Kristen graduated from an HBCU, Wiley College, with a Bachelor’s degree in Ethical Leadership, earned a master’s in Training and Development from Wayland Baptist University, and is currently in her third year at Liberty University pursuing her Ph.D. in Strategic Leadership.

Kristen spent most of her adolescence in-school suspension, alternative education programs, and teen and truancy court for constantly challenging authority and bullying her peers. Kristen was labeled as the school’s ringleader until her sophomore year in high school when her actions almost caused her to serve time in a detention facility. Fortunately, her high school principal intervened by suggesting she lead the first district-wide Black History Program hoping this would help channel her inner leader. This experience changed Kristen’s life and ultimately sparked her passion for forming the Advising Generation Z foundation, which specializes in working with troubled youth.

AdvisingGenz started as a Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana-based diversion program that provided over 15,000 misguided students who broke the student code of conduct or law with leadership opportunities in several school districts, municipal courts, and detention centers. Then, in 2021, post-pandemic, after meeting with several administrators and police chiefs about the rise in youth crime and increase in mental health issues for minors, Kristen and her team worked diligently with Pyramid INC, Cox Media, Granthalliburton Foundation, and Dialogue to make AdvisingGenz available to address these issues nationally. Today, AdvisingGenz delivers student discipline, peer mentoring, career exploration, and access to licensed counselors right in the palms of their hands. In addition, this turn-key platform provides practitioners with a diversion, SEL, and career exploration curriculum and the ability to send automatic reports to parents on student behaviors.

Leaders in education and juvenile justice communities are excited about the AdvisingGenz app. Due to its ability to draft data reports that allow them to review their organization’s culture from a student’s perspective, provide positive testimonies from young professionals who have successfully overcome similar obstacles, conduct mental health evaluations for youth, and identify unconscious’s bias and the training development needs of their staff. AdvisingGenz aims to help communities reduce youth crimes and improve behaviors while equipping young people with the tools to navigate life’s difficulties and relaying messages of comfort and advice to Gen Zers by sharing personal stories of victory and defeat from millennials.

Though Kristen is young, she effectively trains seasoned leaders in the public and private sectors to establish healthy relationships and create inclusive environments that engage Gen Zers in school and the workplace. In addition, she contributes much of her knowledge directly related to her previous professional experiences producing digital content for Human Resource departments for fortune 500 companies and leading statewide STEM initiatives for administrators while working for PBS.kids.

Kristen is passionate about bridging the gap between generations. She loves to encourage Gen Zers and Millennials to see their elders as mentors and allies while empowering seasoned employees to rediscover their why. Kristen’s proudest accomplishment is learning how to achieve all of her professional achievements despite suffering from extreme anxiety.