Meet OUR founder and CEO
Mia Henry
“I believe my purpose is to help people translate history, connect with one another, and grow as justice leaders.”
I am an educator, facilitator, and strategist working to help leaders and groups work together to advance justice.
I was born and raised in the U.S. Deep South. My people were entrepreneurs, Black church leaders, NAACP + SCLC members, mass meeting attendees, HBCU graduates, sharecroppers, and, five generations ago, enslaved people.
I grew up learning about the history of the Black Freedom Struggle in the U.S. at the dinner table from my parents and family in Alabama who shared their personal stories and from the books they told me to read.
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Self-reflection, relationship-building, and understanding history are all critical to leadership for a more just world.
– MIA HENRY
In my previous work as a public school teacher, associate director of Mikva Challenge, founding director of the Chicago Freedom School, and executive director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, I was able to spend time with youth and adults on developing activist leadership with a historical lens.
Inspired by these relationships and my family, I started Freedom Lifted in 2011 to provide social movement history education, primarily through travel experiences to Civil Rights sites in Alabama and Mississippi and trainings on power, identity, oppression, and liberation.
Current Work
In 2022, I retired the Civil Rights travel work to focus on supporting leaders and organizations who want to lead with a justice and equity lens.
Today I lead trainings on justice frameworks and facilitate retreats for people committed to shared leadership.
Our team at Freedom Lifted offers a blended learning model, combining online modules + live workshops. We have reached more than 10,000 people with our work and resources since we launched our learning lab in 2021.
I dedicate my work to those in my blood and chosen family who resisted and insisted on living with dignity and respect.