Shawnee Benton Gibson, LMSW/FDLC, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Spirit of A Woman (SOW) Leadership Development Institute. SOW was established in 2002 to educate, elevate, and effect positive and sustainable transformation for individuals, groups, families, communities and leaders within institutions. Under Benton Gibson’s leadership and vision, SOW offers innovative coaching, counseling and training experiences to those who are seeking to expand their power, purpose, and impact in the world.

Benton Gibson is a licensed practitioner with over 31 years of professional experience. She is also the Co-Founder of the ARIAH Foundation (The Advancement of Reproductive Innovation Through Artistry & Healing) which was created in memory of her eldest daughter, Shamony Makeba Gibson, who passed away on October 6, 2019 due to complications associated with giving birth. Shamony’s story and Benton Gibson’s reproductive activism are depicted in the award-winning documentary “Aftershock” which addresses the black maternal health crisis in the United States and its origins.

Benton Gibson’s expertise ranges from substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery, child welfare, youth development, individual, family and group counseling, trauma, grief, loss and bereavement, women’s health and leadership, birth equity, and racial equity, social, and restorative justice. She employs a holistic, cultural and spiritual approach to her work and applies a racial equity, and social justice lens at the foundation for all of the programs and services that her company provides. Her principal teaching, training, and healing tools consist of spiritual counseling, vision coaching, psychodrama, sociometry, sacred rituals, energy work, the performing arts, and storytelling as mediums to ignite transformation and initiate catharsis.

Benton Gibson received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from New York University.