The Speak Life Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that facilitates dialogue between youth and the surrounding community, exposing them to a positive culture along with educational and career opportunities. Since 2008, The Speak Life Foundation has partnered with other non-profit organizations, high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools to provide programming.
Our name was inspired by King Solomon: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” and we see the opportunity to change the conversation future generations have by harnessing that power.
Speak Life’s mission is to ensure students are prepared for post-secondary options, the challenges of adulthood, and becoming more independent. Too often, students feel unprepared for navigating their path post-graduation and may choose options that don’t allow them to reach their full potential.
Since 2008, the Speak Life Foundation has worked diligently with over 25 schools and community organizations to change the way students envision their futures. We’ve helped over 30,000 students, grades 6 - 12, understand how they can impact their path in life with the power of self-love and education.
Students leave our sessions with the life skills to enhance academic performance while decreasing behavior infractions. They’re also given the tools to direct them down a path where career aspirations, practical goal setting, and self-reliance impact and improve overall personal achievement.
Mia Thornton Wilson is Atlanta-made through and through. An alum of the Atlanta Public Schools system, she’s seen how a spark of confidence can empower students to take action. Using her steadfast dedication to goal achievement thanks to her time on the trade floors of Wall Street and the corporate offices of Silicon Valley as an investment manager, Mia’s “can’t stop, won’t stop” passion is felt throughout her work. Inspired by a trip to South Africa and learning about ow the people there use words to speak things into existence, she contemplated that power and how it could be used as a force for good and positive change.
After returning to her hometown on a mission to further her vision for making positive change, she worked as a high school mathematics substitute teacher. While there, she saw the missed opportunities educators had reaching and influencing students to further their drive for personal and academic excellence. She knew more could be done and that there was no one better than her to do it. Driven by her passion for creating new and actionable initiatives, Mia left her position to open the Speak Life Foundation and hasn’t looked back.
The Speak Life Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was launched in 2008 as a way to ignite the heartfelt desire she saw her students desperate for in their daily lives. Speak Life’s mission is to help youth create a mindset of empowerment and positivity by focusing on how they speak about themselves and their communities. The curriculum revolves around Mia’s philosophy that words are powerful tools to inspire, encourage, and empower people to do and be more. They just need to learn how, which is where Speak Life comes in.
To date, Speak Life has empowered over 30,000 students and is a beloved organization to educators around the greater Atlanta metro area. Its curriculum is available to schools throughout the year and can be tailored to fit a variety of topics, including wellness, life skills, college preparation, and workforce development.
Mrs. Wilson has a B.A. in Mathematical Economics and Black Studies from Pomona College. She currently resides in, you guessed it, Atlanta, GA, and can usually be found working diligently to open new doors for her students every day.
Stephanie L. Belcher is the COO and Co-Founder of COLOUR, a digital concierge platform that caters predominantly to women of color by providing professional on-demand, in-home hair services. Named the Best of Atlanta 2016 by Atlanta Magazine, COLOUR is currently available in Atlanta, with plans to expand this year.
Prior to co-founding COLOUR, Belcher was the Director of Operations at Rubicon Global where she successfully launched the company’s largest business unit. Before entering the world of start-ups, she was a strategy consultant for ScottMadden advising global and national brands in the energy sector. Her career began on Wall Street, where she led the day-to-day execution of bond issuances during extraordinary market fluctuations as a financial advisory consultant at Public Financial Management. She currently works at the Freight Logistics start up, FlexPort.
A native Atlantan, Stephanie is an avid cyclist, travels extensively, and an amateur photographer. She earned her BA in economics from Wellesley College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
There is a lot from my background that informs both my professional and personal pursuits. From a very young age, my parents instilled in me the importance of education and giving back to my community (to whom much is given, much is expected). Whether that is through my professional career or volunteer activities, I am committed to helping others whenever I can. That commitment is primarily the reason I chose to pursue a legal education. There is something quite humbling about being a resource to others as they are navigating the oftentimes complicated legal structures in place in our society today – knowing that you are empowering them to better understand their rights.
My career has included experience across the private, public, and academic sectors, with a particular interest in finance, legal services and government operations. As the current Budget Director for Cook County, I have spent the past two and a half years since my appointment in January of 2020 managing the County’s budget during the pandemic, including the administration of roughly $2.5B in federal funding distributed to the County to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and stimulate economic recovery from the pandemic. Prior to my appointment as the Budget Director, I worked in two critical roles within the City of Chicago and Cook County where I was tasked with revamping the operations of offices that were largely seen as corrupt and ineffective. From 2016-2018, I served as the Deputy Chief Administrator and Chief of Staff for the City of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA)/Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) where I created and set the foundation for the City’s new police accountability infrastructure. My tasks included implementation of staffing plans, building a new IT and facility infrastructure, and policy development, such as the implementation of the City’s new transparency policy, which was a first in the nation policy requiring the public disclosure of certain body-cam videos within 60 days of the occurrence of a police-involved incident. Based on my work building COPA, I was appointed the Deputy Assessor – Chief Administrative Officer in 2018 for the newly appointed Cook County Assessor, Fritz Kaegi. Under his administration, I was tasked with restructuring the operations of the County Assessor’s office to lead to more equitable assessment practices. Rounding out my professional experience are my time practicing corporate finance at Sidley Austin LLP and working with the administration at the University of Chicago Law School on pipeline and diversity initiatives.
In my spare time, you can usually find me working to better the community around me. Currently, I serve on the Governance Committees of the Board of Directors for the Auditorium Theater (one of Chicago’s major music and performance theaters) and the Board of Directors for BPI Chicago (a non-profit law and policy center dedicated to advancing innovative solutions to social justice and quality of life issues in the Chicago region). I am also a current Director for The Speak Life Foundation, an Atlanta non-profit focused on exposing youth to educational and career opportunities. In the past, I have served on a variety of boards dedicated to education and social service needs, including the inaugural Board of Directors for Great Lakes Academy Charter School (a charter school located in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago), and Care for Friends (an Illinois not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing access to services for homeless and at-risk populations in the city of Chicago).
I received my B.A. in English, with a minor in Economics, from Emory University in 2003, graduating with high honors, and my J.D. in 2006 from The University of Chicago Law School.
Eric Saxon is a proud graduate of Atlanta Public Schools and Morehouse College. He earned his MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He has over 20 years in Investment Management and Fianance space and is currently Vice President at Prudential Private Capital in Chicago, IL.
Charles Thornton is a graduate of the University of Michigan and earned his Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University. He has over 40 years of experience practicing law at his firm Lawson & Thornton in Atlanta, GA.
Want to make an impact on the next generation? Consider donating to our cause or becoming a volunteer. We also offer Parental and Teacher training initiatives for those looking to further integrate our mission into their everyday lives to promote motivational, high-impact techniques for personal achievement.
Our initiatives focus on character building, self-development, life skills, goal setting, and professional development. We group our curriculum into three pathways with a strategic focus to create actionable goals and facilitate easy wins that motivate students to explore their potential further.
The Speak Life Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that facilitates dialogue between youth and the surrounding community, exposing them to a positive culture along with educational and career opportunities.
© 2022 The Speak Life Foundation | Nonprofit Organizations In Atlanta. All Rights Reserved.