Damon Prather is the Executive Director of the Living Water Center (LWC). LWC’s mission is to provide academic training and support along with faith-based courses to the DC Metro area and throughout the United States. LWC has its headquarters in Alexandria, VA and is the parent organization for a conglomeration of businesses in education, fundraising, athletics, consulting, event hosting, and publications.
He has a BS in Chemical Engineering (University of Michigan) and 2 masters (MBA Wisconsin-Madison and Computer Engineering-Johns Hopkins). He enjoys writing poetry and self-published several works including 7 Soulmates poetry book and Mind of a Man chapbook.
Damon and his wife, Anika Prather founded the Living Water School in 2015. Damon is a department level IT manager full time in the government. At LWC, he sets the strategic direction, oversees advisory boards, and manages the finances and spiritual vision. Damon and Anika desire for the Living Water Center to be a gathering space for the Living Water School community, educators, families and anyone in the area who have an interest in education and good literature along with intellectual curiosity. Anika and Damon have 3 children and reside in Maryland.
Anika has a BA (Howard University), 3 masters (NYU, St. John’s College and Howard University) and a PhD (University of Maryland, College Park) in education, music, theatre and liberal arts. She is currently a professor at Catholic University The vision to start the school came to Anika as she prayed about finding the right school for their first born son who was entering kindergarten that September. Because he was such a unique and creative learner, she was challenged to find the right place. God led Anika to discover the Sudbury model which gave her the inspiration for creating a free learning environment for her son. The school was a brick and mortar school until 2020 when the pandemic came. To continue the school through the pandemic, the school went online. More families joined the LW Family from out of state and the Living Water School became an official online K-12 school. Deciding to remain a virtual school also meant that the LW School had to find a new home state as Maryland did not approve virtual schools. As a result, the school found a new home in Alexandria, VA, where its home offices and meeting space are housed in the new Living Water Center in Old Town Alexandria.
The Living Water Center 