Ateya Ball-Lacy

Show Creator & Executive Producer

Ateya Ball-Lacy is a master educator turned producer who uses creativity and innovation to inspire students to tap into their innate genius and develop a passion for learning, leading and service. She has devoted her life to giving back through educating and inspiring youth, adult learners and educators. Ateya is a native Washingtonian, proud wife and mother, educator and fierce lover of the arts. She is the CEO of Ateya Productions LLC, an Edutainment Consulting Firm focused on the advancement of talented African-American students concentrating in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). 

Ateya currently serves as an Assistant Principal within an urban school district. She is a proud graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where she studied dance. Ateya completed her undergraduate studies at the historic Howard University where she earned a BA Degree in English with a Minor in Secondary Education. Ateya is a proud supporter of HBCUs and is an active member of the Howard University Alumni Association. She later earned her Masters of Education Degree from St. Mary’s University, Minneapolis, MN and completed an Educational Leadership post master’s program at The George Washington University where she earned her Principal licensure. Throughout her more than 20 years of service in teaching and educational leadership, she has received several awards of recognition for her excellence in education and community outreach. She received the 2017 Community Service Award, 2018 Sister of Strength Award, 2019 Umoja Award and the 2022 Marcus Garvey Outstanding Community Service Award.  

In addition to being a passionate educator, Ateya is also a passionate performing artist. Ateya is a longstanding member of the world-renowned Kankouran West African Dance Company, the oldest African dance company in the country, where she serves as a senior dancer. Ateya is the Creator and Executive Producer of Hood Smart: The Urban STEMulus Project, an innovative STEM focused game show that shines a light on brilliant, marginalized African-American youth. She is also the creator of the Illuminate Your Black Brilliance Awards Ceremony. 

Ateya’s mission is to use TV and digital media to shift the focus from the very negative images we often see of African-American youth to highlighting their academic and creative genius. This passionate, innovative educator is devoted to providing African-American youth a national platform to observe, celebrate, and ultimately emulate the academic prowess of their peers before a national audience. Ateya is working hard to ensure that HoodSmart: The Urban STEMulus Project and the Illuminate Your Black Brilliance Awards Ceremony change the way this generation and generations to come experience education. This trailblazing educator is making moves in the world of education. She is determined to make SMART the NEW SWAG!

MALKIA K. LYDIA

Consulting Producer 

MALKIA K. LYDIA is as documentary Producer & Director who seeks to connect people, stories and authentic power. She has produced content steeped in history and culture for regional public television, NGOs, and a historical museum. Malkia is a magnet for performance/media mashups. Her first long-form documentary – WHAT’S IN A NAME? – was inspired by a theater artist’s one-man show, and is in production in South Philly. She co-directed two TV specials on jazz in Philadelphia, and helmed music videos that played on VH1 Soul and BET networks.

Her company, Kuyamba Media, is also developing THE COLLAB – a new music doc and performance series. Malkia’s work has been supported by the Independent Television Service, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Prince George’s Arts & Humanities Council, The Leeway Foundation and Humanities DC. Additionally, Malkia has worked on the advocacy and engagement end of media, including with a community television station, the AFI Silverdocs Film Festival, and the Center for Media and Social Impact. In 2014, she was awarded a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Fellowship to attend the International Public Television Summit in Helsinki. Malkia earned her undergraduate degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke University. She received an MFA in Film & Media Arts from Temple University.

YAKENDA MCGAHEE

Host & Producer 

YaKenda McGahee is an Emmy award-winning Correspondent and Host with extensive local, national and international TV and digital broadcast experience. She is a multi-talented creative who also works as a documentary and non-scripted show producer and developer, a writer, voice-over artist and professional dancer. Indeed, performance and production are her passions, so she is just as much at home on-camera as she is on-stage, behind-the-mic and in the producer’s chair.

YaKenda has reported on some of the most memorable and historic news events of our time. As a TV news reporter, she covered everything from the Aurora Colorado theater mass shooting, the DC sniper and Los Angeles airport shootings, Hurricanes Charley and Katrina, the Ebola outbreak and anthrax poisonings, abortion clinic bombings and the FBI hunt for Eric Robert Rudolph, to the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes, the NBA playoffs, the Final Four and the September 11th attacks, as well as the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 and the crash of the U-S housing market.

As a TV and Radio Host, YaKenda has anchored and hosted real-estate, visual-arts, news, music and travel TV programming. She’s interviewed and profiled Grammy winning recording artists and creative visual artists, Hollywood celebrities, heads-of-state, trailblazers, innovators, news makers, filmmakers, business leaders and ordinary people doing extraordinary things. YaKenda is currently a co-host of the critically-acclaimed Podcast, The Shiznit Show. As a Professional Dancer she’s been honored to perform at world-renowned venues like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. YaKenda is a proud member of the critically-acclaimed Kankouran West African Dance Company – the nation’s first, oldest and most prestigious African Dance Company.

During her recent tenure as the Los Angeles-based international Correspondent for the world’s largest TV network, YaKenda was charged with covering news in the Western United States including Hollywood and entertainment, business and real estate, alternative energy and new space technology. Prior to CCTV News, she interviewed some of the top real estate minds in the country as the host of Real Estate IQ. She also hosted Blank Canvas, and The Daily Drum, a news and current events radio talk show which aired live daily on WHUR in Washington, D.C.

Born and raised in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, YaKenda enrolled in college at 17 years old. She attended DePaul University on a track-and-field scholarship, and majored in Communications and Professional Writing. While earning her degree as a student-athlete, YaKenda also worked as a news reporter for the DePaulia Newspaper and a Sports Reporter for The Chicago Defender, covering the city’s major college teams and pro sports franchises including the Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox.

When she’s not being a workaholic, YaKenda enjoys dancing and people watching, reality-show bingeing, traveling and exploring, or talking current events and debating politics – the latter while sipping on a Starbucks non-dairy Latte, of course!

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