Purpose Built Schools Atlanta is proud to announce that four educators have been named CREATE Equity Facilitation Fellows.
Haniyyah Nu’Man, Tambra Harris and Keely Sutton of Price Middle School and Kimberly Edwards of Thomasville Heights Elementary School will participate in the 8-month leadership and facilitation program designed for educators interested in leading, designing, and facilitating equity-centered learning experiences in their school communities.
These four educators are among dozens of Purpose Built Schools staff who have participated in CREATE’s professional development programs, including Purpose Built Schools president Greg Giornelli.
“We love our partnership with CREATE,” says Giornelli. “Their professional development opportunities have helped drive powerful and honest conversations about educational equity across our schools. The fellowship gives our staff opportunities to network with like-minded educators and strengthen equity-centered facilitation skills.”
Like Purpose Built Schools, CREATE builds and nurtures a thriving community of educators committed to practices of teaching that prioritize racial justice and interrupt inequities. They accomplish this by training new teachers, developing teacher leaders, and addressing teacher induction challenges.
“Purpose Built School’s partnership with CREATE has been instrumental in my development as a facilitator, a collaborator, and as an agent for racial justice and equity,” says Blake Zimmerman, coordinator of data and culture for Purpose Built Schools.
The objective of the Fellowship is to harness the skills required for facilitation of conversations about educational equity and justice in your school, organization, or life.
“For many years I’ve carried a heaviness in my heart due to the injustice I’ve witnessed,” says Kimberly Edwards. “In just a few short weeks of the CREATE Fellowship I’ve had the opportunity to sit among some incredible individuals who led me in brief, yet deep conversations about racial and social injustices. These conversations have left me thinking ever so more conscientiously–more awoken than ever before.”
The teachers have immediately applied what they are learning through the fellowship into the classroom.
“My fellow “fellows” have shared the depths of their poetic verses and suggestions of woke read alouds,” continues Edwards. “These shares have benefitted my students via discussions/teachings on citizens’ rights and responsibilities and the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. I think I’ll stick around for more life-changing moments with the Fellows.”