Our Team & Community Partners

Board of Directors

Dr. Kishia C. James - Founder & Executive Director

Kishia Carrington James, Ed. D., is the Owner and Executive Director of Youth Navigation, Inc. Dr. James is a native of Durham, NC and product of Durham Public Schools from the old Hillside High School. She continued her studies at North Carolina Central University obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Master of Arts in School Counseling, and Master of School Administration. Recently, Dr. James received her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from Fayetteville State University. Her passion to advocate for the most marginalized and vulnerable students and families stems from her late father, Benjamin E. Carrington, Sr. and his commitment for social change as a lifelong educator and mentor as well as one of Durham’s first Black police officers serving black and brown communities.

Dr. James is a critical educator with a niche for social change in the public-school setting and academy. Her transformational and social justice leadership include counseling and administrative roles in schools and district offices, along with teaching at San Francisco State University to educate our future leaders. In 2011, she was recognized in The Durham Herald Sun for reducing the dropout rate and increasing the graduation rate by creating collective teams that built relationships with families and students.

To align her work with Youth Navigation, Inc. she is the co-editor of The Gloria Ladson-Billings Reader which highlights Gloria Ladson-Billings seminal works on critical race theory in the education field and improving the educational experiences of multicultural student populations through culturally relevant pedagogy. Her next book, titled Turnaround Principals: Passionate Leaders Who Can Improve Low-Performing Schools with Rowman & Littlefield will be released in December 2021. This book highlights the embedded institutional and structural racism of schools and previous redlining of communities which started turnaround schools which are persistently under-resourced. Through listening to the lived experience of turnaround principals, she recognized the importance of hiring critically conscious turnaround principals to turnaround failing schools. This book pays homage to their dedication to underserved student populations.

Dr. James is new to the nonprofit world, but never walks away from a challenge. Youth Navigation, Inc. started as a dream to change the life trajectories of students who are struggling with their internal resilience and being thrusted through the school to prison pipeline. She believes in the need for a liberating education for marginalized student populations. In her spare time, she loves to shop for the latest fashions and travel to experience different cultures and foods. She is happily married to Vernon James with two sons in the form of a bonus child, Trevor James and nephew, Jalen Carrington.