✨ Chariesse Boyd - Oct 2025 ANNEfluencer

In the heart of Brooklyn, where the streets hum with culture and survival, a young girl named Chariesse Boyd learned early what it meant to see people—not labels. “When you grow up somewhere like Brooklyn,” she says, “you embrace the melting pot. There’s no room for judgment.”

 

Surrounded by the rhythms of Little Italy, the flavors of Chinatown, and the colors of the Caribbean, Chariesse was raised in a world where every face told a story. That tapestry of humanity became the foundation of her purpose: to work with people, to understand them, and to bring them hope.

Her journey began with determination. In high school, she joined a co-op program that allowed her to alternate weeks between classes and working at Emigrant Savings Bank on Fifth Avenue. That first paycheck lit a fire within her—a taste of independence. But by twenty, she realized ambition alone wasn’t enough; the people climbing the ladder around her had degrees. So, she packed her courage and enrolled at The College of New Rochelle in upstate New York.

While studying psychology, fate found her in the form of a neighboring building—a behavioral health day program. She started volunteering, simply because it felt right. It didn’t take long before her compassion and skill turned into a calling. She moved from activities counselor to employment specialist, dedicating herself to helping adults with mental health challenges rediscover purpose.

After graduation, Chariesse accepted a position at Kings County’s infamous psychiatric unit, “The G Building.” The work was intense and unrelenting—but she stayed, heart first, because people needed her.

Then came love, marriage, and a dream of a quieter life. She and her husband left New York for Delaware, where she continued her work—this time inside the state prison system. She worked with some of the most vulnerable souls: incarcerated youth serving life sentences. “They thought their lives were over,” she said softly. “My job was to help them see that hope still existed.”

But even the strongest hearts can be tested. Her marriage ended. Life shifted again. Chariesse moved to North Carolina to care for her aging parents and found work in another prison—this time at Maury Correctional. The culture shock, both in the South and within the prison walls, was jarring. “I felt like a foreigner. A fish out of water,” she recalls. The emotional toll began to show physically. “I started losing my hair,” she admits. “I’d style it so no one noticed—but I knew.”

Years of stress, confinement, and emotional labor left scars unseen. Divorce, fertility struggles, and eventually an early hysterectomy followed. Then came another battle: her kidneys. In 2016, she was diagnosed with an acute kidney condition. Dialysis became her new normal—three evenings a week after full days of work. Few knew. “I never looked sick,” she says with quiet strength.

For nearly five years, she showed up—resilient, steadfast, unstoppable. And then, in December 2022, came the call that changed everything.

A kidney. A new chance at life.

Since her transplant, Chariesse has soared. She was featured on CBS Saturday Morning’s “Black Health Matters” segment, and today she serves as a Certified Kidney Advocate Coach with the American Kidney Fund, mentoring others through the same storm she once weathered alone.

Her dream? To one day launch her own nonprofit dedicated to supporting individuals fighting kidney disease—to be the lifeline for others that she once needed herself.

Today, Chariesse still works within the prison system, training officers in Crisis Intervention and championing self-care for all. Her message is simple but powerful: “You cannot pour from an empty cup.”

From the heart of Brooklyn to the corridors of correctional facilities, from dialysis chairs to national news—Chariesse Boyd’s story is one of rebirth.

She is proof that even when life tries to take everything from you—your health, your marriage, your hope—you can rise again. Stronger. Softer. Braver.

Because when a woman like Chariesse Boyd chooses to keep going, she becomes more than a survivor—she becomes a beacon.

And that’s why this October, Pirate Anne proudly honors Chariesse Boyd as our Annefluencer of the Month—a woman who reminds us that even in life’s darkest storms, the light within you can still lead the way home.