Meet Our Founder: Destinee

Destinee Shipley is the 26 year old medical student, poet, and now founder of Firebird Spark, LLC. She has written poetry since late in high school when one of her friends challenged her to write free verse poetry that didn’t rhyme, thus breaking her ideas of what poetry could be. She realized that she loved how through poetry she could be her fullest self and finally express the thoughts swirling in her head. That love came in handy during college when she faced many struggles including self-doubt and mental illness, and was entangled in an abusive relationship. Writing gave her stability while her world was in chaos, and upon reflection, showed her just how chaotic her world had become. Poetry was also her way out of that darkness and back into the light of her self-discovery and self-love.

While sitting in the house during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, Destinee revisited an old wish of hers to publish her own poetry collection. Starting with only a wish and a Google search engine, she pieced together the foundation of what is now Firebird Spark and is excited to continue to grow and expand this small business. 

Destinee lives in Atlanta, GA and is currently a third-year medical student at Morehouse School of Medicine. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Biology at Washington University in St. Louis in 2017 and her Master of Science in Biology at Georgia State University in 2019. She loves to read, play board games, try out new restaurants, and when she thinks it wont bother her neighbors she also likes to practice her saxophone. Plus, if you couldn't already tell, her favorite color is purple!