Dr. Monifa McKnight's Full Flight Turns a Superintendent's Hard Lessons Into a Roadmap for Black Women Leaders
“Getting into the room cannot be enough.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight, author of Full Flight
Dr. Monifa McKnight started her career as an English teacher, worked at the federal level for the Secretary of Education, and served as a superintendent. Today she leads McKnight Lotus Leadership Group. She wrote Full Flight so that what she learned on the way to the superintendency could serve as a roadmap for the leaders behind her.
Lessons no preparation program teaches
Clip · Dr. Monifa McKnight on why she wrote Full Flight · 31s
Dr. McKnight says she felt prepared for every role she took on. The superintendency was different. She ran into situations she had never heard of anyone having to navigate, and she made note of them so she could come back to teaching.
When she left the job for what she calls her sabbatical, she finally had time to reflect, and she realized much of what she had faced was not new. It had happened to other people.
“I wrote it because I realized that what I learned through my leadership journey up to the superintendency could actually serve as a roadmap to help others.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
The book draws on her own story and on the experiences of other Black women who pioneered in education leadership, including Beverly Hall and Arlene Ackerman. Some of the women she writes about did not survive the leadership journey. Her first lesson for leaders is to take care of yourself first. Her lesson for organizations is just as direct.
“We can’t continue to celebrate women when they break barriers, right? And then leave them alone to survive. That’s not how it works, particularly for Black women, I’m going to say.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
Why a book, and not another platform
Clip · Dr. Monifa McKnight on why a book was the right vehicle · 42s
Dr. McKnight already had platforms for her message. A book was the one place she could be her authentic self, without anyone else’s filters.
“Platforms are important, and it’s great to have a broad spectrum of platforms that are available to you. However, when you write a book, it is your story, right?”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
It was personal, too. She is an avid reader, and reading was one of the first things she lost in the busiest seasons of her life. A book, she says, can take you far away from something or bring you closer to something you need to understand.
A writing partner for a healing journey
Clip · Dr. Monifa McKnight on working with Scribe Media · 48s
She knew writing Full Flight would be partly a healing journey, so she looked for a partner who would understand her, be patient with her, and let her tell her story without a filter. She found that at Scribe Media, along with a range of options for how to approach writing the book.
“I also felt early on that the support they [Scribe] were going to provide in the process was going to be exactly what I needed. And it was.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
She treated the book as a full-time job, with a weekly meeting with her Scribe Media collaborator each morning, when they would both be fresh. Over Zoom they got to know each other’s dogs. When it got hard, they agreed to take a break.
“I cried a lot while writing, because I recognize I had to recall some of what I wanted or tried hard to forget.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
Learning to step away
Clip · Dr. Monifa McKnight on the best writing advice she got · 60s
As an English teacher by trade, she sometimes had to remind herself that professionals were editing the book. The hardest part came late, when she wanted to fit in every lesson.
“I remember they kept telling me, Monifa, this doesn’t have to be your only book.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
The team brought her back to what she had asked for at the start: a practical read someone could get through. The advice that stuck most was to write some, step away, and come back a couple of days later.
“It’s not about how much you can do or the quantity of what you can produce, but the quality of it.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
She says the process helped jumpstart a change in how she approached work, one she did not anticipate. When she recorded the audiobook herself, she relived the book again, and she credits Scribe Media with connecting her to a producer she calls an angel.
The launch: “It’s this page”
Clip · Dr. Monifa McKnight on what readers tell her on tour · 32s
Full Flight launched in September 2026, and she is taking it on tour, with events in South Carolina and the Washington, DC and Maryland area, and a trip to work with students and leaders at Africa University in Zimbabwe. Women walk up to her and point to the pages they have lived.
“I found that the book has given permission for women to actually share their own challenges and create communities of working through together.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
The book also maps directly to her firm’s work with school systems and organizations.
“Everything that I wrote about in the book is what I’m ready to help organizations do through McKnight Lotus Leadership Group.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
Her advice to anyone carrying a book inside them is simple.
“Start writing. It doesn’t have to be formalized. If there is a story within you, I feel like it’s your responsibility to get it out, right?”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
“On the other side of that, you feel like you’ve given a gift to the world. And to me, there is no better feeling.”
Dr. Monifa McKnight
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