In Lyssons, St Thomas, Tishauna Mullings is changing the way people think about education and opportunity. As the founder of NexxStepp Lifelong Educational Services, she’s built a space that puts community first –earning her recognition as one of this year’s Supreme Heroes. If you ask Mullings where she finds the energy to run an education centre, mentor youth, help write national policy, and still show up for her community, she’ll simply say: “Because someone has to.”
Driven by a passion for learning and youth development, Mullings has turned NexxStepp into a space where people –especially those often overlooked by the system – can build toward something better. Her focus is simple: help rural youth and adults gain real skills, grow personally, and prepare for the working world. Born and raised in the community, she knows what it’s like to grow up in a place full of potential but short on resources. That’s what led her to create NexxStepp Lifelong Educational Services.
“I grew up seeing so much potential wasted – not because people didn’t want better, but because the resources weren’t there,” she explains. “I wanted to change that, right here at home.”
Her work spans everything from résumé-building and entrepreneurship boot camps, to career coaching and community-based mentorship. In rural areas where connectivity, funding, and access can feel like constant barriers, Mullings’ programmes have become a lifeline. But her influence doesn’t stop in St Thomas. She has been recognised nationally for her leadership in social enterprise, and sits on Jamaica’s Social Enterprise Policy Development working group, where she contributes to policy that could help scale the kind of work she does across the island.
Her journey – from a young girl in Lyssons with big dreams to someone making change on a national scale – captures the heart of what the Supreme Heroes Programme is all about. Through the initiative, she’ll get support and training from the Supreme Ventures Foundation to grow as a leader, strengthen her work in the community, and take NexxStepp even further.
“Being named a Supreme Hero means someone saw the value in what I’ve been doing quietly for years. Now, with this platform, I can do even more –and hopefully inspire others to act.”
Her story reminds us that heroes do not always wear capes. Sometimes they wear chalk dust, carry books, and show up with a purpose bigger than themselves.