Lakisha Young is the Founder & CEO of The Oakland REACH, a nationally recognized, parent-led organization working to ensure Black and Brown children thrive. Since launching REACH in 2016, she has built a model rooted in a simple but powerful formula: ask families what they need, listen deeply, and build solutions with them—not for them. That approach has driven transformative wins in Oakland and beyond and has been featured in TIME, CNN, and Today.com.
During the pandemic, Lakisha led the creation of the Virtual Family Hub, supporting hundreds of families with both academic and economic stability while driving strong student outcomes. That work evolved into the Liberator Model, which trains parents and caregivers to become paid, high-impact tutors—an approach proven to be as effective as traditional educators and now reaching thousands of students nationally.
Today, Lakisha is leading REACH’s most ambitious effort yet: the REACH Parent District—a culmination of more than a decade of building with families while navigating systems that were never designed for them. Grounded in the reality that students spend most of their time outside of school, the model puts families in the driver’s seat by connecting them directly to high-quality tutoring, real-time data, and coaching. Early results show strong engagement, with higher usage than traditional systems using the same providers. A nationally recognized voice on parent power, Lakisha advises leaders across the country on how to build what comes next in education—by shifting power to families.