Coming home from incarceration taught me what it feels like to be expected to succeed without being given the right tools. Years later, becoming a father to twins at 24 weeks, losing my daughter A’sani, and navigating a prolonged NICU stay with my son showed me that fatherhood can feel the same way.

The same questions I had once asked men returning home. What do you need? Who is helping you navigate this? What barriers are keeping you from showing up the way you want to? became questions I started asking about fathers.

That lived experience became the foundation of my work from preparing and connecting fathers, to organizing dads, testifying at the Louisiana State Capitol, and helping lead the work that resulted in the creation of Louisiana’s Fatherhood Engagement Commission. Today, I use my story to help change both individual outcomes and the systems fathers have to navigate.