Life & Work with Dr. Marquisha Frost of National

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Marquisha Frost.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story is one of resilience, faith, purpose, and an unwavering belief in the power of people to transform their lives and communities.
I often say that I am many things, but at the heart of it all, I am a woman who believes deeply in the humanity of others and the possibility of becoming. I am a mother of three, a first-generation college graduate, a Black woman with a Ph.D., an educator, a leader, an entrepreneur, and someone who has had to navigate her fair share of life’s complexities.
My journey has been anything but linear. I became a mother as a teenager, and while that experience came with its challenges, it also gave me a profound sense of purpose. I learned early what it meant to persevere, to advocate for myself and others, and to pursue possibilities that weren’t always visible or accessible to me. Education became one of the vehicles through which I transformed my own life, but I quickly realized that my calling extended far beyond earning degrees or achieving professional success. I wanted to help create pathways for others to thrive, too.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working across higher education, nonprofit leadership, community engagement, and organizational development. My professional journey has taken me from supporting students navigating some of life’s most difficult circumstances to leading institutional strategy, advancing inclusive excellence, and helping organizations build cultures rooted in belonging, equity, and human dignity. Today, I serve as an Associate Vice President for Inclusive Excellence and Mission Integration and Interim Dean of Student Affairs at the University of La Verne in Southern California.
But alongside my professional journey, there has always been another calling: creating spaces where people, particularly women and girls, can feel seen, supported, celebrated, and empowered to become the fullest versions of themselves.
That calling gave birth to Marquisha&Co., my consulting and coaching practice, where I bring together my experiences in leadership, education, organizational strategy, and personal development to support individuals and organizations in navigating change, cultivating purpose, and leading with intention. I believe that meaningful transformation begins with people, and my work is grounded in helping others recognize their capacity to lead, grow, and create impact without compromising their humanity.
It also led me to establish The Sanctuary Collective in 2022, a nonprofit organization born from my belief that healing, community, and personal growth should not be luxuries. I wanted to create the kinds of spaces I knew so many women and girls needed, and frankly, spaces I had needed at different points in my own life. Through retreats, mentorship, leadership development, and intentional community-building, we’ve cultivated opportunities for women and girls to reconnect with themselves, build meaningful relationships, and experience the transformative power of sisterhood. Since our founding, we’ve reached hundreds of individuals, and our vision continues to grow.
While Marquisha&Co. and The Sanctuary Collective serve different purposes, they are deeply connected by a common philosophy: people deserve spaces and opportunities that honor who they are while nurturing who they are becoming.
When I reflect on how I got here, I don’t see a perfectly mapped-out journey. I see a series of experiences, some beautiful and others incredibly difficult, that have shaped my understanding of leadership, service, and purpose. I see the people who poured into me, the doors that opened, the ones that closed, and the moments when I had to create my own way forward.
More than anything, I see a life that continues to unfold with intention. I am proud of the degrees I’ve earned, the positions I’ve held, and the organizations I’ve built, but what matters most to me is the impact of the work and the people whose lives are made better because of it.
My story is still being written, and if there’s one thread connecting every chapter, it’s this: I believe we are all worthy of belonging, healing, opportunity, and the freedom to become. That’s the belief that has carried me this far, and it’s the foundation of everything I hope to continue building.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all. In fact, I would say that very little about my journey has been easy, but so much of it has been worth it.
I’ve experienced my fair share of adversity, setbacks, disappointment, and moments of uncertainty. Becoming a mother as a teenager meant that I had to grow up quickly, make difficult decisions, and navigate spaces where people often had already made assumptions about who I was and what I could become. As a first-generation college student, I had to figure out so much on my own, often without the benefit of a roadmap, financial security, or access to the networks that make certain opportunities easier to navigate.
And while education opened doors for me, it didn’t eliminate the challenges. As a Black woman navigating higher education, executive leadership, and entrepreneurship, I’ve experienced what it means to be underestimated, overlooked, and expected to prove myself in ways that others are not. I’ve had to learn how to advocate for myself, navigate environments that weren’t always designed with people like me in mind, and remain grounded in my values even when doing so came at a personal or professional cost.
There have also been the quieter struggles that people don’t always see. Balancing motherhood, career aspirations, relationships, financial responsibilities, and the emotional weight of caring for others has required tremendous sacrifice. I’ve experienced seasons of exhaustion, grief, uncertainty, and having to start over. There have been moments when I’ve questioned my capacity, not necessarily my calling, but whether I had enough left in me to keep going.
Building Marquisha&Co. and The Sanctuary Collective has brought its own set of challenges. Entrepreneurship and nonprofit leadership are often romanticized, but the reality is that building something meaningful from the ground up requires an extraordinary amount of work, resources, patience, and faith. There have been times when the vision was much bigger than the budget, when I was wearing far too many hats, and when sustaining the work meant making personal sacrifices. I’ve had to learn that passion alone cannot sustain a mission. It takes infrastructure, healthy boundaries, trusted partnerships, financial resources, and a willingness to evolve.
Perhaps one of my greatest lessons has been learning that being capable of carrying something doesn’t mean I’m supposed to carry it all. For a long time, resilience meant pushing through, showing up, and figuring things out regardless of what was happening around me. Today, I understand resilience differently. I believe it also means knowing when to rest, when to ask for help, when to release something, and when to choose yourself.
In many ways, the struggles I’ve experienced have directly informed the work I do today. The Sanctuary Collective exists, in part, because I understand what it feels like to need a safe place to land. Marquisha&Co. exists because I know that leadership and personal growth are rarely straightforward, and that people deserve support as they navigate both.
I don’t believe every difficult experience happens for a reason, and I certainly wouldn’t romanticize struggle. Some things were simply hard, unfair, or painful. But I do believe we have the capacity to make meaning from what we’ve experienced and use those lessons to create something different for ourselves and others.
I am proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I’m equally proud of what I’ve survived, what I’ve learned to release, and the woman I continue to become. My journey has taught me that success isn’t just about what we achieve. It’s also about what we preserve along the way: our humanity, our joy, our relationships, our peace, and our sense of self.
And if my story can remind another woman, particularly one who has been told that her circumstances determine her possibilities, that she is still worthy of dreaming, growing, and becoming, then sharing even the difficult parts of my journey is worth it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At the heart of my work is a commitment to people, possibility, and transformation. Whether I’m working with an individual, an organization, or a community, my goal is to create the conditions for people to thrive, lead authentically, and experience a deeper sense of purpose, belonging, and connection.
My work spans higher education, executive leadership, organizational development, consulting, coaching, and nonprofit leadership. While these areas may seem distinct, I see them as deeply interconnected. They all require us to understand people, recognize the systems that shape their experiences, and be intentional about creating opportunities for meaningful and sustainable change.
Through Marquisha&Co., I provide consulting, coaching, and strategic support to individuals and organizations seeking to strengthen their leadership, navigate transitions, cultivate inclusive cultures, and align their practices with their values. My areas of expertise include leadership development, organizational strategy, inclusive excellence, student success, community engagement, and personal and professional growth. I especially enjoy working with leaders who are navigating complexity, building something new, or seeking to lead in ways that are both effective and deeply human.
I’m known for my ability to bring people together, ask thoughtful and sometimes difficult questions, see possibilities where others may see barriers, and help translate big ideas into meaningful action. I believe I bring a unique combination of strategic thinking, relational leadership, and lived experience to the work. I can sit at an executive table and help shape institutional strategy, but I can also sit across from someone who is navigating one of the hardest seasons of their life and meet them with compassion, understanding, and practical support. Both matter to me, and I believe both are essential to transformative leadership.
Through The Sanctuary Collective, the nonprofit organization I founded in 2022, I have the privilege of creating intentional spaces for women and girls to experience community, healing, leadership development, mentorship, and personal growth. Our work includes retreats, workshops, cohort experiences, and community-centered programming designed to help participants reconnect with themselves and one another. Since our founding, we’ve served nearly 350 individuals through our programs and experiences, and we’ve continued to expand our vision for what accessible, healing-centered community can look like.
The Sanctuary Collective is especially meaningful to me because it represents something I believe we need more of in the world: spaces where people are not required to perform, produce, or prove their worth to belong. Spaces where women can simply be, where sisterhood is intentional, where healing and joy coexist, and where growth is nurtured through genuine connection. Our commitment to making sisterhood sacred again is more than a tagline; it’s a philosophy that shapes how we gather, how we care for one another, and how we build community.
When I think about what I’m most proud of, it’s not necessarily the titles I’ve held, the degrees I’ve earned, or even the organizations I’ve established, although I am incredibly grateful for all of those things. I’m most proud of the people and communities that have been impacted by the work. I’m proud of the women who have found renewed confidence, meaningful friendships, and a sense of belonging through The Sanctuary Collective. I’m proud of the students I’ve supported who have gone on to accomplish things they once thought were beyond their reach. I’m proud of the leaders I’ve coached who are learning to lead with greater clarity, confidence, and intention.
I’m also proud that I’ve been able to build work that reflects my values rather than feeling compelled to separate who I am from what I do.
What sets me apart is that I don’t approach this work solely from an academic, professional, or theoretical perspective. I bring all of who I am to it. I bring the perspective of a scholar and executive, but also that of a mother, a first-generation college graduate, a woman who has navigated adversity, and someone who understands both the beauty and complexity of becoming.
I understand systems, but I also understand the people who must navigate them. I know how to develop strategy, but I also recognize that meaningful change requires trust, relationships, accountability, and care. And while I value excellence and results, I don’t believe they should come at the expense of our humanity.
I also believe there is something powerful about building bridges between spaces that are too often disconnected. My work brings together scholarship and lived experience, strategy and compassion, leadership and wellness, individual growth and collective responsibility. I don’t see these as competing priorities. I see them as necessary parts of creating meaningful change.
Ultimately, I want people to leave an interaction, experience, or partnership with me feeling more seen, more capable, and more connected to their own possibilities. I want organizations to be better because of the work we’ve done together, and I want communities to be stronger because we’ve invested in the people within them.
I don’t just want to help people become more successful. I want to help them become more whole. And I think that commitment to both impact and humanity is what makes my work distinctive.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love most about Los Angeles is its people, culture, and incredible diversity. There’s something special about being in a place where so many different cultures, perspectives, stories, and experiences come together. I love the creativity, the energy, the food, the sense of possibility, and the countless opportunities to connect with people from all walks of life. As someone whose personal and professional work centers on community, belonging, and human connection, I find that especially meaningful.
Having relocated to Southern California from Nebraska, I’ve also enjoyed discovering new communities, building relationships, and experiencing all that this region has to offer. There’s a richness to Los Angeles that extends far beyond its reputation for entertainment and beautiful weather. It’s a place filled with people who are creating, dreaming, advocating, and making meaningful contributions to their communities. I appreciate that deeply.
What I like least, though, has less to do with Los Angeles itself and more to do with what I had to leave behind. My family and so many people I love are still in Nebraska, and being away from them has undoubtedly been one of the hardest parts of this transition. I’m incredibly family-oriented, and while I’m grateful for the opportunities and experiences that brought me to California, there’s nothing quite like being close to the people who know you best and have been part of your journey.
In many ways, this experience has reminded me that home isn’t always just a place. Sometimes it’s the people who make you feel most loved, grounded, and connected. I’m learning to embrace the beauty of building a life and community here while continuing to nurture the relationships that will always make Nebraska home, too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marquishaandco.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_thesanctuarycollective_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Sanctuary-Collective-61574444834423/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/105500909/admin/dashboard/
• Twitter: https://x.com/__thedocisin
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQpBWWCmkaxQ0w2Xvve5rTA

Image Credits
Photographer: Chanea Brewer