Darnese Y. Daniels 

Darnese Y. Daniels (she/her) is a lifelong educator, scholar, and curator of healing-centered learning spaces. With over two decades in education, she has dedicated her life to reimagining schools as places of love, reflection, and liberation. As the founder of Lifting Light and Love LLC, an educational consultancy rooted in the joy and uplift of Black communities—particularly Black women—Darnese works to nurture environments where learning and healing coexist. Her approach is guided by curiosity, care, and a steadfast belief in the transformative power of human connection.

A second-generation educator and the great-granddaughter of Eliza, granddaughter of Victoria, and daughter of Dorothy, Darnese proudly carries the legacy of her matrilineal line. She is deeply inspired by the brilliance, creativity, and faith of the women who came before her—women whose wisdom continues to guide her pursuit of liberation and wholeness. Her work centers Black womanhood as both compass and medicine, honoring its capacity to shape new possibilities for education and community life.

Through the Acosta Institute Fellowship, Darnese hopes to deepen her practice of healing-centered leadership and continue her doctoral exploration into the impact of grief and loss on educators in a post-COVID world. She is excited to learn alongside a community that values care, slow work, and collective wisdom—co-creating new ways of being that honor both the ancestors who dreamed before us and the generations who will inherit what we build.