Identity Talk 4 Educators LIVE Kwame Sarfo-Mensah

In this episode, I had a great conversation with Uche Njoku about his early life in Nigeria, his evolution as an educator, and what ultimately pushed him to resign from his principal role after a long, successful career.  To learn more about Uche's work, you can visit his website at sneakerprincipal.wordpress.com or follow him on Instagram (@snkrprincipal), Twitter (@SNKRPrincipal), and LinkedIn. 



BIO: Hailing from Inglewood, California and a native of the Igbo tribe of southeastern Nigeria, Uche Njoku became a high school special education teacher and dean of students in the Bronx in 2005 through the New York City Teaching Fellows program. Starting in 2016, he served as a principal, first at The School of Mathematics, Science and Technology through the Arts (I.S. 318) in the Bronx’s District 12, and then as the principal of John Jay School for Law in the Brooklyn North High Schools District.   Uche is a member of the inaugural cohort of The Gray Fellowship for Principal Excellence, and a member of the 2021 cohort of The Cahn Fellows Distinguished Principals Program. He is also the first principal to serve as a member of the board of directors of PENCIL, a New York City not-for-profit organization founded with the goal of raising awareness about public education by inviting civic and business leaders into New York City public schools.   Uche holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film and Media, with an allied field in African and African-American studies from the University of Rochester, as well as advanced degrees, including a masters degree in Educational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University.   Uche is an avid digital content creator, which includes The Sneaker Principal Podcast. A space for educators and allies working on closing the achievement gap in urban communities.


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In this episode, I'm honored to welcome Dr. Crystal Menzies to the podcast to talk about her personal journey in education, the founding of The EmanicpatED,  her collaborative research work with the Maroon communities, and how teachers can incorporate Black historical counternarratives into the curriculum.  To learn more about Crystal's work, you can visit the EmancipatED website at emancipatededucation.com or you can follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter (@emancipate_ed).   



BIO: Crystal Menzies, PhD (she/her) is an educator of Black and Brown youth, a postdoctoral researcher studying cultural community wealth, and the founder of EmancipatED. A former culturally responsive teacher in urban schools, Crystal aspired to teach her students about ways of being and thinking that did not center whiteness. However, she quickly realized that it would take more than being a “good teacher” to dismantle the systems of oppression that led to the systemic violence she and her students experienced.  

In an effort to tell a more expansive story of the Black experience across the Diaspora that didn’t perpetuate trauma narratives, Crystal traveled the globe to learn about the rich history of resistance and liberation movements that are often made invisible in our collective history books.  Drawing on her Guyanese and African American roots, the legacy of Black educators, educational psychology, liberatory pedagogy, and African-Diasporan history, Crystal founded EmancipatED to uncover our hidden Black history.  

Through research-based educational products that center Black communities, Crystal hopes to create environments in which Black people, as a collective, can find joy, empowerment, and community through multi-generational learning. Her flagship product is an exploration kit that shares the stories of Maroon communities, which offers Black and Brown families a model for how to navigate as liberated beings within oppressive systems.  She lives in the Bay Area (or the Yay area as she affectionately refers to it) and enjoys reading, Marvel movies, and daydreaming of Black Futures.


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In this special episode, I got the chance to interview Christopher Clyde Green and Estelle Bougna Fomeju to learn about their personal journeys in education and the power of counternarratives in K-12 education.  To learn more about Christopher and Estelle's work, you can check out their information below:

Christopher Clyde Green - WEBSITE (chrisclydegreen.com); TWITTER (@ccgreen)

Estelle Bougna Fomeju- WEBSITE (tissiconsulting.com); INSTAGRAM (@sallyspoetry)



BIO: Estelle Bougna Fomeju is a pan-African Consultant in Education passionate about history, geopolitics, cultural inclusion, antiracism and indigenous worldviews. She founded Tissi, a consultancy in education for social change based in Mali, that works with schools and organizations worldwide. Her areas of expertise are education project management, culturally-inclusive and antiracist capacity building for educators, decolonial curriculum development and instructional design. Before founding Tissi, Estelle worked as a Senior Project Manager for a network of African international schools, where she managed the creation of IB schools in Mali and Botswana. Estelle was born in Cameroon and grew up in Guinea, Chad, and Mali then moved to France and the US for university. She graduated from Sciences Po Paris with a Masters in International Development in 2015. In 2021 she obtained a MED in Advanced Teaching from the University of People in partnership with the International Baccalaureate. With her work, she hopes to help fulfill the promise of education, that of equipping young people with adequate tools to analyze, question, and transform their environment.

Christopher Clyde Green currently teaches IB Language A: Literature, Language and Literature, as well as TOK at Ecolé International de Genève (International School of Geneva) & Institut Le Rosey. Being an advocate for the International Baccalaureate he has been a IB examiner and reader for the past five years. A citizen of both Britain and Jamaica, he has previously taught at Oporto British School in Portugal and Mill Hill School in the United Kingdom. He is an alumnus of the University of London (Royal Holloway) and Cambridge University (Homerton College). 
Besides teaching, he has written professionally for various media outlets on music, education and culture and previously worked professionally in the entertainment industry as a writer and an actor.


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In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Erica Glover to learn more about her personal journey in education, her love for basketball, the founding of Disrupter University, and so much more!  To learn more about Dr. Glover's work, you can visit the Disrupter University website at disrupteruniversity.com or you can follow her on Instagram, Twitter (@drericaglover), and LinkedIn.  



BIO: Dr. Erica Glover is a servant of education, committed to equity and inclusion. Throughout her career in education, Dr. Glover has worked as an educator, administrator, and also within Human Resources. As a Disrupter, Dr. Glover’s experiences reflect a common thread of one common theme: ensuring access and opportunities for marginalized groups of people.  During her time as an educator, Dr. Glover supported students learning in self-contained units, as a result of behavioral concerns and emotional disabilities. She recognized the inequities faced by students placed in her classroom, and worked to provide her students more equitable learning opportunities, where students were able to experience teaching and learning with peers.  

As Dr. Glover transitioned into her role as an administrator, she remained dedicated to standing for equity and inclusion among students, teachers, and colleagues. She developed programs to support peer-to-peer mentorship, book clubs for educators within the building, alternative to suspension programs, and parent groups to support building initiatives. All the while, Dr. Glover supported colleagues with the process of reflecting on instructional practices and strategies to grow both students and educators.  In 2017, Dr. Glover earned her doctorate degree in Urban Education, from Cleveland State University. 

With an emphasis on Policy and Planning, Dr. Glover has transferred her learning into reimagining the ways in which we socialize future teachers (current students and pre-service teachers), and in-service teachers. Within her more recent role as a Recruitment Manager, Dr. Glover continues to develop innovative systems and processes to recruit and retain underrepresented populations of people in education.  Dr. Glover is also a former Division I athlete, playing semi-professional basketball for several seasons. Her experiences as an athlete led her to coach and train youth for twelve years. During this time, she also began a boys AAU basketball program, to provide youth from urban communities the opportunity to compete without the financial burden to commit. Through AAU programming, Dr. Glover was also able to provide players with educational support needed to advance as a student-athlete in college.


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In this episode, I had the honor of chatting with Dawnavyn James to learn more about her educator journey, the creation of The Black History Club, her upcoming book "Beyond February", the importance of teaching Black History through children's books at the early childhood level, and so much more!  To learn more about Dawnavyn's work, you can visit her website at linktr.ee/queendomteach follow her on Instagram (@queendomteaching), Twitter (@queendomteachin), and LinkedIn.



BIO: Dawnavyn James is an early childhood and elementary educator. She has taught kindergarten, fifth grade, and all the grades in between. She graduated from Stephens College with a Bachelor of Science in Education. She previously taught kindergarten for the Columbia Public School District and is now pursuing her doctoral degree full-tme at the University of Buffalo, where she also serves as a fellow for the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education. Dawnavyn also is the creator of The Black History Club and is passionate about embedding Black histories into curriculum. Dawnavyn’s recent publications include Motivating Writers Through Blogging and A Recipe for Young Historians of Black History.


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In this week's episode, I had the honor of interviewing Sheila Akbar to learn about her journey in education, her love for poetry, her transition from being a  Harvard pre-med to an education entrepreneur, and helpful tips for parents and high school students who preparing for college.  To learn more Sheila's work, you can visit the Signet Education website at signeteducation.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.    



BIO: Sheila Akbar joined the Signet team in the summer of 2010, bringing with her a wealth of experience teaching SAT, ACT, GRE, literature, and composition in both one-on-one and classroom settings. Sheila loves both teaching and learning, and finds nothing more rewarding than working closely with students to overcome the challenges they face.  After graduating from Harvard in 2002, Sheila spent two years working in financial services before continuing her academic career, which culminated into two doctorates. She brings her significant business and academic experience to bear on her current role at Signet.  Her skills include speaking to every client to craft a tailored solution for their needs, managing the administrative team, and providing educational thought leadership for the company.  Sheila holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Harvard University and two doctoral degrees from Indiana University.


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