Hi,
I’m Dr. Roshaunda, I’m a writer, writing coach, and executive coach who serves as a cultural custodian for Black women academics. I help you navigate and hone your writing, leadership, and legacy through the life cycle of your career. I offer coaching (dissertation, fiction and nonfiction book projects, executive coaching) and community. I lean into the mindsets and methods of 19th Century Black women, who built the structures we stand on, to achieve modern outcomes: writing with authority, dismantling imposter syndrome, and crafting a leadership style rooted in community and culminating with legacy. I coach Black women academics to write, lead, and live as if what you create will become the primary sources to guide future generations. By blending the wisdom of 19th Century Black women’s Life, Education, Literature, and Art (LELA) with the skill of book and writing coaching and the strategy of executive coaching, I help Black women scholars reclaim the blueprint of our ancestral aunties and turn your labor into a lasting legacy. I strive to promote the collective vision, joy, and peace of African American women.
As a person who is very concerned about preserving and sharing history and historical perspectives that have been forgotten, neglected, and are being erased, I started LELA House to support Black women who magnify our stories. LELA House is built on the Life, Education, Literature, and Art (LELA) of our 19th Century ancestral aunties, whose lineage helps us create our legacy. Through LELA House, I help you navigate and manage your processes, incorporate research in an authentic way that maintains and highlights your unique voice, and write your vision.
I hold a bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. in English, with an academic specialty in US literature from the long 19th Century (particularly literature by and/or about African Americans). My academic writing focuses on that period, and I also write biblical and historical drama and fiction.
I am a certified executive life coach, certified fiction book coach, certified bibliocoach, and certified life story coach. I’ve spent most of my career supporting people on their writing journeys, and I’ve learned that writing is never just about the writing. It’s about navigating emotions, habits, and mindsets. My background in research and writing, combined with my coaching practice, allows me to hold a safe and structured space for clients where you can navigate your research, hone your writing, and grow into your potential. In other words, God created me and equipped me to do this exact work to support you.
I believe God created every individual (including you) with a unique design to transform your community, and by extension, the world. I can’t wait to work with you and see how God moves through you.
A Few of My Favorite Things
Education – I love education. I have worked in both higher education and secondary education, spending the bulk of my career leading academic teams at the post-secondary level. I understand what it is to lead teams of academic professionals and what it’s like in the throes of day-to-day classroom management. I have a heart for both students and the professionals who serve them. And having run multiple university writing centers, I enjoy working with academic writers and writing. I’m a lifelong learner, and I have yet to find something that doesn’t pique my interest at least a little. I’m particularly fond of the humanities and arts, but I also love science and data. If you are a doctoral student, college or university faculty member, or higher education administrator, you are my people. Please reach out to me, so we can begin our work together.
Writing – I enjoy working with writers who uplift African American women, are strong researchers, and whose writing has a historical bent. I love books that highlight a place or profession or group of people or historical moment or historical movement. I read a little bit of most genres (except horror), and below are some of my favorites. If your writing is similar to any of the works or categories below, please reach out to me, so we can begin our work together. Please note I don’t work with children’s literature, middle grade, YA, or poetry. I do work with romance, but I prefer to work with sweet, closed door, and Christian romance.
Fiction – I love historical fiction, fantasy, romance, romantasy, Westerns, steampunk, alternate histories, alternative timelines, historical retellings, speculative fiction, and science fiction. I love everything by Octavia E. Butler, especially Wild Seed, one of my favorite books of all time. I’m a fan of Lindsay Buroker, and the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I also really like Beverly Jenkins’ historical novels. Some of my recent favorites are: Unexpected Diva (Tiffany L. Warren), Underground Airlines (Ben H. Winters), Personal Librarian (Marie Benedict and Victoria Chirstopher Murray), When Women Were Dragons (Kelly Barnhill), What You Leave Behind (Wanda M. Morris), Yellow Wife and House of Eve (Sadeqa Johnson), James (Percival Everett), and Hester (Laurie Lico Albanese).
Nonfiction – I love to read about people, stories, and histories that often go untold in history books. The Hemingses of Monticello (Annette Gordon Reed) is one of my favorites. Another is Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom (William Craft and Ellen Craft). Some of my recent favorites are: They Were Her Property (Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers), She Came to Slay (Erica Armstrong Dunbar), Unbought and Unbossed (Shirley Chisholm), Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot), and The Conjuring of America (Lindsey Stewart).
Follow me on Storygraph to see more of what I’m reading.
