Talena Lachelle
Heaven
Talena Lachelle Queen, BA, MFA, D.D. Dr. Queen is a poet and the founder/ president of Her Best Self a nonprofit organization that fosters leadership qualities in young women. The Paterson, NJ native earned her MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell where she authored Fourteen. She is passionate about history, African-American culture and social justice issues. She is often inspired by current events and is known to infuse music into her highly emotive poetry. She is a certified and licensed elementary school teacher specializing in Middle Level Humanities in both New Jersey and Washington states. Among her alma mater are Rosa Parks School of Fine & Performing Arts High School where she earned her diploma in Creative Writing, Montclair State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting, University of Washington where earned both her teaching certification, and her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Poetics, and University of Notre Dame where she earned an Executive Certification in Transformational Nonprofit Management at the Mendoza Business School. Queen is a martial artist, art lover and a gardener.