Rakia has an undergraduate degree in criminology and forensic science from South University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. She is also a religious school teacher at Congregation Shir Tikvah and teaches psychology and political science at Wayne County Community College District. As former program coordinator of gardens and food for Hazon Detroit, she helped set up many gardens for local synagogues and designed the Sensory Garden at Tamarack Camps Farber Farm. She’s a doula, urban farmer, “weaver of ritual and keeper of sacred space,” and was recently ordained through the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.