Who is She?

Shaleka Smith is a dynamic speaker, author, minister, and healthcare professional who brings heart, healing, and hope to every space she enters. Born and raised in Chicago, Shaleka blends real-life experience with faith, humor, and deep empathy to help people navigate life’s hardest moments—especially grief.
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Whether she’s leading a “Grief Talk,” ministering from the pulpit, or speaking at a conference, Shaleka creates safe spaces where people feel seen, heard, and uplifted. Her acclaimed book Grief, I Didn’t Sign Up for This and her Letters to Heaven Journal Series have become powerful tools for individuals and communities facing loss.
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In addition to her extensive expertise, Shaleka is a certified sexual assault crisis worker. This qualification further deepens her capacity to support individuals dealing with trauma, ensuring that her message of hope and transformation resonates with compassion and authority.
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Shaleka doesn’t just speak from theory—she speaks from lived experience. As a mother, minister, and survivor of personal loss, she knows what it means to carry pain and still show up with purpose. Her voice is both healing and challenging, calling others into honest reflection and powerful transformation.
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With a background in healthcare administration and a heart for ministry, Shaleka is often invited to lead workshops, panel discussions, retreats, and faith-based gatherings where grief, mental health, healing, and personal growth are front and center.
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If you're looking for a speaker who can move a room, minister to the brokenhearted, and offer tangible hope—Shaleka Smith is the one to call.
Quotes
Grief has a negative reputation no matter what you are grieving. Unfortunately, no one ever shares what u can gain from a grief experience.
When you enter the classroom for the first time, everyone talks to you about preparing kids for assessments and making sure that you teach the standards but no one mentors you on the pain and anguish associated with the loss of a child.
Two things happen when I hear or say his name, either a schoolgirl smile or tears. Sometimes both. Sometimes it starts as a smile and ends in tears.
Anonymous,
Get Up
Alea Allen,
Empty Seat
Tracy Cruz,
My William