Makeena graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Sociology from Emory University in 2015. At Emory she worked as a lab assistant in the Goodman lab exploring the relationship between maternal depression and infant development. Specifically she worked with editing EEG data and attended meetings that tied her work to the larger aims of the research. Currently Makeena is a candidate for her Masters in Social Work at Columbia University where she is delving deeper into the countless nuances of systematic and cultural racism, intersectionality, environmental justice, the juvenile justice system, and the criminal justice system as a whole. In efforts to take part in mitigating the detrimental racialized disparities blatantly existent in this age of mass incarceration, Makeena hopes to open a rehabilitative diversion program for youth labeled juvenile delinquents in the future. She is especially passionate about supporting those most targeted by our system, the Black and Brown people of this country.
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