After growing up in very difficult circumstances, Lakeesha Jones feels a mission to help others. She has volunteered with Project Diva International to mentor middle and high school girls who may be struggling with some of the same issues she has faced. By openly sharing her experiences, she wants to help other young women to imagine a life beyond their current situation and to gain the self-confidence they need for turning their dreams into reality.
Ms. Jones was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1979 to teenage parents. Not long after, her father was incarcerated and out of her life, while her young, beautiful mother often left baby Lakeesha with friends or family, sometimes out of state, and often for long stretches, while she got job training and worked to provide for her daughter.
When Lakeesha was six, her mother took her to live in the home of an abusive boyfriend, who molested her from age nine and repeatedly raped her beginning at age fourteen. The rapes ended only when she confided what was happening to her own boyfriend. That same year, her mother forced her to have an abortion, and the following year, at age fifteen, she and her boyfriend had a daughter. But when her boyfriend was incarcerated, their relationship fell apart.
Now on her own and determined to make a good life for her child, Ms. Jones persevered, working part-time jobs, graduating from high school, and earning a certificate as a nursing assistant. Eventually, she fell in love with another young man and bore two more daughters, but their marriage didn't last, and that man has also been incarcerated on various minor charges. So once again, Ms. Jones became the single breadwinner for her family.
She worked her way through college and now holds a B.S. in Healthcare Management from Globe University's Minnesota School of Business. In 2012, she began work as a housing manager, and in 2021, she became a License Assisted Living Director at an assisted living center in Minneapolis, where her mission is to help senior residents find comfort and dignity in their lives. Her broad-ranging duties include planning, implementation and overall evaluation of employees and patient care, plus much more.
She is an entrepreneur as well, having successfully founded Distinct Beauty Supply, LLC, an online company offering raw organic soap and moisturizers imported directly from Africa. In addition, she helps her eldest daughter manage an online natural cosmetics company called Beauty Talk by Tatiyonna, LLC.
