We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Takyra Fulton . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Takyra below.
Takyra , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience was born long before I had the words to describe it. As a Black woman growing up in environments that often, demanded strength before support. I learned early that survival and softness had to coexist. I carried responsibilities that grew me up fast, but those same experiences also planted the seeds of the woman I am today. A woman who leads with compassion, vision, and a deep commitment to community healing.
I graduated high school at seventeen, not because life was easy, but because I had learned to push through challenges that would have broken many adults. I wanted to escape that reality as soon as possible. Every obstacle sharpened a part of me: determination, empathy, leadership, and the ability to hold space for others even while navigating my own storms.
My resilience comes from watching the women in my life continually pour from empty cups. It comes from seeing Black women carry households, trauma, grief, and expectations without access to culturally affirming support. Over time, I realized that the strength we are praised for often hides the unmet need for rest, care, and community. That realization became the foundation of my purpose.
Resilience, for me, is not about being unbreakable. It’s about choosing to rebuild with intention. It’s about turning pain into programs, experiences into insight, and personal transformation into a collective mission. That journey is what led me to create CALM. A nonprofit that offers safe, accessible, and culturally affirming spaces for Black women to prioritize their mental health and wellness.
Today, my resilience fuels the way I design every workshop, every support circle, and every wellness experience. It guides the way I lead, wife, mother, and serve. It reminds me that healing is not a luxury, it is a birthright. And now, through CALM, I get to help other women reclaim theirs.
I have overcome so many challenges and still manage to turn my pain into purpose. I have climbed the corporate ladder as a leader in Oncology research as a project director. I have founded a nonprofit that allows me to give women the space I wish I always had. I have experience significant loss and divorce and somehow created a new reality that was the broken version of me, wildest dream.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
At my core, I create spaces for Black women to breathe.
I am the Founder & Executive Director of CALM, a Detroit-based nonprofit dedicated to making self-care, mental health support, and healing accessible, culturally affirming, and community-centered. We exist because far too many Black women carry the weight of entire families, workplaces, and communities without ever having a place designed specifically for them to rest, release, and be held.
What makes our work so special is the way we blend luxury, softness, and cultural competency into wellness. We meet women where they are. In community centers, clinics, transitional housing spaces, schools, and nonprofit organizations. We transform those rooms into healing environments through our CALM Rooms, and support groups.
We partner with local Detroit nonprofits to reach women who often get overlooked in mainstream wellness spaces. Our mission is simple:
To remind Black women that their wellness is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.
One of the most exciting parts of what I do is witnessing the immediate shift in a woman when she steps into a CALM experience. Her shoulders drop. Her breath slows. She remembers herself. That transformation even if it lasts just a couple hours, create a safe space.
We are entering a major growth season at CALM:
Program Expansion:
We are rolling out our CALM Rooms and Self-Care Share wellness events across Detroit in partnership with clinics, nonprofits, and housing programs. We have added a therapy within reach program to offer women access to therapy for therapeutic relief.
Support Circles: We launched the SheShare Circles, a safe, healing, culturally affirming space created for Black women to come together, exhale, and be supported. It’s a guided circle designed for storytelling, emotional release, and connection. A place where women can share what they’re carrying without judgment and receive validation, resources, and community. It’s not therapy, but it is therapeutic.
Internship Program: We’re onboarding recent high school graduates as interns through Urban Alliance nonprofit to support our growing programs and provide mentorship to Detroit youth.
What I want people to know about CALM is that we are not just a wellness brand, we are a movement.
A movement restoring softness. A movement reconnecting Black woman to themselves. A movement proving that healing is possible when community is built with intention.
I am honored to do this work, and I’m even more excited for what’s ahead.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back, the three qualities that have shaped my journey the most are resilience, emotional intelligence, and vision-driven leadership. Each one was strengthened through experience, not perfection; and they continue to guide the work I do today.
Resilience because my ability to rise, rebuild, and reimagine. My resilience didn’t come from easy moments. It came from navigating challenges early in life, learning how to stand on my own, and choosing to keep going when circumstances said I shouldn’t. That resilience is the backbone of CALM. It taught me how to hold space for others, take risks, and build something that didn’t exist yet.
Advice: Resilience grows when you allow yourself to fail forward. Don’t fear difficult seasons, study them. Ask, “What is this teaching me? How can I use this later?” Every challenge becomes a tool if you let it.
Emotional Intelligence, I took the time to build to rebuild and understand myself on a very deep level, so I can understand others. Leading a wellness organization requires a deep understanding of people; their pain, their triggers, their capacity, their desire to be seen. Emotional intelligence helped me connect with the women I serve, build trust, create safe spaces, and lead with compassion instead of control.
Advice:
Slow down enough to hear your own emotions before you try to manage anyone else’s. Start journaling, practice self-reflection, and notice your reactions. Emotional intelligence isn’t about perfection; it’s about awareness. The more honest you are with yourself, the better you’ll lead others.
Vision-Driven Leadership, I have the ability to seeing the vision clearly before it exists. Every program, event, and partnership at CALM started as a vision in my mind. Being able to imagine what’s possible, even when resources are limited. This is what allowed me to turn an idea into a movement. Vision keeps you moving when motivation fades. It gives your work purpose.
Advice:
Protect your vision by writing it down. Speak it out loud. Build small habits around it daily. Surround yourself with people who water your ideas, not those who shrink them. Vision grows when it’s consistently nurtured.
My final note and biggest lesson: You do not need to have everything figured out to begin. Start with what you have, where you are, and who you want to serve. Develop resilience by trying. Develop emotional intelligence by listening to yourself and others. Always be a student, there is an opportunity to grow your knowledge in every situation. Develop leadership by showing up when no one is watching.
Your journey will meet you halfway if you’re willing to meet it with intention.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
If I knew I only had a decade of life left, I would spend those years continuing to live with intentionality, softness, and purpose that honors both the woman I’ve become and the communities I serve. I would continue pouring my energy into creating experiences, relationships, and spaces that outlive me.
First, I would continue building CALM into a sanctuary that will serve Black women long after I am gone. I would expand our programs, train other women to lead support circles, and make sure CALM becomes a permanent resource. A legacy of healing rooted in community. I want the next generation of Black women to have access to what so many of us never did: rest, support, safety, and culturally affirming care.
Second, I would spend more time with my family by traveling, creating memories, laughing, and teaching my children everything I’ve learned about purpose, love, identity, and resilience. I want them to know that joy is their birthright and that they never have to choose between ambition and peace.
Third, I would give myself permission to live slower. To be near water. To write. To teach. To mentor other women who feel called to lead but are still finding their voice. I would spend more days in nature, more mornings in stillness, and more nights surrounded by people who make my heart feel full.
And finally, I would be unapologetically committed to impact. I’d invest the rest of my time pouring into programs, partnerships, and purposeful work that help women heal. If I only had a decade left, I would spend it doing exactly what I’m doing now; but with even more presence, even more boldness, and even more love.
Because purpose doesn’t ask how long you have. It asks what you’re willing to do with the time you’ve been given.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.calmnonprofit.com
- Instagram: calmnonprofit
- Facebook: calmnonprofit
