Pamela Mshana

Pamela Mshana, PhD Author, Educator and Inspirational Speaker, Pamela Mshana is a multitalented visionary who is a servant leader. She obtained a BFA in dramatic writing at New York University's TISCH school of the Arts, an MFA in Education at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California and a PHD in Urban Leadership at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. As an author and writer she is currently planning the debut of her first novel, Girls in Search of Cover. She has been recognized as an award winning playwright by The Dramatists Guild in New York. At the age of sixteen her play Ebony was produced Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in New York City, NY and at The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego, CA. By the time she was nineteen the same play was published by Dell Books. Other highlights to her writing career includes a dramatic reading of Ebony at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia; her play a Toast to Leslie was also produced at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, San Diego, CA and she wrote and directed an original play, Thando of South Africa for The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. As an educator she has devoted much of her life to serving students, families and communities as an English teacher, ESL teaching teacher specialist, assistant principal, and high school principal. In these roles she has been recognized as both a distinguished teacher as well as a school leader who has galvanized school communities to obtain distinguished status as recognized by The California Department of Education. As a speaker she has influenced students, leaders, educators, church congregations and other community organizations to access their full potential. Her thought provoking research and insights have motivated individuals and groups to action: raising self-esteem, walking in authentic leadership, sharpening talent, and expanding equitable practices. Some venues where she has been a key note or general speaker includes: The NAPTOSA conference in South Africa, the teacher preparation program at Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California; Greater New Foundation Fellowship Church, in Pomona, California (and other churches), schools and community organizations; and most recently in 2018, The Excellence Through Equity Conference hosted by The Riverside County Office of Education. Pamela Mshana is the proud mother of one child, Mariva Mshana-Dawes. She's humbled to be the daughter of a mother that all of her friends gravitate to as a second mom, Patricia Hughes-Caraway. She is the sister of a beloved brother now deceased, Kevin Darnell May. She and her family love to travel the world together!