As a child, Fatima was raised by her great-grand-mother in a very close knit southern community with love and care always present, like a village. During her adolescent years, she was abruptly moved into the northern urban city of Newark, New Jersey, just before the black power movement in 1967. Much like other children who grow up in under-resourced urban environments, her search for self was fraught with pitfalls, cliffs, and traps negatively impacting her full development. For Fatima, these perils included dropping out of high school, early pregnancies, 8 children with multiple fathers in search of a father who was not present in her life, molestation, homelessness, mis-education about her worth and what was possible for her life. Many of these experiences echoed her mother’s own life journey.

Once she took her own healing journey seriously, she came to realize the true impact of generational patterns. She decided to become more intentionally present in learning how to raise black girls and boys within a society that frequently devalues their humanity based on their race. Realizing her own daughters might fall prey to the same traps she did, Fatima decided to figure out how to interrupt the generational cycle of trauma. Even with consciousness, her children experienced their own traumas. Thus, she has dedicated her life to being a steady presence for her children and working towards assisting other young women and men in breaking the generational cycles that haunt and deny their actualized potential as individuals, families and communities in urban spaces.

Fatima made a choice to break the cycle so her children knew they had options, that the world was bigger than they imagined, and that they did not have to be defined by a societal framework that denies their humanity. Along her journey, Fatima has walked beside many people who are willing to make the same choice for their own families in order to break generational cycles and heal their communities. Fatima has committed her life to education as a means of resolving the source of trauma–not just for herself, but for everyone willing to embark on the journey to healing.

Fatima’s drive for education led her to earn a B.A. in Political Science where she focused on Democracy and American Politics, International Public Policy, African, and African-American Studies. During that period she interned at the United Nations where she helped research and write briefs on Namibia’s struggle for independence. She also completed master level course work in human resources and non-profit development. She found guidance when she decided to heal and transform the patterns in her life through education, self-development and the study of many different spiritual belief systems.

Fatima went on to earn a masters in urban education and an inter-disciplinary Ph.D. in Urban Education from Temple University, penning a thesis that sought to understand emotional resilience, motivations, and the development of a ‘caring stance’ by veteran white female teachers who have taught urban middle and high school students.