Greetings Geniuses! Please show your love for Dr. Zoni Alicia Boyer, CEO & Founder of Black S.H.I.N.E. Network. Dr. Boyer is a member of the Genius is Common Movement.
Dr. Zoni Alicia Boyer was born in January in Wayne County Michigan in 1980. Seeking more opportunities and warmer climates, her parents, Marcus and Carolyn Boyer moved the family to southern California when Dr. Boyer was three years old. Initially, the family lived in the city of Lynwood, CA but due to the high rates of crime and violence, her parents wanted a safer environment to raise their four children and later moved further east within Los Angeles County, settling in Pomona, California.
As a child growing up in Pomona California, Dr. Boyer was surrounded by beautiful representations of Black excellence, shown throughout the various families living in their neighborhoods and within the schools. Additionally, the schools had high populations of Black educators and administrators, adding a layer of empathy, understanding, and representation to her school experience that many Black kids are not fortunate to experience today. Although this was a benefit, Dr. Boyer never was a fan of school, viewing it as boring and pointless.
Dr. Boyer struggled with engagement and motivation throughout her K-12 education experience and that was one of the reasons she wanted to pursue education; to reach and challenge the type of students that mirrored her own experiences. Upon graduating high school, Dr. Boyer enrolled in Chaffey Community College but her lack of motivation and inspiration led her to not complete her classes. She was experiencing what she felt throughout her K-12 career and was not interested in repeating those experiences.
Not wanting to be stuck and recognizing that she needed to be pushed to develop discipline and self-determination, Dr. Boyer enlisted in the United States Air Force in February 2001 as an active duty member. In the Air Force, Dr. Boyer trained as a jet engine mechanic and was on active duty for more than three years. As a result of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 (9/11), Dr. Boyer deployed and actively participated in two wars; Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Due to her deployment, Dr. Boyer was able to see and experience the cultures in Italy, Germany, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi and Dubai). While in the Air Force, Dr. Boyer would meet the father of her son and although that relationship ended, it marked the beginning of the next exciting chapter of Dr. Boyer’s life.
In 2004, Dr. Boyer was honorably discharged from the Air Force and was three months pregnant. Her experiences in the Air Force taught her discipline, goal setting, and motivation which all aided in her finally pursuing the career path she always wanted, becoming a history teacher. Dr. Boyer’s love for history, specifically African American and African history, motivated her to begin her studies at Chaffey College, four months pregnant and only one month out of the military. Dr. Boyer gave birth to her beautiful son in late November of 2004 and without skipping a beat and after a lengthy hospital stay, returned to her classes to take her finals in December 2004 before the semester ended and without having to withdraw or take incompletes from any professor.
In 2006 Dr. Boyer transferred from Chaffey Community College and enrolled in California State University, San Bernardino to pursue her B.A. in history. As a single mother, Dr. Boyer not only worked full time to provide for her son but also maintained a full course load to finish school as soon as possible so that other job opportunities that provided medical benefits would be open to Dr. Boyer. Her son was born with multiple disabilities and needs that required quite a bit of attention and care and Dr. Boyer made sure he always had what he needed to access all environments whether at home, daycare, or preschool.
During this time, Dr. Boyer secured a job working as a paraeducator in a moderate/severe special education class which inspired her to change her credential focus from single-subject history to special education. The love, compassion, and embodied knowledge she saw in the students with dis/abilities positively impacted how she viewed the entire world, adopting the stance that within the social context, the world needs to become more accessible and individuals with dis/abilities do not need to be fixed but we all need to embrace human difference.
From that moment forward, she wanted to be an advocate for this community not knowing that later her son would be a member of this community. God was preparing her! Dr. Boyer graduated from California State University, San Bernardino in 2008 and transferred to Claremont Graduate School in 2009.
At Claremont Graduate School, Dr. Boyer pursued her teaching credential in moderate/severe special education and her M.A. in education. It was during this time that while working as an intern education specialist, her son was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Dr. Boyer’s studies and experience allowed her to be a fierce advocate for her son in individualized education plan (IEP) meetings, which led to her son receiving critical resources and services necessary to access his learning environments.
In 2011 with her son on her hip, Dr. Boyer graduated from Claremont Graduate School and continued her career as a moderate/severe (extensive support needs) education specialist for the very school district she grew up in, Pomona Unified School District (PUSD). Dr. Boyer’s time in PUSD was fraught with ups and downs but never because of the students. There were times when she wanted to give up due to lack of resources for her classroom but she never did because she believed in her students and set high learning expectations for all of them no matter their dis/ability.
During her time as a moderate/severe education specialist, Dr. Boyer began to see the disproportionate way that Black students were treated compared to their peers. She saw how they were policed by administrators and how their “behavior”, or as Dr. Boyer likes to say, ways of being did not fit, and due to respectability politics Black students face harsher discipline practices. In addition, Black students with dis/abilities were shipped off to even more restrictive environments. Due to this, Dr. Boyer decided to return to Claremont Graduate School to pursue an additional teaching credential, her mild/moderate certification, so that she could work in the classrooms where she saw many Black students, specifically boys, pushed into.
After completing her mild/moderate credential requirements and working for one year in a school in southern California, Dr. Boyer felt compelled to move to the Bay Area, Oakland California, to be closer to her older sister. In 2017, Dr. Boyer accepted a position within Oakland Unified School District and became even more aware of how Black boys’ ways of being were policed within educational systems.
Her experience in Oakland opened her eyes to the resiliency and embodied knowledge that Black students with dis/abilities carry with them. She saw them as remarkable and wanted to do more to name and address what she was seeing. After only one year in Oakland Unified, Dr. Boyer began to pursue her career as an education administrator, believing she could have a bigger impact in this way than she could as a classroom teacher.
Since her move to the Bay Area, Dr. Boyer has been on a roller coaster, catapulting her professionally and personally. In 2018, Dr. Boyer became a program specialist, and a teacher on special assignment (TOSA) that allowed her to take on administrative roles in multiple special education settings. She also began working on her preliminary administrative service credential, which would allow her to take on management positions within the California education system. In 2019, Dr. Boyer received another program specialist promotion, working for Contra Costa SELPA (special education local plan area), giving her the experience of working and consulting special education directors of four different unified school districts within Contra Costa County in the Bay Area.
In 2020, seeing even greater disproportionality as an administrator, Dr. Boyer enrolled in California State University, East Bay (CSUEB) to pursue her Clear Administrative Credential and Doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice. In 2022, Dr. Boyer secured another promotion and became a Coordinator for Access and Engagement within the San Mateo County Office of Education, where she is currently working.
In 2023, Dr. Boyer walked across the stage, graduating with high honors from CSUEB with her doctorate in educational leadership for social justice. Following her dissertation and research, Dr. Boyer felt a renewed sense of purpose in the area of advocating for Black students, especially those with dis/aiblities, in the area of post-secondary preparation, which led to her starting her nonprofit organization: Black S.H.I.N.E. Network. S.H.I.N.E., meaning self-determined hearts, imagining new endeavors, was named after her dissertation, to honor the Black males that she conducted research with.
The Black S.H.I.N.E. Network was established in 2024, as the CEO & Founder, Dr. Boyer’s purpose for the organization is to connect marginalized students and families to valuable resources, services, and human capital that will supplement and directly positively impact student’s post-secondary preparation so they are better prepared and equipped to reach their postsecondary goals. Always looking at her son as her inspiration, Dr. Boyer recognizes the importance of self-determination development for Black students and this idea is at the center of the nonprofit. Engaging in self-determined acts and providing opportunities for practice in these areas leads to greater success in postsecondary areas like educational attainment and persistence, job opportunities, and self-advocacy.
Dr. Boyer’s journey from her early years in Michigan to becoming the CEO & Founder of the Black S.H.I.N.E. Network is a testament to her unwavering determination, resilience, and commitment to educational equity and social justice. Through her experiences as a paraeducator, education specialist, and now as an education administrator, she has continually advocated for marginalized students, especially Black students with disabilities, striving to create a more inclusive and accessible educational system. Her nonprofit organization, the Black S.H.I.N.E. Network, stands as a beacon of hope and empowerment, providing vital resources and opportunities for self-determination development, paving the way for brighter futures for countless students and families. Dr. Boyer’s journey is not just a personal triumph but a profound example of how one individual’s dedication and passion can inspire positive change on a broader scale.
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