SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — March is Women’s History Month and all month, KRON4 has been honoring the Bay Area’s Remarkable Women. One woman in particular, Lakisha Young, has been crowned the winner of this year’s KRON4 Remarkable Women.

As CEO and co-founder of The Oakland Reach, Young works tirelessly to ensure kids in low-income communities in the Bay Area get quality education.

On a typical Friday afternoon, when most may have ducked out of the office already, you’ll find Lakisha Young doubling down on the work, connecting with parents, school officials and community partners. Because changing lives takes constant commitment.

“I always think God, 10 years from now, five years from now, what are our communities going to look like when we have grandmas and aunties that know how to teach their own kids how to read?” said Young.

Young is the CEO and co-founder of The Oakland Reach, a nonprofit dedicated to improving access to education for kids from low-income families.

“We exist out of a problem, and that problem is, our parents don’t believe they have real voices in their child’s education,” Young said.

She says it’s an issue stemming from generations of racial disparities in education.

“I personally come from a history where not many generations down, we weren’t even allowed to read, but still in this country right now with the freedom to read, our kids cannot read,” she said.

State data shows more than half of all Black third graders failed to meet language arts testing standards just last year.

Young began to organize in 2016, bringing together parents and fighting for policy changes at the district level.

“What we need for our communities doesn’t exist,” Young said. “And it doesn’t exist because many are not asking our communities what we need.”

Successfully winning priority enrollment in high-performing schools for kids in underserved neighborhoods is something never before imagined.

When the pandemic forced children to go into distance learning, Young brought internet and laptops to more than 150 families in need. She launched an online portal offering free tutoring and extracurricular classes for hundreds of children.

Through her work extending into economic development, she created a program training parents and caregivers to become paid tutors within the district.

“It is it not just about literacy. It’s the ways we build power around parents to solve their own problems,” Young said.

She draws inspiration from the women who came before her, calling her late grandmother her north star.

“My family was from Jim Crow South Mississippi, my grandmother only got a 9th grade education, but she had a dream for her kids that they graduated from high school,” said Young.

“Wanting more than the station you were born to,” she continued, “that you can want and get more, and my grandmother was that example for me, that anything is possible.”

It’s a mindset that’s allowed families in Oakland to reach for greater things, helping new generations see, what’s possible for them.

“What keeps me going is this, is the right work. What keeps me going is this is what our families want. Our families want liberation. I just want to be a small part of making that happen,” she said.

Young’s work also attracted the attention of billionaire MacKenzie Scott…Who donated $3 million dollars to support The Oakland Reach just this year.