Team

Dr. Anika Prather

Visionary

Dr. Anika Prather is the founder and principal of The Living Water School in PG County and teaches part time in the Classics dept. at Howard University. She was given a passion for serving the black community from her dad and mom, Pastor A. Lorenzo and DeLoris McKinney. She has earned her B.A. from Howard University in elementary education. At Howard she was heavily involved with the Impact Movement which continued to feed her passion for service and activism within the Black community. She also has earned several graduate degrees in education and has completed her PhD in education as well. She has served as a teacher, director of education and the Head of School for public and Christian schools in Maryland and DC. She is married to Damon and they have 3 young children.

Dr. Duane McKinney

Spiritual Leadership

Dr. Duane McKinney is the senior pastor of Encounter Life Church. His unique style of preaching and teaching is thought provoking, emotion stirring and life changing. He received a BA from Howard University and his podiatric medical degree from Temple University. He was ordained in ministry soon after graduating from podiatry school and has been focused on serving God through preaching and teaching ever since the day he accepted his call to ministry. His passion is to reach the lost with the truth of the Gospel and to challenge Christians to go hard for God. He is married to his high school sweetheart Traci and they have 3 amazing children.

Daniel and Manoucha Payne

Funeral Coordinators

Daniel and Manouchka Payne are the owners of Precious Memories Funeral Home. Together with Funeral Director La Tanya Davis, they truly have a heart for the Black Lives Funeral organization. As a team, they proudly join with other Funeral Professionals in the DC area to compassionately serve families dealing with loss and grief when injustice arises from the very systems established to protect them. With the help of colleagues Jeremy Christopher and Rick Pringle of the Washington D.C. Funeral Service C0-Op, they have put out a personal call to funeral directors all over the DMV to lead us into a time of mourning the loss of men, women and children killed unjustly. Daniel and Manouchka are the proud parents of 5 beautiful children Tiffany, Emmanuel, Michella, Eden & Evan and two grandchildren Kendall & Kensley.

SPECIAL THANKS

We would like to share a special thanks to Pastor Devin Turner, lead pastor of Revolution Church and founder of Justice and Equality for joining us for our inaugural funeral on July 5. You provided us with creative ideas, organizational structure advice and most importantly your eulogy at the funeral was a blessing to the event.