Featuring LAKAYANA YOTOMA DRURY
Executive Director of Word is Bond
Lakayana Yotoma Drury has a passion for culturally-grounded education, mentorship, and community development. Raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Lakayana experienced adversity at a young age. His father was absent for most of his adolescent years so he and his two younger siblings were raised by his hardworking mother. Despite a learning disability diagnosis in sixth grade, Lakayana graduated from the University of Wisconsin Stout and started his career as a teacher in both elementary and high school.
As a young Black man navigating adolescence in the absence of strong male role models, he recognized the decades of data pointing to the underachievement of Black men, as well as the opportunities. Lakayana founded Word is Bond in Portland, Oregon in 2017, a nonprofit leadership incubator that creates a pipeline for young Black men, aged 15-20, to discover their identity and higher purpose. Word is Bond teaches leadership, storytelling, narrative reclamation, collaboration, innovation, self-actualization, and abundance mindset. Youth are served through 3 year leadership training programs, monthly school programs, spring break leadership forums, story telling tours, capstone leadership experiences, and multimedia experiences.
As a storyteller, Lakayana also believes in the power of community engagement to uplift hidden stories and inspire others to collective action. In particular, in 2024, he produced his first film, The Black Stars, a documentary that chronicles the journey of eight young Black men to Ghana as part of a summer leadership program through Word is Bond.
Finally, Lakayana serves in multiple leadership roles throughout the community, such as commissioner to the Oregon Commission of Black Affairs. The OCBA serves to empower the Black community as policy advisors to Oregon state leaders and become a catalyst to address longstanding and emerging issues, such as education, healthcare, policing, housing, environmental justice, and civic engagement.
As an educator, social entrepreneur, community advocate, writer, poet, and filmmaker, Lakayana Drury believes in “building a world based on compassion for all people, where every individual has the resources they need to thrive…in dismantling systems of oppression and replacing them with ecosystems that nurture the innate empathy of humanity.”