By Melanie Conner, Student and Alumni Affairs Liaison and Laticia Jackson, Graduate
Laticia “Action” Jackson is “N-powered,” she says. Action has earned three degrees, written 13 books, participated in the Fitness Olympia and recently launched a women’s empowerment product line called “Courageous Xpressions.”
Action also owns her own company, N-Powered Coaching Academy, which she launched in June 2019. She is globally recognized in the field of women’s health and personal development.
A Career as a Physical Trainer Leads to a Degree in Public Health
Action started her career with a background in exercise physiology. During this time, Action trained professional and high school athletes and was voted Best Personal Trainer on the Gulf Coast in 2016.
After 10 years, she realized a desire to help individuals in a more effective way. That desire led to her volunteering for national public health organizations like the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association.
Action wanted to better understand chronic illnesses and how environments and economics contribute to poor health, which led her to pursuing a master’s degree in public health. Action graduated from the university in 2014.
Action says that she had an amazing educational experience at the university and felt highly prepared to work in the public health field after graduating. She notes all of her coursework was informative, but she was most interested in minority health and the health disparities of minorities.
Coaching Women and Girls to Change Their Lives
As CEO of N-Powered Coaching Academy, Action spends her days providing women with personal and professional development resources and the education to help them overcome cultural, social, and physical barriers. Her company has been featured on ABC 10, Fox 40, NBC News and other news stations. Action says, “We’re making a huge impact in the lives of women and girls!”
Action notes that she’s always been inspired to help others take control of their lives and to thrive in all areas of their lives. She says, “I am honored to be able to provide individuals with the tools they need to do the internal work that is needed and required to see external and lasting personal and professional changes.”
While she enjoys the impact she has in the lives of women and girls, Action observes that there are some challenges that she faces as a CEO in the public health field. She says that getting people to recognize behavioral changes is the greatest challenge: “The change process is a non-linear process and something that only happens when individuals are ready to make a change in their life.”
For Action, she desired to see everyone change. In her early days as a coach, Action put in a lot of work with individuals who weren’t ready to change.
Action overcame this challenge because she discovered that individuals only make changes when they are ready to change. She accepts every challenge that comes her way with an open mind and a willingness to learn about herself.
Action says that understanding that change needs to occur in her clients has been a big step in moving forward: “Once I accepted this truth, I shifted the onus from myself to my clients or patients.”
Launching a Company
Action says that her greatest accomplishment to date is overcoming domestic violence and choosing to rebuild her life from the inside out. She says, “I am resilient, I am determined and I am unstoppable because of what I have made it through! I want no limits placed on me!”
She launched Courageous Xpressions in November 2020 and created the brand based on her own experience of domestic violence. Courageous Xpressions is a brand that celebrates the resilient voices of other women who experienced tragic moments in life but chose to never give up. On her website, she shares their stories and highlights that each of these women is armed with courage.
Advice for a Career in Public Health
Action advises that people pursue a career in the public health field if they are passionate about helping people as well as passionate about making a social and systemic change in the healthcare and public health landscape.
Noting that there are many areas where one can make a change, Action says, “Whether it’s chronic disease prevention, epidemiology or another specialty, the field is very broad and there are numerous opportunities. Be passionate, be open and explore different areas in the field until you find what you love most!”