Women To Watch Awards 2026 honors Nakia Marshall

Nakia Marshall, MPA, is a distinguished nonprofit executive, organizational strategist, advocate, and certified life coach with more than 25 years of leadership experience across the nonprofit, government, healthcare, and human-services sectors. Throughout her career, she has been a steadfast champion for children, families, andhistorically underserved communities, building organizations and programs that expand opportunity, strengthen families, and promote equity.

Most recently, Ms. Marshall currently served as Executive Director of Children of Bellevue, a nonprofit organization dedicated to initiating, funding, and implementing programs that improve the health, well-being, and development of children and adolescents receiving care at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. In this role, she provides strategic and operational leadership while strengthening the organization’s fundraising infrastructure, community visibility, corporate partnerships, board engagement, and long-term sustainability. Her work supports critical pediatric initiatives in child development, early literacy, adolescent parenting, child protection, mental health, and family support.

A central focus of Ms. Marshall’s leadership is ensuring that children and families receive comprehensive support that addresses not only immediate needs but also the broader social conditions affecting their health and well-being. She has been instrumental in advancing initiatives that connect pediatric healthcare with food security, mental health, family stability, literacy, and the social determinants of health. Her ability to bring together healthcare professionals, nonprofit leaders, corporations, government agencies, donors, and community partners reflects her belief that lasting change is achieved through collective action.

Before joining Children of Bellevue, Ms. Marshall served as Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Program Officer of the Puerto Rican Action Board, where she provided executive oversight for a comprehensive human-services organization serving approximately 25,000 individuals annually. She managed a portfolio of more than $14 million encompassing over 20 programs in early childhood education, housing, youth development, family support, and community services. Her responsibilities included organizational strategy, program performance, regulatory compliance, workforce development, partnership cultivation, fiscal stewardship, and the delivery of culturally responsive services.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Marshall served as Vice President of New York City Administration for Children’s Services Programs at Cayuga Centers. There, she led an extensive continuum of child-welfare services, including treatment family foster care, traditional family foster care, intake, home finding, and aftercare programs throughout New York City. She has also held leadership and programmatic roles with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, The Children’s Village, the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, Eden II Programs, and United Cerebral Palsy Associations.

Her career began as a Direct Support Professional working with Intellectually and Developmentally Delayed children and adults. That early experience shaped her leadership philosophy and gave her an enduring understanding of the courage, resilience, and potential that exist within communities too often defined only by their challenges. It also helped her discover her professional purpose and her voice as an advocate for individuals whose needs and perspectives are frequently overlooked.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Marshall has managed multimillion-dollar budgets, led multidisciplinary teams, improved organizational systems, strengthened employee retention, developed strategic partnerships, and secured significant public and private funding. Her accomplishments include helping secure a $400,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant to provide culturally responsive mental-health services. She is widely recognized for her ability to stabilize complex operations, translate vision into measurable action, cultivate high-performing teams, and lead organizations through periods of growth and transition.

Ms. Marshall’s leadership is grounded in the conviction that effective executives must pair operational excellence with empathy, accountability, and an unwavering commitment to human dignity. As a Black woman who has built her career within complex and demanding systems, she understands both the importance of representation and the responsibility that accompanies leadership. She is intentional about creating space for emerging professionals, amplifying underrepresented voices, and helping women recognize the value of their lived experiences, talents, and leadership capacity.

In addition to her executive work, Ms. Marshall is the founder of Serenity Life Coaching and Consulting, through which she helps individuals and organizations move from uncertainty to clarity and from possibility to purposeful action. Her coaching and consulting practice reflects the same principles that have guided her professional journey: resilience, authenticity, strategic growth, and service to others.

Ms. Marshall earned a Master of Public Administration from Metropolitan College of New York, formerly Audrey Cohen College, where she also earned a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Human Services. She holds a Post-Master’s Certificate in Executive Nonprofit Leadership from New York University.

Being named an inaugural Black Leaders Worldwide 2026 Women to Watch honoree recognizes Ms. Marshall’s enduring influence as an executive, advocate, mentor, and community-centered leader. Her career represents far more than professional advancement; it reflects a lifelong commitment to improving systems, creating opportunities, and ensuring that children and families receive the resources, respect, and support they need to thrive. Through courageous leadership and purposeful service, Nakia Marshall continues to demonstrate what is possible when experience, compassion, and vision are brought together in pursuit of meaningful change.