Nijeeah Richardson

Frontlines Funds/Sponsored Project Associate, Southern Vision Alliance

Nijeeah is a Black queer non-binary social worker born and raised in Charleston, SC. Their Gullah Geechee roots in the South Carolina Lowcountry fuel their commitment to Southern grassroots organizing. Nijeeah joins the SVA team after most recently serving as the Executive Director of We Are Family (2019-2021), a LGBTQI+ youth serving nonprofit organization based in Charleston.

Nijeeah completed their Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) in 2015 and Master of Social Work (MSW) in 2017 at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. As an undergraduate student, Nijeeah interned at Time Out Youth, a LGBTQ youth center in Charlotte, NC. They then interned at the Freedom Center for Social Justice for their graduate field experience, also located in Charlotte, NC. Post graduate school, Nijeeah returned to Charleston to work with youth as a behavioral interventionist at Justice Works Behavioral Care and to continue their work as a co-founder and workshop facilitator with the Transformative Teaching Collective, a cooperative that provides social justice education to schools, community groups, nonprofits and government organizations. In 2018, Nijeeah received the Community Pride award from Charleston Pride and was named South Carolina’s “Champion of Pride” by the Advocate. When asked what it means to be a champion, Nijeeah stated that being a champion “isn’t just about winning — when we know the race is rigged. Rather, it’s the spirit that compels us to keep fighting for the liberation of all people.”