We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aisha Davis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aisha below.

Aisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

At the heart of everything I build—AU Listen, Eagle Innovators, and now Reel Family Tree—is one mission: empowerment through media production.

AU Listen started as my creative engine for producing meaningful content, consulting artists and brands, and building campaigns that inspire and inform. It’s about helping visionaries tell their stories with clarity, strategy, and high-quality visuals that cut through the noise.

Eagle Innovators took that same spirit and extended it into education and mentorship. I created it to open doors for students and emerging creatives, especially those who’ve been underestimated. We train, staff, and develop media talent—helping young people capture not just content, but confidence and career paths.

Now, Reel Family Tree is a deeply personal evolution of that work. It’s a platform where families can preserve their stories, honor their legacy, and document moments that matter. Whether through interviews, photos, or video, we’re making sure our history isn’t just remembered—it’s celebrated and shared.

Each of these branches serves a different purpose, but the root is the same: using media to document, empower, and make an impact that lasts far beyond the moment.

Aisha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Aisha Davis, a media educator, producer, and founder of AU Listen, Eagle Innovators, and Reel Family Tree. My mission is simple but deep: empower people through media and help them capture stories that make an impact.

When I started teaching five years ago, I knew I didn’t just want to teach—I wanted to train my future collaborators. Today, I do just that. I mentor and staff my former students with production companies and business owners, helping shape the next generation of media entrepreneurs.

My journey started early. I attended a performing arts high school and earned the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which covered all of my college and grad school expenses—thanks to Bill and Melinda Gates, and most importantly, thanks to God. I committed to a 40-day Daniel Fast during that season, and it transformed my relationship with God. That blessing changed the trajectory of my life.

I earned my B.A. in Film & Video from Georgia State University and my M.A. in Education with a concentration in Social Justice & Equity from San Francisco State. My love for education began while teaching filmmaking to kids during college summers. That’s when purpose clicked for me—especially after my dad once asked me at age 7 what my purpose was. I didn’t have an answer then, but I prayed about it. Now I know—I’ve been walking in that purpose all along.

I’ve won film festivals, traveled to India to shoot my first documentary, and interned with Lionsgate during the Cannes Film Festival after winning Best Editor at Campus Movie Fest. The contrast between the extreme wealth I saw in France and the deep need I witnessed in India changed me. It grew my commitment to equity and purpose-driven storytelling.

As a high school AVTF teacher at South Cobb High School, I bring those experiences into the classroom, where students create films about the issues that matter to them. Through Eagle Innovators, I provide mentorship, paid production gigs, and real-world access to the industry. With Reel Family Tree, I help families preserve their legacies through film. And through AU Listen, I produce strategy-driven campaigns and media that move audiences.

Balancing teaching, business, and life hasn’t been easy—but it’s been worth it. I’m proud to live a purpose-filled, blessed life. My goal is to use my gifts to help others see their own, and to leave a legacy rooted in impact, storytelling, and faith.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Being a full-time educator is a continuous pivot. Especially when you’re teaching adolescents across different levels, personalities, and learning styles. If a lesson doesn’t hit in first period, I’m switching it up by second. Pivoting happens on an hourly basis in the classroom, all while trying to stay ahead of the ever-changing trends in the media industry. But my biggest pivot came during grad school.

I had completed all of my coursework on time, except for one thing: my final culminating experience—writing my thesis. That thing took forever. Then COVID happened. Life slowed down and I ended up quitting graduate school. I was originally set to graduate in three years, but when my scholarship stopped covering expenses I had to leave San Francisco and move back home to Atlanta with my parents. Thankfully I didn’t feel like a complete failure because I started my career—and first full-time job. I poured myself into the work, and finishing grad school just… faded into the background.

Around that same time, my grandfather passed. He used to say, “Just go ahead and finish your paper, baby girl.” I didn’t. And I deeply regretted it. But with my grandmother still here, I knew I couldn’t risk feeling that regret again. So I buckled down, re-enrolled, and tried again, this time pushing through writer’s block with a little more wisdom and humility.

One thing that helped was a piece of advice from a mentor who’d earned her doctorate:
“Don’t write your thesis about something you’re too passionate about… because you’ll never finish.”

And she was right. My original thesis was about exposing the hidden history that many Black Americans are actually of American Indian descent, and how we need to rethink education through a lens I coined: Aboriginal Futurism—the intersection of culture, technology, and spirituality. Yeah… my professor wasn’t feeling it. And to be fair, back then my work wasn’t as substantial as it is now—thanks to AI tools that help me tighten up my research.

So, I pivoted. I wrote my thesis on something I’m moderately passionate about: teachers’ attitudes toward AI in education. It worked and I graduated (four years later) but since I’ve taken a keen interest in AI-enhanced workflows, how students interact with AI, and how to merge those tools with purpose and authenticity.

My Abofuturist approach is still alive—I just rebranded it. I now call it The Real AI: nurturing authentic intelligence in young minds while teaching them to leverage artificial intelligence with clarity, ethics, and creativity.

Like I’d imagine for anyone reading this, my pivot—what felt like a delay was really a purpose driven direction that led me closer towards God’s will for me.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

It’s hard to answer this question without getting personal—because most of my resilience has been forged through personal experiences, far beyond just career milestones.

Yes, finishing graduate school—no matter how long it took—was a major act of resilience. But what made it truly significant was the personal healing journey that had to happen in order for me to even get there.

I went to a small performing arts high school where my friend group was tight. Outside of that circle, I had a long-term, on-and-off boyfriend who eventually became my fiancé. It sounds like a love story, but it wasn’t—it was toxic. I held onto that relationship for dear life because I believed the words he said, “No one will ever love you like I do.” And I actually believed that. For years.

At the same time, my best friend turned out to be a hidden narcissist. We both earned the extremely competitive Gates Millennium Scholarship—the only two in our school and among the few in the state. But when she thought I got it and she didn’t, she went around telling people that I only got it because she helped me write my essays. That lie—something I didn’t even learn about until adulthood—hurt deeply. To have someone I called a friend imply I cheated or didn’t earn what I worked so hard for was devastating.

Add to that a series of traumatic events, betrayals, and heartbreaks in my adult life, and it paints a fuller picture of why it took me so long to finish grad school, because depression was my day-to-day. I was functioning, but barely. And yet, somehow, I kept showing up for my students, for my family, and eventually, for myself.

My light through all of that was my career—teaching what I love, and my family who reminded me who I really was even when I forgot.

I’m still healing, still learning, and still resilient every single day. I shine a light now that I know can never be dimmed because in spite of life’s challenges and inevitable shade, I chose to keep glowing anyway.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @aithagod @eagleinnovators
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aisharanee?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aisha-davis-7614b459?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits

Will Sterling, Bosa Nova, Sherrod Raigne, Zonnie Pullins, others unknown.