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Soft Gray Velvet Couches and What DEIB Directors Really Do in Schools

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She ran down the hallway, making sure to stop by my office before going back to class. Out of breath, she excitedly shared, "I got in!" Screaming and jumping in celebration, I hugged the student and told her how proud I was of her. As the Director of DEIB I often have a front row seat to the lives of various students, watching them navigate the many challenges life throws our way. For some students, the soft gray velvet couch in my office is a safe seat for them to share the parts of themselves that society has dismissed as irrelevant or unintelligent and thus undesirable. Senior year can be a very stressful time. Students who are still teenagers learning to manage their own emotions, create healthy boundaries, and love themselves are now asked to maintain their academic workload at the same pace and rigor of the prior three years of high school while writing college essays and scholarship applications, collecting financial information they often have no familiarity with in s...
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Building Strong School Communities: Educators who Own their Mistakes

"What are your strengths and weaknesses" is a question often asked in an interview or on a job application. And for many of us, the advice on how to answer this question was to be honest about your strengths, but to reframe your weaknesses in such a way that it could be questioned as to whether the quality shared is indeed a weakness. Thus, to admit to a professional mistake or mishap would be an absolute 'no'. However, as I now sit on the other side of the interview table, listening to the responses of various candidates, I find myself disagreeing with this approach. I believe there's something about a person's ability to be honest with themselves and the way they respond to and deal with that honesty in a professional setting that is a good indicator of the type of educator they truly are.  I would argue that one foundational pillar to building a strong school community is emotional and physical safety. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides a theoretical ...
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Black Women and Leadership: Is Self-Care Enough?

     The news headline, "Harvard President Resigns After Mounting Plagiarism Accusations," echoes   in my mind as I think about the number of Black women holding leadership roles return to work after the holidays. After having some time to rest away from the responsibility and expectation of being "on" all of the time and given the opportunity to lean into their full beautiful Black selves in spaces that understand their humor, hair, and holiness, I find myself asking the question, "is self-care really enough for Black professional women, especially those in leadership positions?"  Covid forced a larger spotlight on mental health needs. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is now a buzzword amongst many educational institutions and going to therapy is no longer a taboo subject in many social circles. And all of these tools are good and necessary. However, what happens when the impetus behind the need for the new years resolutions and self care practices is conn...
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