Akesa Mafi was born and raised in St. Paul Minnesota. She was a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in The Philippines where she co-taught English in a high school This is where she realized that she wanted to work in education. She returned from abroad, received her master's from UMASS Amherst in the Bilingual/ESL/Multicultural Education department and began teaching ESOL in Springfield. She is currently writing the ESOL Curriculum for the English Language Education Program.