ABOUT THE FOUNDERS

Sheila Flemming, Ph.D.

A Ph.D. in African and African American History, Sheila Flemming is Founder and President of the Black Rose Foundation for Children. The mission of the foundation is to provide resources to organizations seeking to empower children, through programs, services, and advocacy. She is also serving as Associate Editor of Phylon: The Clark Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture and Adjunct Professor in the Department of African American, Africana Women Studies and History at Clark Atlanta University. She has served in the professoriate at several universities including Bethune-Cookman University, University of Texas, and University of Maryland. Sheila has spent most of her career in the academy as historian, dean, and vice president. As professor her goal is to empower students to see the world as a continuum of humanity and to encourage them to find their niche in it.

Sheila is author of Bethune-Cookman College 1904-1994: The Answered Prayer to a Dream and she has contributed articles on African and African America women, Nelson Mandela, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Black Women’s Health in published works and reviewed textbooks for the UNA/USA. Her teaching and research interests include the history of Black higher education, African and African American history, with special emphasis on women and race relations. She and her daughters (Attorney Alero Afejuku and Dr. Ayo Gathing) authored two children’s books and recently penned an article, “Love Lessons: Black Women Teaching Black Girls to Love,” in Black Women’s Mental Health: Balancing Strength & Vulnerability, edited by Stephanie Y. Evans, Kanika Bell & Nsenga K. Burton. Having served on several national boards, she is Archivist for the African Heritage Studies Association, a member of the Board of Directors of Moore-Myers Children’s Fund in Jacksonville, FL and former National President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. A global citizen, Sheila has traveled to every continent but Australia and enjoys seeing the world from her African centeredness.

Ayo Gathing, M.D.

Ayo Afejuku Gathing, M.D. is not only a board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist; she is a humanitarian, health media expert and entrepreneur. Dr. Gathing specializes in promoting a healthy lifestyle and decreasing the stigma of mental illness. As a professor, best-selling author and dynamic speaker she also inspires others while imparting her knowledge of medicine with strategies for maintaining wellness.

Dr. Gathing brings her expertise in the field of psychiatry to the masses through practical discussions and relatable delivery of subject matter.

She brings a psychological perspective to modern concepts such as relationships, parenting, career planning, and use of technology with features in national media. She brings a psychological perspective to modern concepts such as relationships, parenting, career planning, and use of technology with features in national media including CBS Good Day, HLN Weekend Express, and The Tom Joyner Morning Show. Dr. Gathing is the co-author of bestselling self-help gem The Modern Trophy Wife: How to Achieve Your Life Goals While Thriving at Home as well as Black Women’s Mental Health Balancing Strength and Vulnerability, and is a regular contributor to national media outlets. She is well versed on the benefits of the endocannabinoid system, notably CBD, in healthy living and shares that knowledge through her Hempoholic platform.

Dr. Gathing graduated with a medical doctorate from the Morehouse School of Medicine and remains adjunct faculty. She completed her psychiatric and fellowship training at the Emory University School of Medicine where she received numerous awards and accolades and was nominated as the chief resident. She also obtained a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Applied Biology where she graduated with honors. Dr. Gathing is a seasoned healthcare administrator and has instituted numerous programs within organizational systems like juvenile justice and child and family services to bridge the disparities gap in behavioral health. She also practices clinical medicine in the juvenile justice system and partners to serve children as well as write children’s books through her family’s nonprofit organization, Black Rose Foundation for Children including I am Love and J is for Justice.

Alero Afejuku, J.D.

Alero Afejuku, J.D. is a licensed attorney who has lived in Georgia for the past decade. She completed her undergraduate degree in English and Spanish (1995-1998) at the Florida State University. She also completed her masters degree in international Affairs (1998-1999) at the Florida State University. After completion of her masters she taught English and Social Studies to middle school and high school students in Quincy, Florida and Winter Park, Florida.

After that experience, she decided to attend law school (2001-2004) at the University of Florida where she became a summer associate with a corporate law firm; completed an externship at the United States District Court, Northern District of Florida; and participated in the Virgil Hawkins Legal Clinic. Upon completion of her law degree, she worked as a Staff Attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit Court. This experience inspired her to work closely with accused criminal defendants as an Assistant Public Defender in the Public Defender’s Office in the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Daytona Beach, Florida. She later worked as a Senior Program Attorney with the Guardian Ad Litem Program to advocate for abused, neglected and abandoned children in the dependency system. In 2008, she moved to an urban school district in the Atlanta metro area where she worked as an Employee Relations Officer in the Office of Internal Resolution/Employee Relations.

She has taught for Argosy University as a full time faculty member online as an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice. She is also working as a solo practitioner in the area of criminal law, civil law, education law, and juvenile law. Alero has worked as a lawyer in Clayton and Henry counties of Georgia and currently employed as a juvenile advocate. She is the proud mother of a straight A student.