Community Highlights: Meet Dr. Crystal T. Harrell of Seven Sisters & Co./The Student Well-Being Project (SWBP)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Crystal T. Harrell.

Hi Dr. Crystal T., we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story began in southern rural Alabama. Born the seventh of 10 children, I spent my early childhood exploring and playing around the public housing apartments where we grew up. Both of my parents were ministers, so we also spent most of the weekend in church.

The turning point came during early adolescence after losing my father to leukemia. This event was traumatic, and my family changed drastically after that. During this challenging time, education became a way for me to enhance the bond I felt with my father through learning, since he taught me how to read and write before I began school. My father would always quote the late B.B. King, saying, “Education is something that no one can take away from you.”

As I got older, I started to see education as my ticket out of poverty. As a high school senior, I applied for more than 30 scholarships with the help of my high school educators and received over $670,000 in scholarships to pursue my education as a first-generation, low-income (FGLI) college student. Over 11 years as a full-time college student, I earned four college degrees and at 29 became the first person in my family to be commissioned as an Army Officer and to earn my doctorate, graduating from the Yale School of Public Health in 2024.

The journey was not always easy, but I have dedicated my life to using my education to support my community’s health and well-being. The greatest fulfillment during this time, however, came from supporting other non-traditional students for over a decade as a certified Academic Success Coach. I used my story, “from public housing to Ivy League,” to serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for others like me. Students with big dreams who had every obstacle stacked against them. My first #1 Bestselling book, Crystal Clear: A Journey of Self-Discovery, has reached over 2,000 readers globally and led to my first TEDx Talk in 2023.

My mission in life is to show others that there is always a way out, and that our journey is more about who we become in the process than what we obtain. The outcomes in our lives are byproducts of the inner transformation we experience.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The journey of self-discovery can be filled with turbulence and challenging moments. However, those challenges are the very things that build our inner resilience.

When I was applying to graduate school for the very first time, I was rejected by every single program I applied to. However, that experience taught me how to ask for help. I sought advice from mentors and educators who had earned graduate degrees, and they shared the tools and techniques I could use to make myself a more competitive applicant. The following year, I used their advice to apply for graduate school and was accepted into every program on my list.

In retrospect, I can see that the challenge allowed me to become more helpful to others. I used everything I learned during that process and taught it to the students I coached to help them gain admission into highly selective universities like Brown, Cornell, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Yale.

Facing rejection the first time was difficult, but that difficulty became an asset once I was able to overcome it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My entrepreneurship journey is rooted in one core belief: healing at the root changes everything.

Seven Sisters & Co. was born from legacy. As one of seven sisters, I understand the power of community and shared vision. Our holistic health and beauty brand creates clean, plant-based hair and skin products designed for women who want sustainable, toxin-free options that honor their natural beauty. As a public health scholar, I know that many conventional beauty products expose our communities to harmful chemicals. SS&Co. is our response—a reclamation of beauty as both cultural pride and preventative health. I am most proud that this brand represents generational legacy: sisters building something that will outlive us.

The Student Well-Being Project is deeply personal. As a first-generation, low-income student who earned over $670,000 in scholarships and later completed my PhD at Yale, I experienced both the opportunity and the isolation that can come with upward mobility. My doctoral research explored the protective factors that help young adults thrive despite stress. SWBP transforms that research into action—providing mentorship, evidence-based coaching, and safe spaces where students are supported academically and emotionally.

Across both ventures, I focus on building scalable solutions that address health equity at both the personal and systemic level. My work bridges science, lived experience, and entrepreneurship to create sustainable pathways for flourishing.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I view risk-taking as a necessity for building anything impactful in this world.

As a teenager seeking a way out of my impoverished circumstances, I developed a fascination with the lives of people who had grown up in adverse situations like mine and gone on to create lives of massive impact. This led me to examine the lives of people like Les Brown, Lisa Nichols, and Tony Robbins.

The throughline was clear: they took BIG risks in life.

When I reflect upon my own journey, the same has been true. I risked rejection and failure when I applied to college as a first-generation, low-income (FGLI) student. When I started seeking help from mentors, it felt risky to be so vulnerable about the challenges I was facing. Attempting to achieve my goal of becoming a doctoral student at an Ivy League school without a blueprint felt extremely risky. However, without taking those risks, I would not be who I am or where I am in life today. I made it to the other side of those challenges, and that required taking big risks.

In my first TEDx Talk titled Using Self-Awareness to Live An Inspired Life, I distill my view on risk taking distcintly by saying:

“Listen, you don’t have to spend a lifetime in school as I did or even follow a similar path to be successful.

I just want to inspire you to use your innate ability to create success and well-being in your own life, however that may look for you.

I want to encourage you to TAKE BIG RISKS and reap BIG rewards! This means risking the chance of taking a path that is unique… and, unfortunately, most people aren’t willing to stand out.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://crystaltharrell.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystaltharrellphd/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcrystaltharrell/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@crystaltharrellphd

Image Credits
All photos are owned by me