The year 2025 was a year of preparation, reflection, and foundation building as I laid the groundwork for work in equity consulting in the educational arena by establishing an educational consulting firm. Equity consulting is the work of helping organizations design, implement and sustain policies, strategies, and systems that promote fairness, equal access, and inclusion across organizations. I wanted to promote this work in the educational arena. As a doctoral student, I conducted and presented research on the experience of Black women doctoral students who attended predominantly white institutions across the United States. My dissertation research involved how Black parents in affluent, predominantly white school districts their children on their academic journeys. These areas of research fueled my interest in equity, fairness, and inclusion in educational arenas.
Graduating with an Ed.D. in May of 2025 was a turning point in my personal and professional life. Personally, I had dreamed of becoming Dr. J. since Julius came to the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team in 1976. As a young girl I wanted to be a Dr. J. I had no interest in basketball or medicine. I wanted a doctorate degree. Later in life I received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. However, no one calls J.D. holders doctor. Earning the Ed.D. was the fulfillment of a lifetime goal. After achieving that goal, I was exhausted from writing and defending my dissertation. I took time to breathe, relax, and recover. Then in October 2025, I began working to establish an educational consulting firm. While the firm has been established, I am still in the process of completing the work needed to start serving clients: parents of students in K-12, doctoral students, community organizations, and colleges and universities.
The Journey to the Ed.D.
While the desire to become “Dr. J.” was a lifelong dream, I was motivated to pursue a doctorate in education because I wanted to deepen my scholarship and credibility. Prior to my doctoral studies, I had created a successful after school program for students in grades K -8. The program was designed to help them do better in school by helping them with their homework and school projects. I wanted to help people create similar programs in their own neighborhoods. I wanted the Ed.D. because the audiences I wanted to reach would not necessarily respect someone with a J.D. telling them about education. I knew that the Ed.D. was designed for people who were going to actually work in education. The Ed.D. would put me in position to be viewed as a credible expert to the audiences I wanted to reach.
The Ed.D. program at my university was in intensive two years and ten months in duration. The program taught me several important lessons. I learned about academic rigor, equity frameworks, and narrative scholarship. Academic rigor involves the consistent application of high level critical thinking, deep analysis, and intellectual discipline in order to master complex ideas. As a first year doctoral student I was exposed to equity frameworks which are approaches that guide practices, policies, and decision-making in order to ensure inclusion, fairness and the removal of systemic barriers so that students can thrive. I also learned about narrative scholarship which involves weaving personal stories, cultural contexts and lived experience in order to illuminate knowledge, advance equity-driven understanding, and challenge assumptions. These lessons prepared me to work as an educational consultant.
Prior to obtaining my Ed.D. I worked as a business consultant. I helped business clients develop strategies, grow their businesses, market their services and offered them expert guidance to overcome challenges and achieve sustainable success. I particularly enjoyed helping business clients go from small start-ups to sustainable enterprises.
Transition from Business Consulting to Educational Consulting
I am fortunate because I have a resume that is chock full of interesting professional experiences. Before I was a graduate student, I owned and operated a business consulting firm. At that firm I was helped clients incorporate for profit and non-profit business entities. I trained client teams to operate with confidence and competence. My firm helped other clients negotiate contracts with federal and state agencies in order to supply solar energy for their clients. I also created videos to help entrepreneurs become more confident in themselves.
After earning my doctorate in education, it made sense to transfer from business consulting to educational consulting. Most of the experiences I gained as a business consultant can transfer to my work as an educational consultant. For example, my work as a business consultant taught me about systems, operations and strategy. Work as an educational consultant requires centering equity, accessibility, and thoughts of legacy. These ideas were part of my work as a business consultant. It was part of the work because as a Black woman, consultant, I often faced intersectional marginalization and discrimination.
I must admit that moving from business consulting to educational consulting is a unique and interesting challenge. It truly is starting a whole new venture. None of my business consulting clients came with me to the educational consulting firm. This is because while many of the skills that I used as a business consultant transferred to the educational consulting business, the clients themselves did not transfer over. Over The course of the next several months as I roll out more and more of the services I will offer as an educational consultant It will be an exciting experience. New business ventures are always exciting. It will be particularly enjoyable to help students become scholars and parents become better able to manage their children’s academic success. I am also looking forward to building relationships with colleges and universities to help their students succeed on their academic journeys.
Launching the Educational Consulting Firm
It has been an exciting adventure to start my new educational consulting firm. At the present times of firm has no clients. That is to be expected in part because it takes time to work out a business plan, develop a marketing strategy, and do all the preliminary work it takes to operate a business. along the way I have learned some valuable lessons. The first of which is that visibility takes time. It is not normal for a regular person to start a business and have that business known to every potential client. It also takes time for a new business venture and its entrepreneur to establish credibility with potential clients. towards this and I created a new blog, social media channels, and am creating webinars and live video presentations so that I can increase visibility and credibility in the educational marketplace.
Succeeding in business requires trust and relationship building. As an educational consultant concerned with equity, it is important for me to have potential clients, parents, and colleges and universities get to know me and trust me so that they will feel comfortable purchasing my services and relying upon my expertise. One of the reasons I created this blog was to share information to make it easier for trust and credibility to be visible to all those interested in working with me.
As an educational consultant, I understand that patients and resilience are particularly important in the early stages of business development. Patience is important because it takes time to build a successful business, to create successful networks, and to achieve the goals one has set for oneself in business. Resilience is crucial because in any business there will be ups and downs. There will be successes and failures in my educational consulting business. acknowledging this fact up front helps me prepare for inevitability. Finally, as I reflect upon what has gone on since I started the business just two short months ago, I realize that having no clients at this point is not a failure, but part of the foundation of the business. It takes time to create a business plan, review that plan, put that plan into action. It takes time to set up all of the back office things that are needed to run a successful business period therefore it makes sense that in the beginning while there may be no clients at the business, there is still lots of work being done in the back office.
Commitment to Equity
At Janeane Davis and Associates: Educational Consultants, we define equity as the intentional and ongoing practice of designing resources and systems, as well as creating relationships that remove barriers so that diverse identities can be honored. For us, equity means creating an environment where every learner and educator has the opportunity to thrive. Surviving in the educational system is not enough. That is the basement. At Janeane Davis and Associates, we believe every student and educator should thrive in the educational system. It is our mission to work to find ways to make that happen.
I learned several things about equity in 2025. The first, is that equity is not a value, it is a practice. Equity is more than a noun. Yes, it can be defined as fairness and justice. But it is more. Yes, it can also be an adjective describing something related to fairness. But, again, it is more. Here, we treat it like a verb. We use it creatively to signal action, practice, and transformation.
Another lesson I learned about equity in 2025 is that equity requires telling stories, showing up, being visible, and creating the resources people need to succeed. To have true equity and true freedom of opportunity, all stories need to be heard and valued. All too often marginalized voices are ignored or pathologized. This cannot be allowed to continue. educators who were equity-minded must find ways to hear from diverse voices. marginalized voices must be brought to the center.
We need to hear directly from marginalized communities. We should not be speaking for them they have stories to tell and we all need to listen. We have created a place where equity anchors every decision. Even before client work begins, we look for equity. We look for ways to honor all voices and all stories. We invite all students parents and educators to join us on that journey.
Lessons from 2025
There are several key takeaways I found when I started Janeane Davis and Associates: Educational Consultants in 2025. Those key takeaways are as follows:
- Preparation matters more than immediate results.
- Visibility is as important as expertise.
- Equity requires patience and persistence.
- Systems must be built before scaling.
Preparation matters more than immediate results.
Preparation is an important step that we often overlook. All too often we look for immediate and successful results when we have not prepared for them. When we prepare, we create the foundation needed so that the results we obtain are more likely to be the results that we want. When we adequately prepare in the beginning of a venture, we are better able to carry out the tasks needed to make that venture a success. there is a quote often attributed to the British army and the United States armed forces that goes like this, “Proper planning and preparation prevent his poor performance.” The point of this quote is that it emphasizes how careful planning and preparation are essential if one is to avoid mistakes inefficiency and failure. As I began to operate my educational consulting firm, I am reminded daily about the importance of proper preparation. I am convinced that proper preparation now will lead to the results I want for myself and my clients in the future.
Visibility is as important as expertise.
An entrepreneur can be the biggest expert in the world, but if she is not visible to potential clients, the expertise has almost no value. It is important to create visibility with clients, potential partners, and other players in the industry period when an entrepreneur does this, she is more likely to be successful. That is another reason why I created this blog, and building a presence on social media. when I show my expertise to the world at large, I am more likely to be successful in my business ventures.
Equity requires patience and persistence.
In order to succeed as a person who works to bring about equity, one must be patient and persistent. Equity does not happen overnight. Often, it is only achieved after a great deal of hard work and struggle. Equity does not come about as a result of immediate request for it. Equity comes about when one fights for it, demands it, and engages in sacrifice to make it happen. Equity requires persistence. If one wants to achieve it one has to be willing to try again and again to make it happen.
Systems must be built before scaling.
Another lesson I learned in 2025 is that systems must be put into place before one can scale operations. It does not make sense to set a table for 100 guests, when only 25 have been invited. A similar idea applies to starting an educational consulting firm. Systems have to be created and put in place before clients can be served. For example intake forms, client contracts, email sequences and the like all must be in place before the first client can be served. That when the client starts to come in the door, the business is ready to serve them. It makes sense to have things ready for clients to start using rather than creating systems after the clients have been secured and making clients wait for them. 2025 has been a quiet year of foundation building for our company. We look forward to being loud and active in quiet acquisition and client services in 2026.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As we look forward to 2026, we are excited about the opportunities before us. We have spent the better part of two days planning out the entirety of the work to be done for 2026. This work ranges from an editorial calendar for blog post for the year and creating quarterly anchors In the furst quarter we will focus on foundation and visibility. In quarter two, we will reflect on growth. The third quarter of 2026 will focus on systems and momentum. Finally, in the fourth quarter of 2026 we will examine legacy and renewal.
We have set a schedule for activating the service packages we will offer to clients. These services include packages for advocacy, services fir parents 9f students in K -12, coaching, worksheets, boot camps for doctoral students, and partnerships with local community organizations, colleges, and universities. We have designed visibility campaigns to help our presence become known across a variety of social media platforms that are used by our potential clients. We have set up metrics tracking forms for weekly monthly and quarterly tracking of business progress. in December of 2026 we will look back at how we have done. This means we will compare the plan to the actual work that was accomplished. Sitting In our office at the end of 2025 and thinking about what she’ll come to pass in 2026 fills us with a sense of excitement and wonder.
Conclusion
For Janeane Davis and Associates: Educational Consultants, 2025 has been a year of preparation and learning. Ranging from the completion of an Ed.D. degree, to the creation of an educational consulting firm there have been many preparation steps and many lessons learned. Throughout it all, we have maintained our commitment to equity and legacy. We are creating a world where students and educators seek and find equitable opportunities to learn and succeed on their educational journeys as well as a world where people create a legacy for equity and opportunity for all. It is important for us to remind you that for us equity in educational consulting is not about quick wins, but about building sustainable repeatable impact. We invite you to join us as we go through 2026. We are confident that our journey of growth visibility and equity be will be a road worth of traveling.
Further Reading
20 Tips for Educators: A Powerful and Informative Series
Unlock Your Doctoral Success: Coaching & Resources That Work
Unleash the Fire Within: Maya Angelou’s Lifegiving Wisdom for Educators
About the Author
Dr. Janeane Davis is Founder and Principal Consultant at Janeane Davis and Associates: Educational Consultants. Her work is rooted in practical wisdom and strategic clarity—offering educators tools that honor both their brilliance and their bandwidth. She writes to make systems feel human and tips feel like rituals worth keeping.
One desk. Many drafts. Always refining