FACEtime: Nikishia Morgan, Director of ELECT
Nikishia Morgan is the Director of the School District of Philadelphia’s ELECT (Education Leading to Employment and Career Training) Program for Pregnant and Parenting Teens. ELECT works to link schools with community partners to provide resources to pregnant and parenting teen students. Before filling this role, Ms. Morgan served as an Assistant Program Coordinator and worked to provide ELECT workshops to the program’s community partners throughout the District. She then moved on to serve as a Program Specialist for Compliance, traveling to the District’s school programs to audit student files. Ms. Morgan has been serving for nearly a full year as the Director of ELECT.
“One of the success stories I have,” Ms. Morgan says, “is one of my old students from South Philly High just graduated from Temple this past December. He’s a father of two and he’s a single dad...I just want to connect him now to come speak to our young fathers.”
Nikishia Morgan in the new ELECT Office.
Ms. Morgan has always been a passionate advocate for Philadelphia’s youth. Before coming to the School District of Philadelphia, Ms. Morgan worked as a social worker in the juvenile justice system. She started her higher education in Criminal Justice so she could work with children, learn about recidivism rates, and try to understand what is sending young men to prison. After earning her Masters in Social Work from Temple University, Ms. Morgan worked in boys’ group homes for nine years.
Ms. Morgan now sees all of her work experiences intertwining. Understanding the juvenile justice system has helped her work with ELECT to provide resources to the young fathers who are entering the juvenile system. ELECT works every day to provide resources to the young pregnant and parenting students of the School District of Philadelphia and to break down any and every barrier that keeps students from becoming successful citizens and young parents.
“The challenge with the program is always retaining that student who’s facing so many different barriers,” says Ms. Morgan. “We try our best to give them our best resources, but sometimes it’s hard.”
ELECT works with five different community partners around the city to bring resources to schools and pregnant and parenting teens. “We’re all coming together to try and figure out what we can do to service these students,” Ms. Morgan explains.
Ms. Morgan is currently working toward her Doctorate in Education while raising her family and working full time as the Director of the ELECT program. She has the passion for serving the youth of Philadelphia and breaking down barriers to success.
