The mission of LeadFree is to guide leaders of color in social justice work as we explore the extent to which we feel free in our freedom work. This journey will transform our work and our relationships with our self and others, ultimately giving us greater access to our own freedom.
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Meet Ava
My Background
I have been an educator for almost 20 years. I fell in love with teaching kids while earning my B.A. in Black studies at Pomona College. Starting in the summer of 2005, I taught everything from French to dance to botany until I earned my MAT from Teachers College at Columbia University and settled in as a classroom teacher very loyal to middle school with a focus on Science and Social Studies. Over the course of my career, I transitioned into administrative and leadership roles. I have served as a Department Chair and a Dean of Instruction at different middle schools and I currently serve as a Department Chair and Professor of Middle Grades Education at Relay Graduate School of Education. In this role, I lead the design and delivery of practical, powerful instruction for classroom teachers to support them in creating caring environments where all children learn joyfully.
I am a lover of reading, the ocean, cooking and eating, and an aspiring gardener. I was born in Southern California, raised in the South, came to adulthood in New York City, and now call Indianapolis home. I am mommy to two humans and a cat, and the quintessential big sister (cool, slightly bossy).
My Beliefs
Throughout the course of my life, I have had the blessing of evolving beliefs. I have always been passionate about empowerment, especially for people of color and specifically for black women. However, my understanding of what that means and how to get there has shifted significantly. My years of existing as a black women, of teaching both kids and adults, of being a mom of black children, and of leading in various spaces has led me to believe that:
- The nature of white supremacy is to constantly reinstate and/or reinforce itself; to be antiracist is to be in a constant battle with this reality. This often results in the wearing down and out of folks involved in antiracist/social justice work, especially those of color who may bear the additional labor of surviving white supremacy.
- There is another space/plane where folks of color in liberatory work can flourish and experience holistic alignment. The access point this plane for folks of color in social justice work is through the re-membering and bold re-centering of ones’ self, aka “self-actualization”.
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