OUR TEAM
FERNELL MILLER
Founder & CEO
Education and Youth Advocate. Specializes in Racial Equity and Inclusion, Identity Development, and Racial Healing Circles.
KEVIN MILLER
Chief Operating Officer
Youth Programs Director
Youth programming director, Youth advocate, Research & Development
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
Program Partner
Identity Development & Self-Actualization
Ethnomuseumologist, Mentor, Second Generation Storyteller
Founder of the American History Traveling Museum
FRAN DAVIDSON
Praxis, Early Childhood Education.
MOLLY REAGAN
Executive Assistant, Social Media Manager, Youth Consultant
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MEET OUR FOUNDER FERNELL
"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.”
