Triple Threat: PhD’ing While Being Black, a Woman, and a Mother

She Nearly Lost Everything But Refused to QuitIn August 2021, Queshonda Kudaisi was pregnant with her fifth child, working full-time, raising four children, building a nonprofit, and pursuing her doctorate at the University of South Florida when COVID-19 nearly took her life.What began as a fever quickly became a terrifying fight for survival.Pneumonia filled her lungs.Her ribs fractured from violent coughing.She lost the ability to eat for fourteen days.Hospital beds were unavailable, forcing her to wait in a hallway surrounded by critically ill COVID patients while fighting to breathe and praying for the life of her unborn daughter.At one point, she believed she might lose everything:her child,her life,and the doctorate she had spent years pursuing.But this is not a story about defeat.It is a story about faith, resilience, motherhood, perseverance, and purpose.Only weeks after surviving severe COVID-19 during pregnancy, Queshonda successfully defended her doctoral dissertation. Then, after giving birth to a healthy baby girl named Ava Victoria, she walked across the graduation stage only six hours after leaving the hospital with her newborn daughter in her arms.More than a memoir, this book is an honest and emotional journey through:motherhood during doctoral education,surviving burnout and emotional exhaustion,balancing family, faith, and ambition,healing after trauma,and refusing to quit during impossible seasons.This powerful testimony will encourage:mothers,students,educators,women pursuing difficult dreams,and anyone fighting to survive overwhelming circumstances.Because sometimes the strongest people are not the ones who never struggle.They are the ones who struggle deeply…and still keep going. Read more