About

I was literally born on the wrong side of the tracks. Growing up in poverty, I watched family and friends die from drugs and gang violence. I dropped out of high school, had a baby as an unwed teen and was constantly told I’d never amount to anything.

And I believed it.

But it all turned around for me when I accepted responsibility for my situation and made a plan to change it. This blog chronicles some of those experiences and distills the many lessons I learned as I transformed a desperate situation into the success I enjoy today.

I hope you are inspired by what you read here and I welcome your comments. If you’d like to be in touch with me, please contact me.

Thank you for visiting!
DJH

p.s. If you’re interested in my professional background and education, you’ll find my more formal biography below.

Danita’s Bio

With an amazing story of transformation, hope and triumph over difficult odds, Danita Johnson Hughes is a healthcare industry executive, speaker and author. Through her professional work, keynotes, writing and philanthropic activities, she inspires people to dream big and understand the role personal responsibility has in achieving success.

Danita’s early life was filled with desperation and hopelessness. As a high school dropout and unwed teen mother, she was the statistic that many considered doomed for failure. Refusing to give into her circumstances, Danita made a decision that changed her life: she decided to take personal responsibility for her situation and turn it around.

She enrolled in classes at Indiana University Northwest and earned two degrees, a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Public Administration. She continued her education earning a second Master’s degree in Social Service Administration, a graduate certificate in Health Administration & Policy from the University of Chicago and finally a Ph.D. in Human Services from Walden University, Minneapolis. Armed with education and hope, she set out to change her life and the lives of those around her.

Today, she is dedicated to helping people of all walks of life establish and achieve lofty goals. The only African American CEO of a certified mental health center in Indiana, Danita leads a team of dedicated professionals at Edgewater Systems for Balanced Living, Inc., an organization that provides behavioral health and child welfare services for the citizens of Gary and Northwest Indiana. She also serves on the advisory board of the Professional Woman Network where she is certified to provide leadership, consulting and motivational speaking engagements. Danita has received many awards for her work including the 2001 Distinguished Hoosier award from the Governor of Indiana.

In her book, Power from Within, Danita shares her “Power Principles for Success” that helped her overcome meager beginnings and achieve professional, community and personal success. In her writing and speaking, she uses her story, and the stories of others, as a compelling backdrop for proven principles that inspire working professionals, single mothers, and people from all walks of life to achieve great things.

Danita is currently developing a follow-up book, GPS for Kids: Mentoring Children Through a Perilous World, where the concept of personal responsibility is brought to a whole new level. In her new book, she tackles social issues related to sex, education, drugs, crime, and health with encouragement and advice to help parents, educators and others realize the importance of mentors in the life of children, communities and this country.