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OUR TEAM

Fernell Miller

FERNELL MILLER

Founder & CEO

Education and Youth Advocate. Specializes in Racial Equity and Inclusion, Identity Development, and Racial Healing Circles. 

KEVIN MILLER

KEVIN MILLER

LAUREL LAKOUNDJI

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JEN SELF, Ph.D LICSW

Program Partner

Educator, Innovator, Catalyst at Brick 13

Chief Operating Officer

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Youth Programs Director

Youth programming director, Youth advocate, Research & Development 

MELISSA LOWERY

MELISSA LOWERY

Program Partner

Identity Development & Media Representation 

Film Director, Community Liaison, Women's Rights Advocate 

Creator of the feature documentary Black Girl In Suburbia

DELBERT RICHARDSON

DELBERT RICHARDSON

Program Partner

Identity Development & Self-Actualization 

Ethnomuseumologist, Mentor, Second Generation Storyteller

Founder of the American History Traveling Museum

About: Team Members

FRAN DAVIDSON

Praxis, Early Childhood Education.

MOLLY REAGAN

Executive Assistant, Social Media Manager, Youth Consultant

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KEVIN MILLER

Vice President

LAURA ADENIYI

Marketing Manager 

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Youth Director and Program Facilitator

Keynote Speaker & Curriculum Writer

JAMES LAYMAN

MICHELLE MUKASA

Program Partner

Spoken-word poet who advocates for social change, restorative justice and racial healing through the art of story-telling

MEET OUR FOUNDER FERNELL

About: About

"Excellence is nothing without the courage to execute it."

 Fernell Miller

Founder - The Root of Us

My work as an educator spans 40 years and carries deep community trust among youth, families, educators and community members. I began as an education activist, youth advocate and community organizer as a result of my own experiences of classroom and curriculum erasure, anti-blackness and racial isolation; which began in elementary school, continued through secondary education, into college and still remain today. I rarely saw the positive representation of black identities I needed in order to see myself in the world, so after becoming an educator I returned to do just that. I came back to build in the place where I could disrupt the white narrative, while being a mirror for the Black, Brown, Indigenous and students of Color who were yearning for that representation as I did for so long.

 

 

“I had to create brave spaces where I could show up with my full Identity, without apology or explaining why I needed spaces that reflect the true history of Black people; by lifting up our brilliance, beauty and the resilience of black humanity which represents who I am, and who I want to be in the world.”

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