Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Rolandria Justice-Emenuga. Though we met as first-year Duke University students in 1999, Ro and I recently reconnected and had the opportunity to discuss our respective journeys from psychology majors to educational leaders.

Recently, Ro completed her doctoral work at Georgia State University. Her award-winning dissertation, called Intersections: Black female school leaders’ lived experiences of leading and mother Black children, allowed her to interrogate her own experiences through in-depth interviews with other Black leaders who had both mothered and educated Black students. At the conclusion of her studies, Ro found herself with a new - and somewhat surprising - title: entrepreneur.

Moved by her experience as a mother and confident in her abilities as an educational leader, she became the founder of Homeplace Learning Center, a soon-to-open early learning center in Georgia. In a video-recorded conversation, we discussed her doctoral work, her educational philosophy, and her path to entrepreneurship. And, of course, we talked about how dreams must be funded (check out the GoFundMe campaign here!).

We recorded it all, so check out the conversation here (27 min). I enjoyed learning about Ro’s experience and evolution, and I hope you can learn something from the conversation, as I did.