Meet Dr. Letitia Johnson-Davis | Founder/Vision Keeper, Nia Knowledge Network

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Letitia Johnson-Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Letitia, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
This is the second iteration of my transformative education consultancy business and at both turns the thinking was the same after working for others: Bet on me. I trust my work ethic. I trust my word. I trust that I will give my best effort to follow through. I trust that I will try. I trust that what I have to share is worthwhile. I trust that my experiences, my triumphs as well as my challenges, have informed my thinking and my approach to the work, and that these unearthed insights from my journey may be of support to another’s journey. We know this nation’s education system was not created to educate the very communities it actively oppresses. To sit as a school leader working intentionally within the system, girded with socially just understandings broader than its confines and armed further still with a vision of our babies’ humanities being honored through your school’s portals, first of all, takes great courage and strength and even more, requires support. To expect that support will come from the system complicit in generational failure to your community is futile. This is where Nia Knowledge Network comes in 🙂 At Nia Knowledge Network, I’m grateful that I get the opportunity to support and coach school leaders of traditionally underserved communities of color, in revisiting and often revoicing their purpose, their why in this work and then leading from their vision space, striving towards self-selected goals, responsive to the communities they serve and the limitlessness of their children’s potentials.

What should our readers know about your business?
Nia Knowledge Network is a business that is driven by the desire to be of support to school leaders and the communities they serve that want to push past the systemic and structural barriers set before them, as it is education that truly is the foundation for future generations and our people’s collective liberation. Leading as Founder and VisionKeeper of Nia Knowledge Network, I am a career educator with nearing three decades of experiential wisdom and I do this work in harmony with the work of being a mother to two Black boys. Nia Knowledge Network started in its first iteration not long after my first sun was born; its second iteration came after leading the elementary school for both my suns and subsequently directing services to support additional school communities in their respective liberatory journeys. Additionally, when Nia Knowledge Network got moving again in 2023, it was also at a time of leadership turnover at both of my suns’ schools and being able to support my suns by supporting those who make decisions that impact the learning landscape for not just my babies but also all those in school community with them, has been far reaching, fruitful work. In other words, what is best as a conscious mama/career educator for my babies will be of benefit to the community–that’s been a key driver in our expansion at Nia Knowledge Network. And realizing that as a mother, I could do both and over time, as a mother, raised within community, I have no choice but to continue to do this work. My children deserve nothing less; that must also be true for all our babies and forward then we must go. Learn; love your person. Learn; live your purpose. Learn; lift your people.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Culture/People – Black LA: Leimert Park/AfricaTown, Reparations Club, Malik Books, The Knowledge Shop, Prince Mural/Crenshaw YMCA, Paul Williams Mural/Crenshaw & 59th, “Our Mighty Contribution” Crenshaw Wall→Destination Crenshaw, and drive by Baldwin Hills Elementary Pilot on Obama and its muraled walls of cultural affirmation and academic achievement…you’ll also get another LA Landmark Mural, Legends Never Die at Obama/LaCienega too 🙂
Music: Hollywood Bowl & Blue Note LA (always someone here/something happening…it’s LA)
Sand/Sea: South Bay Beaches – Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan, Hermosa & Redondo

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My love and appreciation must first go to my family: both my family that raised and nurtured me as well as my family that I raise and nurture, as my family gives me my direct why everyday. I extend that thanks to my community: we build and support one another as we all hold the same wants and needs for our children, our collective legacy. And to the generations of our community’s families denied even the access we hold at present and instead held the fight towards the mere recognition of the wholeness of our humanity, to my ancestors I give boundless gratitude. Thanks likewise goes to all the school communities, and their teachers, support staff, and families, that have welcomed me, stretched me, built with and alongside me but especially the school community where I served as principal and parent, Baldwin Hills Elementary Pilot (BHEP). There is no me without all of this richness of community which assuredly means immense gratitude to the elders and master teachers as well for their lessons, guidance, and models of untarnished tenacity; I am humbly grateful and know any recognition of my successes lies upon those who have come before me and lives with my community.

Website: https://niaknowledgenetwork.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niaknowledgenetwork/