This month I speak with three educators whose stories have contributed to their purpose for working with Black girls and their educators to create spaces where Black girls are centered and celebrated. The three educators joining me in the conversation are Dr. Carolyn Strong, Deborah Peart, and Jacqueline Smalls.
Dr. Carolyn Strong, a previous Black Girl Math™ guest, is an educator in the Chicagoland area who primarily focuses on educational equity and discipline disparities as they relate to Black girls. She is a motivational speaker and an author of Black Girl Blues and two other books. She is also one of the founding members of Centering Sisters: Real Talk for Black Women by Black Women, a movement focused on centering the experiences of Black women and girls to create a space for dialogue and healing.
Deborah Peart works as a Mathematics Specialist at UnboundEd with a team to develop and implement professional development programs for K-12 mathematics. Prior to joining UnboundEd, Deborah was the lead writer for second grade for the Illustrative Mathematics Elementary Math Curriculum project. She is the founder of My Mathematical Mind and #BlackWomenRockMath and speaks on a variety of topics related to math identity and literacy connections to mathematics.
Jackie Smalls has a rich background in STEM education, having served as the head of programs at Black Girls Code and previously running professional learning programs for Discovery Education, impacting tens of thousands of teachers and students. She served as an Environmental Scientist in the US Army, a school teacher, and one of the standards writers on the Next Generation Science Standards. She resides in Southern Maryland only minutes from the District of Columbia and Virginia. Jackie is the Chief Program Officer for Code.org and leads the Education Programs Team.
…We needed to approach any of our interventions from they are capable, they are strong, they are vulnerable, they are worth protecting.
Dr. Venus Evans-Winters of Illinois State University from Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Dr. Monique W. Morris and Jacoba Atlas
References
References
Centering Sisters: Real Talk for Black Women by Black Women
Critical Conversations on Adultification Bias Against Black Girls, webinar co-hosted by the Georgetown University Black Alumni Summit and the Initiative on Gender Justice and Opportunity, 4/6/21
Black Girl Math™ 
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