Kanesha Adams is a Ph.D. student in the Educational Leadership department at the University of Alabama. She is an educator, advocate, and “change agent.” She currently serves as the CEO and Founder of Bearapy Bookshelf, which is an organization she created to teach students the importance of storytelling and creativity by creating strong foundations, stable families, and secure futures. Bearapy is an acronym for Books, Bears, and Therapy. Through this work, in 2022 her team published over 15 children's books promoting the importance of social resilience including the recent publishing of 2022 Miss Arkansas, Ebony Mitchell, stuffed over 2,000 bears, traveled over 10,000 miles across the state of Arkansas and provided access to virtual self-care resources and social skill coaching to over 500 children. In addition to this work, she serves as the Deputy Director for The Generator in Pine Bluff focusing on youth programming , a project manager for Scholastic, a Site Coordinator for Partners for Rural Impact, and an adjunct faculty member with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.  

Kanesha received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, an MS in Educational Psychology from Oklahoma State University, and an M.ED. in Educational Leadership from the University of Arkansas. 

Kanesha is an Arkansas native and enjoyes traveling the natural state with her husband, Nicholas Adams who too is an educator. She spends the majority of her time with her God-Given Best Friend, 4-year-old Kelahni.