Niesha Washington-Shepard is a proud native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a Creole Black, light-skinned, Deaf female who is active in the DC Area Black Deaf Advocates (DCABDA), Clerc Cultural Committee-GUAA, and Louisiana School for the Deaf Alumni Association (LSDAA). She is also a social justice activist and a motherly warrior in the Black Deaf community. She is an Ed.D. student researching leadership in higher education at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri.