Estella Leilani Owoimaha-Church is a wife, sister, daughter, activist, mentor and life-long student. At 22, she is a M.S. of Education candidate and earned a B.A. in African American Studies, Urban Education from California State University, Northridge (2010) where she graduated with honors. She is the former president and outreach coordinator (2006-2010) of the Hip Hop think Tank, a non-profit whose mission was to create a space for hip hop in the academy and political arena, honor and document the history of west coast hip hop beyond gangster rap and to stand against homophobia and misogyny. Most recently, Estella worked as a mentor and college counselor (2005-2011) for a federal GearUp grant, Project STEPS, at North Hollywood High School and East Valley High School servicing more than 1,300 students in the San Fernando Valley.
Her undergraduate research involved language and its effect on gender relations during the Black Power Struggle, Hip Hop studies and its place in the academy, using hip hop as an affective K-12 curriculum development tool, and Cointelpro's attack in the hip hop generation.
Publications include "Free Huey: Search for Hip Hop's Next Great Leaders" and "If Hip Hop and Cointelpro Had a Baby it'd be Name Rapintelpro". Additionally, Estella was Editor-In-Chief of the CSUN Pan African Studies Literary Review: 40th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (2011). She was Research assistant for the newly published, Images of America: African Americans in Los Angeles under Dr. Karin Stanford. She is a member of the National Council for Black Studies and a 2010 Honor Society Inductee.
Estella is a newlywed wife of Brandon Church, Mobile Game Producer for Konami Digital Entertainment. She is working towards a career in education as a teacher. Eventually, she hopes to own and operate a school where a strong emphasis is placed on the child's whole being, the arts and social justice.
Estella's number one passion is community service - of any form. However, she has focused on education and the arts as a mentor. In order to serve her country, she enlisted in AmeriCorp and served two terms totaling well over 1,350 hours of community service. For her work in the community, former First Lady Maria Shriver, 
inducted her into the Minerva Leadership Organization where she took an oath to continue serving this nation as an architect of change.
As the Director of Development and Community Partnerships for Mother's Day Radio, Estella hopes to continue serving her community through media advocacy and inspiring change amongst young girls. She intends to expand the reach of Mother's Day Radio's amazing youth programs so that many more youth can benefit from them.
Welcome Estella!
