To celebrate Black excellence, we are sharing highlights of some of our amazing Black ACHS students and alumni that have been featured on the blog in the last year. It is incredibly fulfilling to watch our students succeed and become flourishing holistic health professionals. To read the full feature for each of these amazing individuals, just click the link below each of their photos.
1. Khetnu Nefer
Diploma in Holistic Health Practice
Khetnu is the founder of A Soulful Touch Wellness, a mobile integrative holistic health and wellness practice located in Washington, DC. She offers holistic health coaching and counseling, massage therapy, chakra healing, and more. She also created her own line of herbal products.
With the lifelong dream of writing a book, in 2019 Khetnu published 28 Days to a Soulful Life. "It's a 28-day guide giving different holistic health practices, techniques, and thought processes to help women navigate life and improve or maintain what I call a soulful life," she says. "And that’s one where you’re unapologetically living your life and balancing mind, body, and spirit. Every day there’s the main lesson, a practical application, an affirmation, and a journal question."
https://info.achs.edu/blog/alumni-highlight-khetnu-nefer
2. Kiana Murphy-Toney
Master of Science in Holistic Nutrition
Kiana works as a health coach with a focus on weight loss and lifestyle changes. "We use motivational interviewing to get people to change the behaviors that they’re ready to change at this time and kind of meeting the client where they’re at," she says. "My day to day is talking to clients and helping and guiding them to their weight loss goals. Sometimes it’s not to lose weight, but to just change their behavior and improve their overall health."
Kiana says that her favorite part of her job is seeing people not only reach their health goals, but also along the way discover that they have improved in other areas of their lives, such as having less stress or feeling more confident in their own skin. In the future, she also hopes to start a holistic health lifestyle blog.
https://info.achs.edu/blog/alumni-highlight-kiana-murphy-toney
3. Qwania Dixon
Diploma in Holistic Health Practice
Qwania is a former hairstylist and the founder of Naturalista4me, a successful natural hair and holistic health blog. She does community workshops with some of the holistic health topics from her blog and works to introduce holistic health to others so that they will be able to utilize it in their daily lives.
She also hopes to open a smoothie business in the upcoming year. Although the pandemic caused her to put a pause on some aspects of her business, it also gave her more time to plan for the future. "I use smoothies on my hair as well as internally to support my organs and my skin," Qwania says. " I want to offer that in areas where they don’t have access to that."
https://info.achs.edu/blog/student-highlight-qwania-dixon
4. Shanna Bynes
Diploma in Aromatherapy
Shanna Bynes is an Aromatherapist, Licensed Medical Aesthetician, Natural Nail Specialist, and Professional Makeup artist, and the CEO of Grow Out Oils. She also provides custom formulations for physicians and high end luxury spas.
"I’m so glad that I decided to go to ACHS because all of my professors were absolutely amazing," Shanna says. She says that many people only have a general knowledge of essential oils, but that gaining a deeper knowledge in school and learning how they interact in the body was a great help. The line of products she offers at Grow Out Oils are "100% Organic All Natural Essential Oils formulated for the hair, scalp, and all parts of the body."
https://info.achs.edu/blog/alumni-highlight-shanna-bynes
5. Miriam Popp
Associate of Applied Science in Health and Wellness
Certificate in Wellness Consulting
Miriam founded Vibrant Lifestyle Coaching while she was still a student at ACHS. "The goal primarily with my coaching programs and everything else that I put out into the world is to help bring the mind, body, and soul self-care tools to help us manage our stress," Miriam says. "Open our eyes to the things we are doing, thinking, feeling, and how instead of running from those things we can run into them and use our tools to navigate it."
Miriam also volunteers as a youth mentor for girls from underserved populations.
https://info.achs.edu/blog/alumni-highlight-miriam-popp
6. Kelli Kemp
Master of Science in Complementary Alternative Medicine
In 2018, Kelli changed career paths when she quit her job as a Human Resources manager and started her own business called Holistic Journeys Wellness. At Holistic Journeys, Kelli works with people who have chronic health conditions and has an online shop with holistic health products that she created. She is also a sports nutritionist, and in 2019 she partnered with the Los Angeles Bobcats Football team as the team nutritionist.
Kelli is the creator of a digital magazine called the Holistic Californian. In the Holistic Californian, you can learn about plant-based medicine, alternative therapies, and California Native Plants.
https://info.achs.edu/blog/alumni-highlight-kelli-kemp
We are proud of each and every one of our students and alumni and we are looking forward to highlighting many more on the blog in the upcoming year!
Disclaimer: This blog may contain affiliate links. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
This article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent disease. This article has not been reviewed by the FDA. Always consult with your primary care physician or naturopathic doctor before making any significant changes to your health and wellness routine.
About American College of Healthcare Sciences
American College, founded in 1978, is a fully online accredited institute of higher education specializing in holistic health. Based in Portland, OR; our goal is to make research-driven and science-based holistic health education taught by industry-leading experts accessible to anyone anywhere while still giving students a hands-on experiential learning experience like a traditional college and a strong sense of community, school pride and student bond.
This commitment to our students and graduates reflects in our current survey results that reflect 98% of our students would recommend ACHS to a friend or family member.
We believe education is the most powerful tool for changing an individual and the world around us.
When a person enrolls as ACHS, it is vitally important that they graduate with tools they need to forge their own holistic and sustainable missions, build up their communities confidently and changing the face of healthcare with knowledge.
