Lunch Break With The Village

Tanisha Akinloye, the founder of Empowering Through Beauty, Inc. in Fairfield County, Connecticut, empowers people, especially women and girls of all backgrounds. After overcoming many setbacks, Tanisha realized that power and self-worth are not defined by circumstance, material possessions, or the opinions of others. Led by this knowledge and strong faith, she created a non-profit organization that combined her skills in the beauty industry as a salon owner with her education in psychology. As a result, Empowering Through Beauty was born in 2010. Empowering Through Beauty’s mission is to make the world more beautiful, to be love, and to alleviate and prevent inner suffering. Through her organization, she has created partnerships near and far with women organizations, community organizations, churches, beauty salons, barbershops, and beauty professionals forming pathways for charitable contributions to the local community, including survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence and addiction, homeless people, and inner-city schools. They offer leadership training and development, makeovers, and valuable resources to prepare men and women to resume their positions in the workforce, obtain housing, attend educational programs, and better their lives.

Tanisha has presented at numerous East Coast conferences, including two TEDx Conferences. As a result, what began as an idea to help women, has developed into a powerful movement. Tanisha is dedicated to the empowerment of all women and girls. Her most recent endeavor is LOVE CAN Project, where she provided care packages to women and children in the USA, Africa, and Haiti. Also, she created Identity Leadership Summit, which provides inner city school students leadership and character building skills. Another way that she empowers is through her Beauty Queens Conference which teaches pre-teens and teenage girls confidence and self-worth by focusing on leadership and peer mentoring.

Tanisha Akinloye, is a TEDx speaker changing the face of beauty by evoking humanity, not vanity. She prides herself on being the source of hope, dignity, and self confidence to women and girls.
As a result, she has received nationwide recognition, among others by the National Black Professional Women Association, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She has been featured by TEDX Tryon, TEDx UCONN, NBC Universal, CBN 700 Club, KLove National Radio Broadcast, Fox Business Network, Modern Salon, Essence, Madame Noire, Connecticut Magazine, Bold Life Magazine, and several other media outlets.

Dr. Melissa Santos is the Division Chief of Pediatric Psychology and Clinical Director for the Pediatric Obesity Center at Connecticut Children’s and is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. In her role within obesity, Dr. Santos oversees the treatment of youth and their families in the Center’s nationally accredited bariatric surgery program and its behaviorally based non-surgical weight management programs. She is the pillar lead for Connecticut Children’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives focused on patient healthcare inequities. Her research is focused on the improvement of obesity treatment outcomes by examining methods to better tailor treatment to presenting comorbidities. She is currently NIH funded to examine a psychological treatment for youth with comorbid obesity and chronic pain.  Dr. Santos is President-Elect for the Society of Pediatric Psychology.