We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Denisha Gingles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Denisha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

I’ve always known I’d work in mental health. Since high school, I had a vision that I’d own my own practice and create something that served others. I spent years in school, working towards that goal, but along the way, I got pulled into behavior analysis. I loved the natural science aproach to human behavior, so once I learned it, I was sold. What I didn’t expect was the pattern I started to notice after getting certified and working with children and families in a new capacity.
As a Black woman in this field, I was frequently assigned the cases my colleagues quietly avoided. The ones they whispered were “too difficult.” Too often, that meant a Black or Brown family. Too often, that meant a neighborhood they weren’t willing to drive to. And as I continued to observe, I saw how many companies outright refused Medicaid, shutting out the very communities that needed our services the most.
I knew the data. Black and Brown children are already fighting a battle with misdiagnoses, late diagnoses, and medical racism. Seeing those same barriers occuring, after families had already jumped through hoops just to access support, was the moment I knew I wasn’t going to wait for someone else to fix this. I had to build something different.
That’s why I started Sankofa Behavioral Health, to make sure Black and Brown families didn’t have to beg for quality care. I wanted to create a space where culture wasn’t an afterthought, but the foundation. Sometimes, the best way to change the system is to build your own.

Denisha, 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 a licensed counselor, licensed behavior analyst, scientist, and PhD student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. However, at my core, I’m a pathfinder. I’ve spent my career shaping spaces that center Black and Brown voices in mental health and behavior analysis, pushing against the systems that have historically left us out.

While I did stumble into this work, I also was shaped by it. Every experience, every gap I witnessed in mental health and behavior analysis, pushed me toward building something better. When I started working in behavior analysis, I quickly realized that the system wasn’t built with Black communities in mind. Families were navigating delayed diagnoses, misdiagnoses, and limited access to quality care, all while being met with providers who either lacked cultural awareness or refused to serve Medicaid clients.
That reality made one thing clear to me: If the system wasn’t going to serve us, I would. Sankofa Behavioral Health was born out of a commitment to ensure that access to high-quality, culturally relevant ABA therapy and mental health care isn’t a privilege, but a right. We provide therapy, consultation, and training that acknowledge the full context of our clients’ lives, meeting them where they are instead of expecting them to conform to systems that were never built for them.
What makes us different? We don’t just work around systemic barriers, we challenge them. Sankofa is rooted in the belief that families deserve clinicians who see them, understand them, and advocate for them. We push for real change in how this work is done.

Beyond my business, I’ve made a mark in the behavior analysis field in ways that I’m deeply proud of. I was the first Black editor-in-chief of any publication in behavior analysis literature, pioneering a space where marginalized voices could be heard. I co-led the Retract Rekers movement, challenging unethical research that harmed LGBTQ+ youth. I helped shift how some of the largest behavior analysis conferences operate, pushing them to move away from their historically white-centered frameworks and advocating for better compensation for speakers. My work has always been about dismantling what doesn’t serve us and rebuilding something better.
If there’s one thing I want people to know about me and my work, it’s that I don’t believe in waiting for change, I believe in creating it. Sankofa is more than a business; it’s a commitment to care that is ethical, community-rooted, and accessible. Because our people deserve nothing less.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

At Sankofa Behavioral Health, we don’t just do the work, we do it differently. Too many organizations talk about “self-care” while running their teams into the ground. I’ve seen what happens when leadership treats people as disposable, and I refuse to replicate that harm.

My leadership style is low ego, high impact. I don’t believe in hoarding power or making every decision from the top down. I trust my team, and I listen to them. If something isn’t working, we talk about it. Feedback flows both ways because I don’t just want employees, I want leaders.

One of the biggest things that sets us apart is we don’t have to shrink ourselves to fit in. At Sankofa, my team doesn’t have to code-switch, water themselves down, or fit some outdated idea of what “professional” looks like. We show up fully, as ourselves, and that energy is felt by the families we serve.

I’ve built my career on challenging systems that don’t work for us. That applies to how I run my business, too. I push my team to set boundaries, take time off, and actually enjoy their work.

At the end of the day, my advice to any leader is simple: care about your people as much as you care about the work. That’s not just how you keep morale high, it’s how you build something that actually lasts. We are 6 years in running, and we will run until we can’t anymore.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as a business owner is that hiring the wrong people can do more damage than not hiring at all. I brought in two people, both in leadership roles, expecting them to help strengthen Sankofa. Instead, my company was almost destroyed.
Their leadership styles were steeped in outdated, white, Westernized individualism, a way of working that prioritized power, control, and hierarchy over collaboration, care, and community. Under their leadership, violence and power dynamics started to reveal itself. Team members felt unsafe, families felt unheard, and complaints started rolling in. This wasn’t just a matter of clashing personalities, there was evidence of much more.
I had a choice to make. I could try to smooth things over, ignore the damage, and hope for the best. Or, I could do what I knew was right, even if it meant shaking up everything I had built.

I chose Sankofa.

Ending these professional ties, wasn’t just about saving my business, t was about protecting the culture, values, and people that make this work possible. But even now, there’s a fear in telling this story. There’s a social taboo around business owners admitting when things go wrong behind the scenes. We’re expected to only highlight our wins, never our mistakes. But that silence helps no one.

Leadership isn’t about having all of the right answers. It’s requires course-correcting when you see harm being done, choosing integrity over comfort, and standing firm, even when speaking up comes with risk.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sankofabehavioralhealth.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denishaginglesbcba/

Image Credits

Sankofa Behavioral Health