Her Story
About LaSheena
I've been in theater since I was around 8 years old, and I also grew up as a PK, a preacher's kid, so I've been in ministry since I was about 8, doing youth ministry, then leading the youth ministry, and creating plays with my dad in partnership with his sermons. I grew up in a male-dominated denomination that didn't believe women should hold leadership positions or even wear pants to church. It wasn't until my dad passed that I actually accepted my own call into ministry, and I worked through that using art and embodiment and remembering myself through my book. My working experience includes administrative assistant roles, fashion, talent agency admin, security for retail, and then I stepped into community organizing around gun violence and environmental justice before entering the recovery community organization that I work with now. Today, my main area of expertise is faith-based embodied wellness work at the intersection of art and faith, grounded in eco-womanism. I work with youth between the ages of 8 and 18 in partnership with churches, and my methodology is very much engrossed in eco-womanism, re-centering right relationship between the human and the beyond human through embodiment and recognizing that we all have a spirit that animates a body. I've been doing the work of embodiment and wellness theater through my company since 2018, but the work is so personal - I was my first client, and I've been doing the work itself and refining it for over 15 years.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with LaSheena
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my babies, my children. They keep me grounded, and when I want to give up, they remind me that somebody's watching and somebody who is counting on me to show them that it can be done. Even when I was homeless and experiencing those hardships, or when I was wanting to give up because my dad passed, when I looked at my kids - my son who's on the spectrum and he's 14, and my daughter who is just like me, she looks like me - they just remind me that, first of all, there are more important things than achieving something. They remind me that I am loved, and that there is somebody that is rooting for me. And they remind me that the best is still yet to come.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received is to fail forward and fail fast. Have fun, don't take yourself so seriously. Compete with yourself, not other people. Remember that you're human, and that you're not a robot. But the one that really sticks with me is this: your team will do 50% of what you do right and 100% of what you do wrong. That one has been constantly reminding me to keep my own standards high, that way I continue to attract people that don't mind high standards.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I value transparency and authenticity. I value space and hope. I value groundedness, just valuing knowing what's going on, everybody being on the same page. I value integrity, credibility, and discretion. But most importantly, I value people. They're not always easy to work with or deal with, but I do value people, and I do deeply desire for people to achieve wholeness and wellness at some point, if not ultimately.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Illinois
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.