Kaneisha Grayson

Kaneisha Grayson is an author, entrepreneur, and speaker. She is the founder of The Art of Applying, an admissions consulting company focused on helping applicants get into the top policy school (MPP/MPA) and MBA programs. Since officially launching in 2010, Kaneisha’s business has served over 200 clients with a combined $1.8 million in fellowships awarded from top policy and business schools in the U.S. and internationally. Her clients are represented at every top policy and business school in the U.S. and many of the elite institutions of Europe and Asia.

In 2013, Kaneisha raised $11,771 via crowdfunding to self-publish a motivational book targeted at women interested in leading happier lives titled Be Your Own Boyfriend. Her book was featured in the March 2014 issue of ESSENCE Magazine, and continues to inspire women (and some men!) around the world today.

Kaneisha earned her MBA from Harvard Business School with Second-Year Honors (top 20% of graduating students) and her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School where she was a Center for Public Leadership George Leadership Fellow in 2010. She earned her BA in Black Studies from Pomona College in 2006, where she received the Ada May Fitts Prize for being the most influential graduating senior woman as well as the Outstanding Senior Thesis in Black Studies. While in college, Kaneisha studied creative writing under acclaimed American novelist David Foster Wallace, and won an award for a short story she wrote in his class.

Kaneisha also spent 2006-2007 living in Accra, Ghana as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, where she traveled the country giving ambassadorial speeches to a variety of audiences to advance international understanding and goodwill between the U.S. and Ghana.

While at Harvard, Kaneisha served as the Editor of Commentaries for the Harvard Journal of African American Policy and served as the relationships columnist for The Harbus, the Harvard Business School student newspaper. Kaneisha served as the relationships columnist for Austin Woman Magazine, and has been featured in ESSENCE Magazine, Ebony, Black Enterprise, and other major national publications.

Kaneisha Grayson lives in her native city of Austin, Texas, where she plays highly competitive card games with her nuclear family, goes to the movies every week, and lovingly appreciates Indian food.