin, Texas and serves as a board member for AACHI, a local organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Asians in Central Texas. She is an alum of the New Philanthropy Board Mentors of Color Program as well as an alum of the Leadership Austin program.

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CO-FOUNDER, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

In our culture, offering a cup of tea is an invitation to linger and listen to your stories. We’d love to hear yours.

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Awards & Recognitions

Winners of Austin Young Chamber’s FAVE YP-Led Business 2025
Winners of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging Business of the Year 2024
Nomination for the Austin Business Journal’s Women in Business 2025
Nomination for the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2025
Nomination for the Austin Young Chamber’s FAVE Community-Minded Business 2024
Featured in publications like CNN, Forbes, The Guardian, Authority Magazine on Medium and others.

We have worked with:

We worked with A Better Force to coordinate a seminar at our company. They were very accommodating to our needs and provided a great talk to support a positive and inclusive corporate culture. There were close to 100 people in attendance, and the reception was great. Thanks again!

- Eddie Wong, Samsung Austin Semiconductor
I had the pleasure to attend a DEI presentation by A Better Force. Their exceptional presentation skills and excellent information definitely will assist me understand DEI and its importance in the workforce. Thank you and I hope to attend one of your workshops soon.

- Paul Aguilar, EGBI
A Better Force is so thoughtful in holding space for tough subjects and conversations in the workshops they facilitate. It's hard to condense a lot of information in a 1.5 hour workshop but their workshops are rooted in so much knowledge and reflection that tackles the root of these issues! I felt really grateful to learn from them.

Jennifer Xia, AFSSA
A Better Force has been an important, ongoing consultant for our company for over a year now. As an AI company in the HR technology space, we needed their exact type of expertise, which has helped us prioritize and deliver an ethical product to market. They are a tremendous resource and I would highly recommend their services. Our entire staff also went through one of their corporate workshops and it was a great experience for our team.

William Rose, Talent Select
The team at A Better Force is truly committed to creating strategic, emotionally intelligent, compassionate, educational conversations around the much-needed topics of equity, diversity, inclusion, and leadership development. They are leaders in the true sense of the word: guiding and supporting folks towards a more positive and healthy vision for work, life, community, and civil society.

- Lorelei Gonzales, HERdacity
I have known the co-founders of A Better Force for several years and have used their services in the past. This year when I was writing a proposal to NSF with a large team, I reached out to Dr Seraj with the goal of creating new workshops. She took the time to understand the proposed project, the composition of the team and the requirements from the FOA. Within a few days they got back to me with beautiful images and fantastic ideas for workshops. I look forward to working with them again.

Dr. Sriramya Nair, Cornell University

Leadership Austin Conference

Sarah conducts a workshop on effective allyship. © Leadership Austin, Charlie Palafox, Allie Nelson
UT Women's History Month

Saamiya talks about the importance of using our voice to tell our stories
EGBI Panel - Chat with Successful Busines Owners

Sarah talks the importance of community partnerships © EGBI, Tharunkumar A.R.
Diversity Ethnic Chamber Alliance (DECA) Summit

Strategizing with entrepreneurs from historically marginalized communities
EGBI Allyship Workshop

Sarah discusses systems of oppression and ways to divest from it

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The idea behind A Better Force is to create a better, more equitable world by giving people, communities and companies the tools to transform and empower themselves. We have a special focus on the BIPOC and immigrant community, and other historically marginalized groups, whose unique challenges are often left out in traditional leadership spaces.
That’s simple – because we believe you can’t have one without the other. Being a true leader means ensuring that everyone has the opportunity and resources to thrive. In our present world rife with injustice, people can’t thrive without an increased focus on equity.
For companies, we offer a variety of services under the umbrella of change-making initiatives and leadership training - we don’t believe in a one size fits all approach. We conduct customized training and workshops that are between 1-4 hours, or over multiple sessions. We do organizational assessments and audits of company processes. Companies also can engage us as retainers where we serve as accountability partners throughout the year. Our favorite way to do things is in an all encompassing package instead of one-off training, since we find that multiple touch points tend to be more effective.
For individuals, our services include one-on-one coaching and leadership training, as well as cohort programs and courses. We also offer low-cost community workshops as a way to keep our services accessible to a wide variety of clients. Offerings may vary by season, but please contact us if there is something in particular you’re interested in, or stay in touch through our newsletter and social media.
For more details, please check out our Services page.
You can email us at contact@abetterforce.com or use our website’s Contact Us page to send us your information. If you prefer social media, you can send us a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn. You can find all our socials at linktr.ee/abetterforce.
When clients reach out, we do a free 30-minute consultation where we talk about their developmental objectives and assess their individual or organizational needs. For larger companies, there may be follow-up interviews and discussions to better understand the company’s specific work culture and organization. After our initial assessment, we create a customized training (either one-to-one sessions or group workshops) and/or a consultancy plan to navigate through the client’s unique challenges.
We believe the skills and insights one can learn from our developmental and leadership training is essential to creating an empowered life. So, whether you are a student, a young professional or startup, or a veteran of your industry, we encourage anyone looking for growth to sign up for our services. If you are feeling unsure, book a 30-minute free consultation to discuss more and see if you would benefit from our services.
We have a lot of free resources on our blog and social media channels – please follow us to take advantage of this. We also have a free monthly book club, where we read books by women of color and discuss issues of personal development and empowerment. Finally, we partner with equity-focused organizations to do community workshops that are available to you for free or at a low cost. Please sign up to our newsletter to be in the loop for these events!
In many industries there is still a sense that leadership training should be reserved for higher management positions. However, this is a myth. Actual workplace data suggests that mentoring young professionals from the start of their career yields much higher long-term benefits for both the individual and the company. At A Better Force, our workshops actively work to dispel such linear career trajectory myths, as we believe leadership training is invaluable for individuals at all stages of their careers for continued growth and success.
A 2017 research study by Gallup shows that only 30% of US employees are engaged with their work. Lower engagement is correlated with lower sales, reduced productivity and decreased customer satisfaction. Our workshops, which prioritize equity and a person’s overall well-being, will help to create more thoughtful and empathetic leaders, as well as an engaged and motivated workforce. Overall, when employees are feeling well taken care of and confident to bring their ideas to the table, and leaders are effective at managing that diverse talent, companies will become innovative with their business solutions and more adaptable to the challenges of the post-pandemic world. This innovation and adaptability are key to winning over customers consistently and thriving in any industry.