Who are you and what are your practitioner sites?
Lonice Eversley, Master Teacher for NYC Public Schools with 28 years in education. My primary responsibilities include mentoring and coaching teachers across New York City, and teaching college level Critical Race and Ethnic Studies class to twelfth graders in the South Bronx. I also serve as Senior Consultant for Equity and Liberation in Education at Lotus Lorraine, LLC.
What inspired you to join the Doctoral Program in Transformative Education?
My search for an anti-racist, liberatory focused doctoral program in education produced a single result: Clark University’s Doctoral Program in Transformative Education. I was inspired to apply because I am not interested in spending my time or talent reproducing systems of oppression in education. I have dedicated my career to disrupting and dismantling the elements that have failed my students. I want to stand among educators who are making permanent, systemic changes that improve the experience of every student in this country.
What do you hope the Doctoral Program in Transformative Education will help you accomplish in the future?
I want my work to reveal that the power of community and collaboration, combined with an activist spirit, can disrupt systems of oppression, and prove to students and educators alike that they hold power within to effect meaningful change. Currently and historically, at the K-12 level, there has existed an achievement gap that is designed, constructed, and defined in ways that harm Black and Brown students in the US. In higher education, Black and Brown students continue to be impacted by narratives tied to those constructed achievement gaps. This dynamic results in Students of Color feeling excluded, unwelcomed, and unable to build community on college campuses where they are the numeric minority. The work that I will produce in the Doctoral Program in Transformative Education is intended to be a blueprint for students and educators to find their power and use their voices to effect the changes necessary for liberatory experiences in schools across the country.
