My thesis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach to serving fathers.

My research questions were as follows:

1. How effective is the model in reducing unmet basic needs, increasing parenting time, improving individual emotional regulation ability, and preventing recidivism among recently incarcerated Black fathers?
2. How do program outcomes vary by length of time participating in the services, personal traits, prior incarceration history, level of life distress, and type of unmet basic needs?

Before starting Fathers’ UpLift, I worked at the Boston Public Health Commission Men’s Health and Recovery Program as a substance abuse clinician and oversaw a small shelter for displaced youth in Jonesboro, Georgia. I look to David Simas as my professional role model. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Obama Foundation and someone I consider a role model. I am most proud of my son and daughter, Clayton and SaMya. Daily, they inspire me. I am so happy to be their father. I am also proud of my wife, Samantha. She makes sure our family is taken care of and stands by my side every single day. She loved me when I had holes in my shoes while in college, and that love has not changed.

If I could invite one person to dinner with my wife and children, it would be my grandmother, Mattie Mae Marshall. Grandma passed away when I was a child. She cleaned the houses of the wealthy in West Palm Beach, Florida. One of the homes my grandmother cleaned belonged to the Kennedy family. I would ask her about her work ethic and the sacrifices she made for our family. Truthfully, I would not be where I am today without her, and it would be necessary to me that she knew that. Her grandson is the first person with a Ph.D. in the family. I know she would be proud. When I’m not at Fathers’ UpLift, you can find me traveling with my family, and in between work and traveling, I am trying to fit in some rest!