Her Story
About Lakeisha
My journey with Scouting America started as a parent, not as a professional. I was working at a prison facility and raising two young sons when my oldest brought home a flyer about Cub Scouts. He wanted to join because his friends wore the uniforms, and I liked that they were teaching kids about the outdoors and how to be prominent citizens in the community. As a girly girl raising boys, I didn't know how to pitch a tent or start a fire, but I learned all of that as a den parent. Ten years later, my younger son joined too, and both of them earned their Eagle Scout rank. They now sponsor two kids a year for scouting because they want to give others the same opportunities I gave them. My grandson who has autism just turned 10 and is also in Scouting - it's a full circle moment. I taught special education for 10 years, so working with youth with special needs is near and dear to my heart. When our school got bought out by another district, I decided I didn't want to be in the teaching field anymore, but I still wanted to connect with kids. Someone who knew me asked if I wanted to do the scouting program while I was teaching, so I worked at the Boys and Girls Club after school. When the district executive position came open, they offered me the job, and I just had to go interview. Now I'm the CEO of my district, as our CEO always tells us. I cover 9 counties in Arkansas with my Saracen District, overseeing 23 units, 537 youth, and 120 adult volunteers. My day-to-day includes finance and fundraising like our camp card sales, membership rallies in schools to get kids and families to buy into the program, training events, and organizing camps. I have a Twilight camp coming up in June and a day camp in July for Cub Scouts, plus I check on units at summer camp to make sure they're safe and following Scout law. I'm always in meetings - three meetings a week and one activity - because we're in the relationship business. My biggest achievement is membership because I focus on making sure all kids can get the same opportunity, whether they can afford it or not. I do scout reach units for families who can't afford the program, and the National State Council provides funding. Last year at our big conference in Oklahoma, my district hit all my goals, but membership was my biggest one.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lakeisha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my sons and my grandson. I was a single parent, though I did have help from my mom and my brothers, but I always strived to make sure my sons knew they had a strong mother. Even if they saw me struggle, I wanted to make sure I provided them with a good life. I didn't want my African American sons to be a statistic, so I wanted them to have the good life no matter if I worked 3 or 4 jobs. I wanted to make sure there was no reason for them to go out there and think they had to take something that didn't belong to them. I wanted to show them hard work pays off. Staying true to yourself pays off. Staying true with God pays off. Being humble and kind will get you a long way. Work for what you want. Nothing comes free and nothing comes easy in life. God will help you as long as you're doing the work.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to always stay uncomfortable. I'm a person who is more comfortable in my comfort zone, but as long as you're in your comfort zone, then you're not growing. I got this advice from my mom. My mom would always tell me, 'Well, Keisha, always stay uncomfortable so you can grow. As long as you stay comfortable, you're gonna miss all those opportunities, because you're gonna be too scared to try.' So I've always stayed uncomfortable. No matter how hard it is for me, I put myself in uncomfortable positions so that I can learn those things, and then when I've perfected those, I move on. Always stay uncomfortable so I can learn and grow.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Push forward. You will have hard times and hard days, but just remember your end goal. Always make goals higher than normal, so that way you can achieve. If you end up in the middle, then that means you're halfway. But the one thing I would tell them is to push forward.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
My biggest challenge is me being a woman. Honestly, Boy Scouts was made for men, young men, and was always led by men. So now when you have a woman that's over you, you're always being challenged. The biggest challenge is me being a woman.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The first value most important to me is trustworthy. I'm always courteous and kind, because I want that same energy back - the energy that you give off, you want to receive it, so you have to give off that good energy. So I'm always trustworthy, friendly, kind, and courteous, and I'm always reverent and helpful. But my number one is trustworthy, because people have to be able to trust you to get the work done. If you're going in there and you're doing half stuff, then they're not gonna believe in you. But you gotta show them that you believe in what you're doing. So that means you gotta show them that you can trust them, and they have to show you that you can trust them. So my number one is trustworthy.
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