Sonya Brooks is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Schooling division at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Her research interests lie at the intersections of education policy, law, and urban schools in an effort to design frameworks to build better educational trajectories for students, specifically Black girls. Brooks is a passionate advocate for the health and well-being of girls in PK-12, the advisor for Beautiful Brown Girls – a community-based program in the Bay Area— and is the recipient of the 2021 Center for the Study of Women Black Feminism Initiative Award for her research on Black women and empowerment.  After graduating from UCLA in 2019 with a Bachelor’s in History and Brown University in 2021 with a Master’s in Urban Education Policy, Sonya has been invited to speak about her work with Black girls and ways of dismantling the challenges they experience in academic and healthcare spaces. Currently, Sonya’s areas of research include the historical importance of intergenerational narratives and storytelling and its impact on the health, well-being, and educational opportunities for girls. In her spare time, Sonya loves roller skating, reading, writing, and spending time with her children doing everything or nothing at all.