Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin is an American fashion entrepreneur, trained journalist, and strategic communications professional known for building fashion businesses and later working in nonprofit communications. She is also known publicly as the former wife of retired NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson and the mother of their late daughter, Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson.
Hightower-Gaskin’s career spans several fields: she founded the fashion boutique Shikiri, developed the accessories business Golden Butterfly, launched the clothing brand China Royal, and moved into communications and philanthropic work. Her education includes a journalism degree from the University of Southern California (USC), a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and an MBA from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business. These details are documented in professional biographies and institutional profiles.
Her public story also includes a family tragedy. Maia, her eldest daughter with Johnson, died in March 2021 at age 25. While public interest in Hightower-Gaskin often centers on her former marriage, her education and professional work provide a fuller picture of her life.
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin: Quick Facts
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin |
| Known professionally as | Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin |
| Professions | Fashion entrepreneur, journalist, communications professional |
| Education | University of Southern California; UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism; Tulane University Freeman School of Business |
| Degrees | BA in Journalism, MA in Journalism, MBA |
| Fashion ventures | Shikiri, Golden Butterfly, China Royal |
| Communications work | Blue Shield of California Foundation |
| Former husband | Keyshawn Johnson, retired NFL wide receiver |
| Current spouse | Public obituary records identify her as Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin (Bela); details of her current marriage are not widely documented in major news coverage |
| Children with Keyshawn Johnson | Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson and Keyshawn Johnson Jr. |
| Other children named in family obituary | Monique Hightower-Gaskin, Maya Denise Gaskin, London Johnson, Vance Johnson, and Shyla Johnson |
| Publicly documented family loss | Maia died on March 15, 2021, aged 25 |
The family details above reflect the obituary published by UC Berkeley Journalism and contemporaneous reporting. Because family arrangements are personal, names and relationships should not be expanded beyond what reliable public sources establish.
Early Life and Background
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin grew up in Berkeley, California, and has been described in professional biographies as having Chinese and African-American heritage. A profile published through Eventbrite notes that her family background brought together Chinese cultural influences and her father’s involvement with the Black Panther Party. This account offers context for her upbringing, though it should be understood as a brief biographical description rather than a complete history of her family.
Her interest in fashion began early. The same profile describes her watching an aunt work in the fashion industry and becoming interested in the idea of selling clothing as a business. That early interest later developed into a series of retail and fashion ventures.
Hightower-Gaskin’s background is notable because it combines creative interests with formal training in journalism and business. Rather than remaining in a single profession, she built experience across retail, brand development, communications, and nonprofit work.
Education: USC, UC Berkeley, and Tulane University
Hightower-Gaskin’s academic background helped prepare her for a career that eventually crossed fashion, media, marketing, and strategic communications.
University of Southern California
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Southern California. USC has a strong connection to her family story as well: Keyshawn Johnson played college football for the USC Trojans before becoming a professional NFL wide receiver. The shared institutional connection is part of the background that links their public biographies, but it is separate from Hightower-Gaskin’s own academic and professional accomplishments.
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Hightower-Gaskin later earned a master’s degree in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Berkeley Journalism publicly identified her as a member of its Class of 2010 when it published an obituary for her daughter Maia in March 2021.
Journalism training can support work well beyond a traditional newsroom. Research, audience awareness, writing, interviewing, and clear communication are also valuable in brand marketing, public relations, digital communications, and nonprofit storytelling.
Tulane University Freeman School of Business
She also earned an MBA from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business. Her three degrees—journalism at USC, graduate journalism at Berkeley, and business administration at Tulane—show a combination of communication skills and business education.
This educational background aligns with the range of roles described in her professional biographies, from operating fashion businesses to managing communications and engaging with nonprofit partners.
Fashion Entrepreneurship: Shikiri, Golden Butterfly, and China Royal
Before her work in nonprofit communications, Hightower-Gaskin built a career in fashion entrepreneurship. Her businesses included a namesake boutique, an accessories store, and a clothing brand.
Shikiri: Her Namesake Fashion Boutique
Hightower-Gaskin founded Shikiri, a fashion boutique in Los Angeles. According to her professional profile at Blue Shield of California Foundation, she led the boutique’s marketing and communications. Her responsibilities therefore extended beyond choosing or selling clothing to the business work required to develop a recognizable retail brand.
Retail entrepreneurship often requires several overlapping skills: understanding customers, selecting products, communicating a brand’s identity, managing operations, and maintaining relationships with suppliers and shoppers. Her documented work across marketing and communications reflects that broader business role.
Golden Butterfly: Accessories and Retail
Hightower-Gaskin also developed Golden Butterfly, an accessories boutique in Santa Monica. Her professional biography describes it as a business focused on shoes and accessories. She handled marketing and communications for both Shikiri and Golden Butterfly, connecting the two ventures through their brand and customer-facing work.
Operating more than one retail business can require a different approach from running a single boutique. Each brand needs its own identity, products, and customer appeal, while the owner must also coordinate the shared demands of marketing and operations.
China Royal: A Clothing Brand Launched in 2013
In 2013, Hightower-Gaskin launched China Royal, described by her professional profile as a clothing brand offering high-quality, affordable fashion. The launch represented a move from operating boutiques toward developing a distinct clothing label.
A boutique typically curates products for shoppers, while a clothing brand develops and communicates its own identity around a product line. The distinction matters when considering her career: Hightower-Gaskin’s work was not limited to retail sales but also included brand creation and marketing.
Her entrepreneurial history is one of the clearest parts of her professional biography because it is recorded in an institutional staff profile and in published professional biographies. Public information about the businesses’ full financial histories, sales, or current commercial status is more limited, so those details should not be assumed.
Career Shift to Strategic Communications and Nonprofit Work
Hightower-Gaskin’s career later expanded beyond fashion into journalism, public engagement, and philanthropy. Her professional experience includes freelance journalism and hosting Generation Next with Shikiri, a program that brought teenagers and subject-matter experts together to discuss issues affecting young people. She also co-founded and led a family education fund that provided scholarships, grants, and support for teenage parents and their children. (Blue Shield of California Foundation)
These roles reflect a shift in the way she used her communications and business experience. In fashion, the goal was to connect products and brands with customers. In nonprofit work, the emphasis is on communicating community needs, supporting organizations, and helping audiences understand social issues.
Her Work at Blue Shield of California Foundation
Hightower-Gaskin’s institutional profile identifies her as a communications associate at Blue Shield of California Foundation. The role involves leading communications related to the Foundation’s work to break the cycle of domestic violence, contributing to grantmaking, and collaborating on strategic communications, digital platforms, and social media. The profile also highlights grantee relationships, community outreach, and the importance of centering people’s lived experiences. (Blue Shield of California Foundation)
This work is distinct from her earlier fashion businesses. Strategic communications in a nonprofit setting involves more than promoting an organization: it can include translating complex issues into accessible information, working with community partners, and ensuring that public messaging reflects the experiences of people affected by a problem.
Her bylined writing for the Foundation provides a direct example of this work. In a 2022 article about domestic-violence prevention, she discussed the importance of solutions grounded in the experiences of affected communities. (Blue Shield of California Foundation)
Board Service and Community Involvement
Hightower-Gaskin has also served on the board of Berkeley Symphony. A 2022 announcement described her as a communications specialist with experience in fashion entrepreneurship, journalism, marketing, public relations, social media, fundraising, and community outreach. (Berkeley Symphony announcement)
Her professional profile therefore extends beyond her connection to a well-known athlete. It includes business ownership, journalism, nonprofit communications, philanthropic work, and arts-related community service.
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin and Keyshawn Johnson
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin was previously married to Keyshawn Johnson, the former NFL wide receiver who played for teams including the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, and Carolina Panthers. Johnson was also a prominent college football player at USC and later worked as a football analyst. (CBS Los Angeles)
Their relationship is a major reason Hightower-Gaskin’s name appears in sports and celebrity searches. Still, the available public record about her own career should be considered separately from Johnson’s football career. She built businesses and pursued professional work in journalism and communications in her own right.
Public biographical sources commonly report that the marriage lasted from 1998 to 2002. The couple had two children together: Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson and Keyshawn Johnson Jr. As with any personal timeline based largely on secondary biographies, exact dates should be checked against reliable records before being presented as definitive.
Who Is Keyshawn Johnson?
Keyshawn Johnson is a retired professional American football player who made his name as a wide receiver. He played college football at USC and was selected first overall in the 1996 NFL Draft. His later work as a sports commentator further increased his public profile. Contemporary coverage of his daughter Maia’s death also identifies him as a former USC and NFL star. (CBS Los Angeles)
Their past marriage is relevant to Hightower-Gaskin’s public biography, but it does not define the whole of her life. Her education, retail ventures, communications work, and philanthropic involvement are independently documented.
Remembering Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson
One of the most painful events in Hightower-Gaskin’s family history was the death of her eldest daughter, Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson, on March 15, 2021. Maia was 25 years old. UC Berkeley Journalism published an obituary that identified Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin as Maia’s mother and described Maia as a traveler, collector, and entrepreneur whose life connected her with people around the world. (UC Berkeley Journalism)
Keyshawn Johnson publicly announced Maia’s death in March 2021, expressing grief on behalf of himself, Shikiri, Maia’s siblings, and their family. The announcement asked the public to respect their privacy as they coped with the loss. (CBS Los Angeles)
Maia was born in Los Angeles on December 16, 1995. Her obituary described her as someone who had lived in several states, attended many schools, traveled internationally, and pursued interests that took her around the world. The account focused on her personality, curiosity, and the relationships she built. (UC Berkeley Journalism)
The circumstances of Maia’s death were not disclosed in the initial news coverage, and there is no need to speculate about them. A respectful account of Hightower-Gaskin’s family should acknowledge the loss without repeating unverified explanations or turning a private tragedy into celebrity gossip.
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin’s Children and Blended Family
Hightower-Gaskin’s family includes children from different chapters of her life. Her two children with Keyshawn Johnson are Maia and Keyshawn Johnson Jr. Maia’s obituary also names her siblings, including Monique Hightower-Gaskin, Maya Denise Gaskin, Vance Johnson, London Johnson, and Shyla Johnson. (UC Berkeley Journalism)
The obituary lists Shikiri as “Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin (Bela),” and Blue Shield of California Foundation’s profile refers to her husband. These sources support the use of Bela in describing her current family life, although detailed public information about the relationship is limited. It is more accurate to acknowledge that information boundary than to add unsupported claims about their relationship or private circumstances.
Family biographies can become confusing when they combine former partners, current spouses, and children from blended families. In Hightower-Gaskin’s case, the clearest approach is to identify Maia and Keyshawn Johnson Jr. as her children with Johnson, and to rely on the published family obituary for the names of Maia’s siblings.
What Is Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin Doing Now?
The most reliable public information about Hightower-Gaskin’s professional life comes from her institutional profile and her published work. Blue Shield of California Foundation identifies her as a communications associate involved in strategic communications, digital and social media, grantmaking, and work related to preventing domestic violence. She has also been publicly identified as a board member of Berkeley Symphony. (Blue Shield of California Foundation; Berkeley Symphony)
Her career illustrates how professional experience can develop across industries. Skills learned in fashion entrepreneurship—such as audience awareness, marketing, brand development, and relationship management—can also be useful in nonprofit communications. Her journalism and business education provide another link between these areas.
Beyond the professional information she and her organizations have made public, details about her daily life remain relatively private. There is no need to infer her current activities, finances, or personal plans from her past marriage or from limited social media information.
Net Worth and Public Profile
There is no sufficiently reliable public figure establishing Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin’s net worth. Estimates published without financial records, direct statements, or credible reporting should not be treated as fact.
Her documented career includes several fashion ventures and professional work in communications and philanthropy. Those activities establish that she has worked across business and nonprofit sectors, but they do not reveal her personal assets, income, business earnings, or financial obligations. Her former husband’s earnings as an NFL player should not be used as a substitute for information about her own finances.
Hightower-Gaskin also maintains a comparatively low public profile outside her professional work. That makes her institutional biography, published writing, and university-related records more useful sources than speculative celebrity profiles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin?
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin is a fashion entrepreneur, journalist, and strategic communications professional. She founded the fashion boutique Shikiri, developed Golden Butterfly, launched China Royal, and has worked in nonprofit communications at Blue Shield of California Foundation.
Was Shikiri Hightower married to Keyshawn Johnson?
Yes. Hightower-Gaskin was previously married to retired NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. Their relationship is part of her public biography, but her professional background also includes fashion entrepreneurship, journalism, and philanthropic work.
Where did Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin go to college?
Her reported educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and an MBA from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business.
What businesses did Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin start?
Her documented fashion ventures include Shikiri, her namesake boutique; Golden Butterfly, an accessories boutique in Santa Monica; and China Royal, a clothing brand launched in 2013.
What does Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin do for a living?
Her professional profile at Blue Shield of California Foundation identifies her as a communications associate. Her work includes strategic communications, digital and social media, grantmaking, and communications related to domestic-violence prevention.
Who was Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson?
Maia was the eldest daughter of Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin and Keyshawn Johnson. Born on December 16, 1995, she died on March 15, 2021, at age 25. Her obituary described her as a traveler and entrepreneur who built connections with people in many parts of the world.
How many children did Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin have?
Her two children with Keyshawn Johnson were Maia Keyanna Hightower-Johnson and Keyshawn Johnson Jr. A published obituary for Maia also names her siblings, including Monique Hightower-Gaskin and Maya Denise Gaskin, along with siblings from the Johnson family.
Is Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin married to Bela Gaskin?
Public sources identify her as Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin (Bela), and her professional profile refers to her husband. These references support the connection, although extensive details about their relationship are not widely documented in major news coverage.
What is Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin’s net worth?
A reliable, independently verified estimate of her net worth is not publicly established. Her business history and professional roles are documented, but they do not provide enough information to calculate her personal wealth accurately.
Conclusion: A Career Beyond Celebrity Headlines
Shikiri Hightower-Gaskin’s biography reaches well beyond her former marriage to Keyshawn Johnson. Her education at USC, UC Berkeley, and Tulane helped shape a varied career that includes fashion businesses, journalism, strategic communications, and nonprofit work. Her family story also includes the profound loss of her daughter Maia in 2021, an event that deserves to be discussed with care and respect.
For readers interested in her background, the strongest public evidence comes from institutional biographies, her own published work, and the university obituary that commemorated Maia. These sources provide a more balanced picture than celebrity speculation alone.
