Rashida Govan

IRB Committee Member She/Her

Executive Director, New Orleans Youth Alliance & Executive Director, Project Butterfly New Orleans

Rashida Govan is an educator, activist and writer who has worked for more than 20 years in education and youth development. Rashida is a graduate of the University of New Orleans where she earned her Ph.D. in educational administration. She completed a postdoctoral position as project director of the International Study on Youth Community Organizing. Her other research interests include African American girls’ adolescent development and college readiness, access and success. Rashida is deeply engaged in the New Orleans community and is credited with facilitating a number of community education programs including parent leadership trainings with the Fatherhood Consortium and the PRIDE Parent Leadership Academy, the Trayvon Martin Teach-In and the Assata Shakur Teach-In. She has published numerous reports and publications on family engagement, youth leadership, youth organizing, educational equity, public policy and other related topics. Govan is the founder and executive director of Project Butterfly New Orleans, an evidence-based, African-centered girls rites of passage program that has served over 200 high school girls since its inception in 2009. Rashida also has spoken nationally on hip hop culture and has spoken widely on issues concerning girls and women, and a wide range of social and healing justice issues. Govan is a proud alumna of Morgan State University.