|
|
7350 Jefferson Hwy
Ste. 485 PMB 130 Baton Rouge, LA 70806 |
CO-DIRECTORS
As an organization, we are always striving to live intentionally and authentically in our values. Toward that aim, Humanities Amped has implemented a collaborative leadership model. By distributing the traditional role of Executive Director among a team of three co-directors, we hope to increase our capacity to innovate and respond without falling into the burnout that threatens so much good nonprofit work. We love our community and we love this work, but the challenges we face are many. We know that we are better equipped to face these challenges when we face them together, and we are excited to live out for ourselves the collaboration, communication, and trust that we work so hard to develop in our students.
|
LaChanda Harris, LCSWLaChanda Harris, a trauma-informed Licensed Clinical Social Worker, advocate, and champion for teenage well-being, joined Humanities Amped after 6+ years of empowering teens and young adults across diverse settings. She fosters healing and brave spaces while managing community care programs at Tara High. Through restorative practices, social-emotional peer groups, and one-on-one support, she helps individuals and groups connect to resources, build relationships, and find solutions that benefit everyone. Driven by a belief in human resilience, LaChanda fuels growth mindsets and helps individuals overcome challenges while fostering positive community and mental health support to fuel lifelong learning.
|
|
Anna West, PhDAnna West is an educator, scholar, and community organizer whose work focuses on the intersections of critical youth development, public education, and community-based writing & performance pedagogies. Anna co-created Humanities Amped in 2014 and currently serves as the Director of Teaching & Learning. She holds a Ph.D. in English Education from Louisiana State University, where she was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Dissertation Award, and an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she received the 2011 Arts-in-Education Intellectual Contribution Award. She is the 2022 recipient of the East Baton Rouge Mayor-President's Community Impact Award in the field of education. For nearly thirty years, Anna has aligned her life with Amped’s mission: to share transformative educational practices resulting in people’s power to shape their worlds.
|
|
Emma J. Gist, PhDEmma Gist is an educator, writer, and researcher dedicated to transformative learning grounded in inquiry and joy. She began working at Humanities Amped in 2018, and has applied her expertise in project-based learning, trauma-informed practices, and facilitation in her work with students, teachers, and stakeholders throughout her time with the organization. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Louisiana State University and an MAT from the University of Southern California, has taught in California, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and has centered her research and teaching practice on the possibilities and challenges of facilitating authentic learning that extends students’ experiences into the world beyond the classroom walls. Emma directs Amped’s storytelling through communication, marketing, and development because she believes deeply in the impact of Amped’s commitment to making space for young people to imagine, grow, and act with confidence.
|
AMPED EDUCATORS & STAFF
Amped educators create conditions in classrooms and through out-of-class initiatives that call students into challenging, meaningful learning that is sustained through supportive relationships. Amped approaches to teaching and learning nurture belonging, kindle social responsibility, and root academic standards in creativity and problem solving.
|
Kalivyn Marquix MorrisKalivyn Marquix Morris (they/he) is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is the 2025 Baton Rouge Poet Laureate. Through synthesizing poetry, music, and research they create performances for healing and communal liberation. Kalivyn got their start as a performer and community organizer as an alumni of Humanities Amped’s programming, where they were part of the 2017 Brave New Voices Grand Slam Champion winning team. Kalivyn currently leads poetry initiatives within Humanities Amped and serves as an Amped educator in Humanities Amped’s Writing & Performance and Senior Capstone classes. Kalivyn sees poetry not only as an artform but the schematics for how we live in and alter the world. Through their work, Kalivyn hopes to inspire students to use art as a lens to examine social conditions and radically imagine better ways of existing in community. Kalivyn’s work has been featured in the ASAP/journal, the Adroit Journal, The Delta Journal, and South: A Scholarly Journal. They graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in Communication Studies and a BA in English-Creative Writing with Honors Distinction.
|
|
T. GeorgeGeorge is a proud alumn of Humanities Amped. She is presently pursuing a degree in Liberal Arts at Baton Rouge Community College. In her six years of experience in youth development, she has worked to empower middle and high school students in the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System by utilizing a variety of educational and restorative resources. George intends to continue creating safe spaces with youth to address the issues that impact our Brown and Black communities, and she proudly accepts all the great duty and dedication that goes along with that. George will soon have her own organization that uses emotional, creative, and restorative feeding to promote the importance of beloved community.
|
|
Nkosilathi Moyo, PhDA Zimbabwean national, Nkosilathi Moyo is an educator, writer, and researcher. He holds a PhD from Louisiana State University. His work focuses on how racialized and Indigenous communities use culture to engage in decolonial praxis. His passion is to “ground” with others, to sit down to reason together, specifically in ways that stimulate critical thinking and help shape students into forceful agents of social transformation.
|
|
Monisha PackMonisha Pack was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is a proud graduate of Louisiana State University. She brings over a decade of experience in human services, program development, and youth support. Her work has centered on helping individuals and families build skills, find support, and feel connected. Monisha is passionate about creating spaces where people feel seen, valued, and empowered to grow both personally and as part of their community. She is excited to bring her passion for people and community to the Humanities Amped team as a Community Care Specialist, helping to continue building a school culture rooted in care, connection, and transformation.
|
Amped BOard of Directors
PresidentSuzy Caleo, PhD
TreasurerAnna Fogle
|
BOard MembersDawn Collins, JD
Rick Curry, JD Holley Haymaker, MD Rev. Betsy Irvine Viveca Johnson, MS Walter Geno McLaughlin Asia Reese Andrew Kuo, PhD (non-voting Amped Institute representative) |
|
|
