Our Leadership

Rooted in purpose. Guided by values. Committed to transformation.

We lead with strategy and soul-creating spaces where people and organizations can heal, grow, and thrive.

WORK WITH US

ANYANWU

FOUNDER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Lead Transformation Practitioner

For more than 28 years, Anyanwu has been building spaces where people can remember who they are.

She is the Founder and CEO of THE HUMAN ROOT, a Black woman-owned grassroots company committed to transformative change in communities and institutions. Her work has impacted more than 20,000 individuals, directly supporting over 1,800 educators, hundreds of families, and more than 15,000 students across more than 20 New York City Department of Education schools, multiple districts, universities, and organizations in New York and California.

Anyanwu is an educator, institutional leader, and social entrepreneur who has built school and learning environments rooted in cultural integrity, disciplined care, restorative practice, and collective responsibility. Her work centers the whole child, honors ancestral knowledge, and strengthens educators so they can sustain themselves while guiding young people toward purpose and freedom.

She has delivered keynote addresses to audiences as large as 3,800, including sharing space with Dr. Maya Angelou. She has been featured in Forbes Women, recognized as Brooklyn Entrepreneur of the Year, and won 1st place in the PowerUp Business Competition. But titles are not what define her.

What defines her is endurance.

Her life has been shaped by Caribbean roots, Marin City activism, surviving gun violence, navigating PTSD, and recovering from breast cancer. Each experience refined her discernment. Each season clarified her purpose.

EDUCATION

  • M.A., Human Rights & Educational Justice, University of San Francisco

  • Emergent Strategy Institute, NY 2019,

    (+) NEW YORK Emergent Strategy Immersion of Educators and Movement Builders

    (+) DETROIT Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute

  • Summer Institute for Teachers & Educators, National Endowment for the Humanities, NY

  • Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism Certification + Foundations to Clinical Practice, Sacred Vibes Apothecary, NY

  • Labor & Childbirth Education Certification Ancient Song Doula Education, NY

  • Prof. Certificate, Child and Adolescent Psych, University of California, Berkeley Extension

  • B.A., Pan-African Studies, California State University, Northridge

"I want to create spaces that build psychological safety" - ANYANWU

Her intention is to cultivate a space where participants feel seen, restored, challenged, and deeply connected; to themselves, to one another, and to the future they are helping shape.

To return people to their center. To build power that does not harm the body. To cultivate clarity that sustains vision. To create spaces where liberation is practiced-not performed.

NATASHA A. MARSHALL

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Lead Transformation Practitioner

Natasha A. Marshall serves as Chief Operating Officer of THE HUMAN ROOT, where she leads organizational operations, strategic implementation, partnership development, and systems stewardship. An award-winning racial equity and justice practitioner, strategist, philanthropist, and death doula, she has partnered with more than 100 organizations and contributed to initiatives that have positively impacted over one million people through leadership development, coalition-building, and community-centered systems change.

Her work is grounded in relational trust, courageous dialogue, collective care, and sustainable change, and her passion is creating environments where people feel supported, connected, and able to thrive while carrying meaningful work.

She holds a Master in Information Technology from American InterContinental University and completed executive education in Power, Innovation and Leadership through Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education. She has also completed advanced training in Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism for Black Bodies & Bodies of Culture, integrating somatic practice with leadership, racial justice, and organizational development.

Her intention is to help cultivate environments where participants experience belonging, authentic connection, and moments of joy, creating the conditions for meaningful reflection, restoration, and sustainable systems for change.

The Founders Philosophy

POWER THAT IS NOT REGULATED WILL FRAGMENT. LEADERSHIP THAT IS NOT EMBODIED WILL BURN OUT. HEALING THAT IS NOT COMMUNAL WILL ISOLATE.