Minister Tuyeni Akanke Smith, M.Ed., is a passionate, authentic, and dynamic educator, speaker, life coach, businesswoman, healer, and creative. She is a trauma-informed and trauma-responsive practitioner whose destiny is anchored in revealing the truths of transformation and transition within the current human experience—and from one life to the next. Tuyeni Akanke is a Chicago native by way of the Fulani Tribe, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana—she is the manifestation of both African and Native American blood, carrying the torch of progress and forward movement for all of her ancestral lines. A city girl who spent her summers in the South, Tuyeni is potent with southern-elder influence and saturated in the presence of her ancestors. She is a graduate of Howard University, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations in 2010, and a master educator with two graduate degrees in Education from Lesley University (2013). She is currently earning an ordination as a Minister of Spiritual Consciousness from Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development (May 2027). A woman with a wealth of wisdom and experiences, Tuyeni’s work transcends credentials; she is the founder of an intergenerational nonprofit organization, The HomeGirl Huddle, where the mission is rooted in generational trauma healing, identity development, creative expression, and leadership training for all generations of young ladies and women from African American, Indigenous, and African diasporic communities—an extension of who she is. Tuyeni Akanke is a doula by nature, one who nurtures, protects, and supports people through vulnerable transitions. She walks beside people as they bring something new into the world—or as they become someone new in another world. Whether guiding a mother to bring a new life to the planet or supporting someone who is leaving the planet, Tuyeni’s role as a doula is innate, necessary, and deeply rooted in faith, honor, unconditional love, and divine knowing—serving as a vessel through which spirit moves, while carrying the memory of those who came before her and honoring the sacred responsibility to hold, guide, and witness life across generations.