Education & Background

Kendra holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work, a Bachelor's of Science in Public Health, and is a Board Licensed Social Worker (LSW). Her academic work, including a graduate internship with the White House laid the foundation for her bold, justice-centered approach to leadership. Her own lived experiences, including time in the juvenile justice system as a teenager, continue to shape her deep commitment to transforming how systems interact with Black youth and ensuring youth have the right support.

Kendra’s expertise includes local, state, and national policy work, improving conditions of confinement, law enforcement oversight, policy and program implementation, violence and harm reduction, and improving how Philadelphia responds to homicides and violent tragedies. Kendra created and headed a homicide research initiative that led to the City of Philadelphia to pass a law about crime scene cleanup to support survivors of homicide. Additionally, Kendra's work and fierce advocacy locally and in Harrisburg pushed the State of Pennsylvania Department of Health to change regulations related to teenagers accessing their birth certificates, and providing free birth certificates to young people in the legal system, in foster care, or experiencing homelessness. Kendra co-authored the first chapter in "Gun Violence and Gun Control: Critical Engagements," about the transactional relationship between structural inequities and homicide.

Kendra is sought after for speaking, training, and technical assistance to empower organizations and social workers of all kinds to boldly make changes in their field and be strong advocates for those changes.