Dr. Quintessa Hathaway is native of “Music City” Nashville, Tennessee. She grew up amidst a large tight-knit family whom she describes as the definition of love and one of her greatest sources of inspiration.

 

She is an academician, lifelong learner, and forward thinker. Those traits were instilled and reinforced very early by her father, Mr. Andrew Jackson Pride; and her maternal grandfather, Mr. Joe Miller Hathaway, Sr. A couple of her personal mantras are, “If you want to lead the people, you must first love the people. If you love the people, you will lift the people.” and “Education is designed to give learners transformational revolutionary power.”

 

The 2006 graduate of the illustrious Jackson State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science knows the institution is a dynamic force in her life and laid the foundation for her later academic and professional successes. She went on to graduate from the renowned Tennessee State University with a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction; a Specialist in Education degree in Administration and Supervision; and a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership. Her groundbreaking dissertation, “The Common Core State Standards Initiative And The Achievement Gap” was a national analysis on our country’s educational policy. It is steeped in scholarship and has the potential to empower the American education system.

 

She began her public servant journey in 2006 when she ran for elected office. She sought to be a member of the 104th General Assembly in the Tennessee House of Representatives serving District 53 (parts of South Nashville and Antioch). Although she lost the election, she counted the undertaking as a victory and attained a third of the Democratic Party popular vote. Afterward, she continued to serve her community for over eleven years as a distinguished tenured educator and taught in various capacities such as: secondary education in both middle and high school in urban and suburban settings, an adjunct faculty member at a metropolitan Little Rock college, alternative education, and adult education.

 

Currently, Dr. Quintessa Hathaway is the founder, chief executive officer, and lead consultant of Q. Hathaway & Associates, LLC, an Arkansas Department of Education approved and results-driven education consulting and professional development provider. Her organization is a woman and minority owned professional services entity based in the greater Little Rock, Arkansas area. 

Her team of consultants have over one hundred thirty years of combined experience as highly qualified educators, published authors, textbook writers, instructional coaches, STEAM-certified teachers, grant writers, entrepreneurs, and prekindergarten through higher education administrators who bring transformative solutions and evidence-based strategies to schools, districts, colleges, and universities across the southern and midwestern United States of America. Her self-titled organization has grown rapidly and is making major strides to help schools thrive academically. Dr. Hathaway, along with her team members, are on a historic mission and calling to increase student achievement by double digit gains in the core subject areas in what she calls, “The Freedom Schools,” undereducated communities, and those on the cusp of being world class.

 

Her international professional blog, www.atalkwiththecommunity.com, captivates the hearts and minds of over 1,600 leading political and educational figures, think tanks, theologians, civil rights activists, national commentators, college and university presidents and educators, professionals, and informed citizens. The platform has flourished exponentially over the past five years. It was even featured in the African American Voices Juneteenth 2018 edition for its stance taken on the Libyan slavery crisis.

 

Dr. Quintessa Hathaway is a published author, writer, has an active research agenda and manuscripts in the publication process. One of her bestselling and seminal works to date is titled, “A Talk With The Community: Politics, Education, And Other Social Issues.” Another book is titled, “Boy Joe Down In The Country: A Sharecropping Story” a memorial literary text to honor her grandfather, but also a living commemoration to a fading class of people. It gives a snapshot of a system that began during the Radical Reconstruction years and lasted through the 1950s and catapulted the American agrarian society into an economic machine. She wrote “Words From The Greats, Version 1.0,” a trilogy series highlighting ten legendary leaders: Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, James Farmer, Jr., James Meredith, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Ella Baker, Dorothy Height, Malcolm X, and Shirley Chisholm.

 

She is a member of several civic and social organizations such as: National Education Association (NEA), Arkansas Education Association (AEA), National Council For The Social Studies (NCSS), National Association For The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Organization For Women (NOW), International Black Women’s Congress (IBWC), and the League of Women’s Voters (LWV). While completing undergraduate school, she was a recipient of Jackson State University’s Ida B. Wells Scholastic Achievement Award, several Certificates Of Academic Achievement, a Dean’s List Scholar, and served as Student Government Association Class President. She is the recipient of many local and state awards and honors for her service. 

 

Dr. Quintessa Hathaway is a deeply spiritual and philosophical woman. She enjoys heartwarming and enthralling intellectual conversations. When she is not travelling for her consulting firm or leisure, she is home in metropolitan Little Rock cooking savory meals, reading, writing, watching C-SPAN, and public speaking. She is flirting with the possibility of reentering the political arena in 2022, but expresses she is waiting for the ancestors to be in agreeance.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

Dr. Kevin Edinburg currently works as an Assistant Professor of Special Education at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.  Originally hailing from Chicago, Dr. Edinburg has over 20 years experience working with students with special needs at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. Dr. Edinburg has worked in urban schools as a special education teacher and case manager.  Dr. Edinburg has conducted many professional development workshops for school staff focusing on the effective inclusion of students with special needs in the general education classroom as well as training staff on implementing the Multi Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).

 

Dr. Edinburg promotes collaboration amongst stakeholders for the development of students.  Dr. Edinburg works with pre-service students, heavily emphasizing the appropriate provision of services to students with special needs in the general education classroom.

 

Dr. Edinburg has earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Roosevelt College, a Master of Science in Special Education degree from Rosary College, and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from DePaul University.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Dr. J. Michael Harpe has worked in every level in education in the 20+ years of his professional career.  Dr. Harpe is known to be a visionary, results-focused, and proactive academic professional with multifaceted experience fulfilling a number of diversified roles in the higher education environment and leading them to educational excellence. He is a dynamic leader with a penchant for capital campaigns, policy development, and site utilization. In his career, he has excelled at building solid networks of support to achieve numerous goals focused on the continuous improvement of educational services. 

 

Currently, he is a Consultant with the Capitol Hill Consulting Group in Washington, District of Columbia  and President of the JMH, Group, LLC – a higher education consulting firm.   He has extensive experience as a senior level administrator in higher education having formally served as the Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and as the Vice President for Student Affairs and Leadership Development at Cheney University of Pennsylvania.  Additionally, Dr. Harpe has had faculty appointments at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wilmington University in New Castle, Delaware and Springfield College-Wilmington, Delaware campus. In August 2009, Dr. Harpe was selected as the first recipient of the Joseph and Lynne Horning Faculty Fellowship at Mount Saint Mary’s University, America’s second oldest Catholic university where he was an appointed faculty member.  

 

Dr. Harpe has had a myriad of professional administrative appointments in two and four-year colleges and universities over his career.  Prior to his faculty appointment at Mount Saint Mary’s University, he worked with the North Carolina TEACH & North Carolina Model Teacher Consortium at Fayetteville State University.  He has over a decade of administrative experience at the two-year community level having been appointed as the Dean of Student Services at Sampson Community College in Clinton, North Carolina and as an Associate Dean of Enrollment Management at Forsyth Technical Community College.  At the time of this appointment at FTCC, Dr. Harpe was the youngest sitting dean in the North Carolina Community College System.

 

He received his Bachelor of Arts in English/Media Journalism and his Masters of Arts in Counselor Education with a minor in Educational Psychology from North Carolina Central University and his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership/Higher Education from Fayetteville State University. Currently, he is a candidate for a Masters of Business Administration at Rutgers University. He also has continued his studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Johns Hopkins University and Wilmington University. Due to his administrative and professional acumen, he was nominated and was selected to participate in American Association of State College and Universities (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Institute for Senior Administrative Leadership for prospective aspirants for college or university presidential appointments.  Recently, he was selected to participate in the prestigious Harvard University Institute for Educational Management.

​

Dr. Harpe has written and published articles in numerous professional journals and books as well as reviewed manuscripts for several professional academic publications. He is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, workshops and symposiums and serves as an educational consultant to businesses in the public and private sector.  He is a member of numerous non-profit boards and organizations and is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He is married to Tracy A. Harpe and is the father of two sons- Jaedon (21), Jonathan (19).

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Dr. Courtney Johnson is an amazing talent, former administrator, entrepreneur, and educator. His home base is the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area. With over twenty years in the field, he has carved out a niche as a leading voice in mathematics education. He is an acclaimed presenter and textbook author of “Math Fluency in Problem Solving.”  He is the creator and chief executive officer of the Johnson Learning System and he is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Ms. Camillia Jones is a superlative grant writer, social advocate, and ordained minister. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Walking in Purpose, Incorporated. One of her many achievements includes acquiring over one million dollars in grant funding from philanthropic organizations and private and public entities. She resides in Baltimore, Maryland.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Mrs. Sherlene Merritt is a queen of couture, curriculum development, and class. She has over thirteen years of experience in education. She is a native of Durham, North Carolina and the chief executive officer and lead designer of Forshé Boutique. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

​