Our Founder

Afrika Lyons is a certified school psychologist who has been practicing for more than 8 years. She earned her Masters of Education at Brooklyn College in New York; and earned her undergraduate degree from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. Ms. Lyons works primarily with middle and high school students. She enjoys working with the urban population and serving her community.

In her multifaceted role as a school psychologist, Ms. Lyons is an advocate for her students of color and she is also an advocate for not only her multilingual students, but also an advocate for her multilingual families. Through her work, she prides herself in strengthening the “home-school collaboration” bond.

As a Black school psychologist, Ms. Lyons sees, lives, and understands the struggles that many students of color experiences on a daily basis, so she ensures that all of her students receive the appropriate services they need in order to be successful in school.

In addition to advocating for her students of color and their families, Ms. Lyons focuses her work on bringing awareness to the mental health crisis in the Black community. In 2017, she wrote an article titled, “Violence Beyond the Battlefield: PTSD and its Effect on Youth from Urban Communities”. The article highlighted the prevalence of PTSD in the Black community and the effect this disorder has on Black youth and adolescents. The article was published in Communique, the official publication for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). In addition to this publication, Ms. Lyons recently presented her research, “Embracing a Culturally Sensitive Approach: Communicating with Families of Color during the Special Education Process” at the second annual Black School Psychologist Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (April 2024).

Continuing her work outside of the school day, Ms. Lyons most recently founded her own business, Above & Beyond Educational Services, LLC which focuses on providing essential information, supports, and other services such as private cognitive evaluations to families of color in the Greater Hartford region.