The 1619 Impact Series

Dr. Katie Haran Eller

Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at Marist College

Katie Harlan Eller (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at Marist College in the Hudson Valley of New York. She holds a PhD in English Education with a Teacher Education Specialization from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her teaching and research in literacy and justice are informed by 15 years in various classroom, professional development, and educational leadership roles as well as 5 years as an undergraduate and graduate teacher educator. Prior to joining the Marist College faculty, she was an undergraduate and graduate teacher educator at NYU, Columbia Teachers College, Bank Street, and Hunter College as well as the Workshop Coordinator for Teachers College, Columbia University’s Reimagining Education: Teaching, Learning, and Leading for a Racially Just Society. Her teaching and research examine critical literacies, anti-oppressive teaching, culturally and historically responsive pedagogies, racial justice and equity, and abolitionist literacy teacher education.

Noncy Fields

Elementary School Educator

Noncy has been teaching elementary school for 29 years and serves the community in which she grew up. She is a leader and disruptor who is committed to social justice work across all subject areas.

Shauna Russell

Director of Academics at Purpose Preparatory Academy

Shauna Russell is first, foremost, and forever a teacher, but now serving as the Special Populations Coordinator at Purpose Preparatory Academy in Nashville, TN. She is a two-time recipient of Metro Nashville Public Schools’ Blue Ribbon Teacher Award, the 2015 recipient of the Tennessee Charter School Center’s honor of Elementary Charter School Teacher of the Year, and a 2019 finalist for the TCSC Administrator of the Year recognition. Ms. Russell graduated with honors from the University of Michigan, and is currently enrolled in library science graduate work with the University of Tennessee. She has served as an adjunct instructor for Building Excellent Schools (BES), an expert panelist to the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Profile Project, and more recently, a board member of the Promise Land Heritage Association.

Bernice Ann Mayfield, M.S.

ECE - Faculty Member at Northern Virginia Community College

Bernice Ann Mayfield, MS.Ed, Early Childhood Education serves as a faculty member at Northern Virginia Community College. Bernice’s dedication to education stems from a rich family history tracing back to the Mayfield One Room Schoolhouse (founded by her Great Grandfather- Lewis Henry Mayfield). Honoring this legacy, Bernice energetically supports adults in their pursuit of personal growth, professional development, and academic and career achievement. Bernice’s work on the 1619 Project Unit "Exploring Common Roots" reflects her growing awareness of her personal history. It also demonstrates her experience in equipping teachers with the inspiration and skills to advance personal narratives and historical stories that are often overlooked in education. For more on the project's impact, see NOVA Recognizes Black History Maker and Educator Bernice Mayfield on the Northern Virginia Community College website (nvcc.edu).

Maya Wilson

High School Educator at Baltimore City College

Maya Wilson is a Baltimore native and educator who has been in the classroom for 10 years. She is certified in secondary English, Social Studies, and Special Education. She has a passion for uplifting students’ voices and serves as co-advisor of her school’s Student Government Association and strategist of her school’s social media platforms. Outside of the classroom Maya is a curriculum writer who has written for The Pulitzer Center, Baltimore City Public Schools, and countless museums. Maya received her bachelor's in political science from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently a masters candidate at Coppin State University. She looks forward to using her degree in Teacher Leadership to promote inclusivity and diversity in education and empower students as active members of society.

Deborah Menkart

Executive Director of Teaching for Change, Co-Director of the Zinn Education Project

Deborah Menkart is the executive director of Teaching for Change, co-director of the Zinn Education Project, and the co-editor of Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching and Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K–12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development. Based in Washington, D.C., she attended D.C. public schools and received a master’s in curriculum and instruction from George Washington University.

Theresa Maughan

Social Studies Teacher, 1619 Education Network

In her 43rd year of teaching and 37th year in the East Orange School District in East Orange, New Jersey, Theresa Maughan is a high school social studies teacher at East Orange STEM Academy. Maughan teaches United States history and the Advanced Placement African American Studies (AP AAS) course. Maughan’s twelve AP AAS students all passed the 2024 AP AAS exam (100% passing rate!). Maughan earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Education from Rutgers University, a Master of Arts in Administration and Supervision from New Jersey City University, and a Master of Arts in American History from Gettysburg University. Maughan is the 2022 New Jersey State Teacher of the Year and a national recipient of the 2023 Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence. Maughan was appointed to the New Jersey Department of Education Diverse and Learner-Ready Teachers Initiative Committee, the State Professional Learning Committee, and is a commissioner on the New Jersey Morris County Human Relations Commission. 

Maughan is a curriculum writer and professional development teacher trainer. She presented workshops for the  New Jersey Education Association  Early Career and Pre-Service teachers, the New Jersey School Boards Association, Education Testing Service, NJTESOL/NJBE, Seton Hall University, William Paterson University, New Jersey City University, the Center for Future Educators at The College of New Jersey, and the 2024 National Teacher Leadership Conference. Maughan was also a presenter at the 2022 and 2023 New Jersey Education Association Convention for the New Jersey Amistad Commission.

Dr. Fatima Morrell

Superintendent, Southampton Union Free School District

Dr. Morrell is Superintendent of Schools of the Southampton Union Free School District. Born and raised in Buffalo, Dr. Morrell is a former Spanish and English Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal, Supervising Principal, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Curriculum, New York State Certified Outside Educational Expert (OEE) for school review and improvement, and has been recognized as a national leader on anti-racist curriculum and pedagogy, as she has was named a Time Magazine Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2022,  for her implementation of the Emancipation Curriculum and anti-racist education.

In 2023, Dr. Morrell received national recognition as a National School Boards Association “Magna Award” recipient for her implementation of the Buffalo Public Schools “Our Story Project” and received the 2023 Buffalo Excellence in Education’s "Trailblazer of the Year” award from Friends for A Better Buffalo. Dr. Morrell considers herself a “Guardian of Equity” and has lead the district wide initiatives on anti-racist teaching, culturally relevant pedagogy, dismantling disproportionality in Special Education enrollments and disrupting the school-to prison pipeline. Dr. Morrell developed and implemented the “My Brother’s Keeper Male Academy” and the My Sister’s Keeper programs in Buffalo Public Schools.

Dr. Morrell received her doctoral degree from the University at Buffalo where her dissertation focused on Single-sex schools and classrooms in urban school districts serving low-SES students of color. Dr. Morrell is extremely passionate about developing the best practices for classroom instruction for all students, while creating curriculum, curricular programs and systemic structures that increase academic achievement for historically marginalized students of color.  Dr. Morrell’s culturally responsive education work developed in Buffalo Public Schools, has been adopted by the New York State Education Department for implementation in all State schools. 

Shamia Truitt-Martin

Middle School Social Studies Teacher

Education is a selfless venture that requires equity for all, compassion, empathy, patience, tenacity, and a love of knowledge--which is why I have been a proud educator for over 20 years. I spent 11 years as a department lead in Atlantic Public Schools, and an additional 11 years as a lead educator in Durham Public Schools. My passion is to help others learn and obtain their educational golden keys of opportunities, so I have also been working with the Duke Young Scholars program teaching students the fundamentals of educational research for 3 years. I am a life-long learner as well, who believes in Social Justice and Equity. My education includes degrees from Boston and Georgia State University as well as North Carolina Central University. I have a Master’s in Education from Georgia State University and I am AIG Certified. Some of my work is featured in Dr. Sharon L. Spencer’s book: “Getting to The Common Core: Using Research-Based Strategies that Empower Students to Own Their Learning,” and "Successful Black Parenting's: A Movement: Positioning Black Youth As Change Agents, Historians, & Creatives" My calling is to inspire, motivate, and provide the best educational experiences for students. I emphatically believe that Social Sciences prepare us to excel in our global community. By implementing 21st-century research-based activities, differentiating instruction, multiple-intelligence-based activities, data analysis, and interest-based activities, we can better cultivate outstanding scholars, who are on the path to becoming exemplary change agents!

Dr. Cyrisse Allen

Middle School Mathematic Teacher and K-8 Mathematics Teacher Leader

Dr. Cyrisse Houston Allen is a 2023-2024 SWAG Educator of the Year Award Recipient, a 6th-8th grade teacher of Mathematics, and a K-8 Mathematics Teacher Leader at John R King Academic & Performing Arts Academy with the Detroit Public Schools Community District in Detroit, Michigan. She focuses on leading other teachers from the classroom and guiding them in instruction of Mathematics with a focus on a multisensory approach to help students become proficient readers. Cyrisse began her teaching career as a member of the U.S. Army, and corporate accountant with the General Motors Corporation. 

She has since held various leadership roles at the educator level and has facilitated professional development training for teachers around the country. She earned her BS in Business Administration-Accounting from Central Michigan University, 3 Master’s degrees in Mathematic, Economics & Instructional Technology and a PHD in Curriculum and Instruction from Capella University. Dr. Cyrisse Allen is a lifelong learner.  

Since becoming a member of the Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Cohort, Dr. Allen has held positions in implementing change in the fabric of history in her state of Michigan.  She has worked with the Michigan Center for Civic Education (MCCE) traveling in the U.S. to witness and learn of the impacts of slavery and how the process of history has erased historical facts of misrepresented populations; the Center for Civic Education’s Civics Empowers All Students (CEAS) where she has brought participation and change to her school district by involving students in dissecting and challenging the We The People documents and the Constitution through project presentations; a participating educator with the Race, Equity, Arts, and Cultural History (REACH) Program where she integrates the arts into historical lessons so that all students can thrive in knowing the importance of history as it pertains to students of color; and also a 2024-25 Michigan Policy Fellow that is currently working with State Senate members to write legislation that advocates for equitable access to Early Middle College and Dual enrollment programs across Michigan through state funding to increase career readiness skills, and college retention for students in underrepresented communities. 

Her life is public service. She educates her students and allows them the opportunities to love learning. She also allows students to dream and to plan to improve their quality of life through the attainment of knowledge, which is the first steppingstone in life. 

Padmini Biswas

Lecturer in Urban Students, Queens College, CUNY

Padmini Biswas is a lecturer in urban studies at Queens College, City University of New York. received her Ph.D. in urban planning from Columbia University, her master’s degree with distinction from the London School of Economics, a B.S. in civil engineering from the Cooper Union, and a B.A. in English from Vassar College.  Dr. Biswas has held various leadership positions in the social justice space. She advanced diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within New York State government, directed an undergraduate human rights education program that took students to Nepal, Jordan and Chile to broaden their perspectives on activism, and served as the Assistant Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center, a meeting ground of urban scholar-activists. Dr. Biswas is the founding editor of SALT, a South Asian American community-based literary journal funded by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She is honored to be a 2023-2024 Pulitzer Center 1619 Project Education Network Fellow.

Amelia Acuña

5th Grade Abolitionist Teacher

Amelia Acuña, 5th grade teacher at Howe Avenue Elementary in California. She is an educator, mentor, and abolitionist. She graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a degree in Liberal Studies and minor in history. She worked for years as a tutor in English and history for college students and created a training program for small group tutoring at American River College. She has worked as a community organizer for the last 10 years in collaboration with the SHARE institute, a non-profit that works with impoverished women and children through domestic and international mini grants. As an educator she has continued this work by creating a leadership program where students organize and give back to their community, called the Howe Avenue Helpers. This leadership group was awarded the Spirit of San Juan Award in 2023. Her work has been uniquely shaped by the students she works with who are mostly emergent bilingual students. Many of whom are refugees from Afghanistan. She is GLAD trained and certificated. Her work has been inspired by the research of Dr. Alfred Tatum who created the Multidimensional Reading Model and GLAD strategies to teach emergent bilingual students.

Hannah Nolan-Spohn

Dual Education 6th Grade Science Teacher

Hannah Nolan-Spohn is a 6th grade Dual-Language Science teacher in Berwyn, Illinois. In her 15 years in public education, she has taught English as a Second Language and Special Education grades 1-8. With teammate Jodi Hoard, Hannah co-wrote a 7th grade social studies unit called "Defenders of Democracy" for the 2021-2022 1619 Project Education Network.

Kim Shanahan

Veteran Educator

Kim Shanahan is a veteran educator of over 30 years, teaching in a variety of places, from the Piedmont of North Carolina, Austin, TX, western Kansas and the urban downtown of Lowell, MA. Teaching Kindergarten was her passion for 21 of those years, focusing on our youngest learners. Now Kim is inspired by teaching World Cultures to K1-4th graders at Lowell Community Charter Public School, a global majority center of learning populated mostly by first and second generation immigrant students.

Diana Rojas

Bilingual Special Education Teacher

I have been an elementary teacher for 30 years in various positions. Those include teaching classes from Kindergarten to 8th grade, School Librarian, English Language Program Teacher, and when I received my Special Education Endorsement I was placed in a 3rd - 5th grade Cluster Classroom. A Cluster classroom is a classroom for students with mild to moderate disabilities using a significantly modified curriculum. Currently, I am the Bilingual Special Education teacher providing inclusion and resource support to bilingual students.

Karima Haynes

Director of Reporting Fellows Program, Pulitzer Center

Karima A. Haynes is a 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. She is co-author of “Communications Internship Handbook: What HBCU Students Need to Know” (2022, Kendall Hunt), which won a 2022 Outstanding Book Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. 

Haynes has two decades’ experience as a newspaper reporter and magazine writer. She is a former staff writer of the Los Angeles Times, Ebony, and The Providence Journal-Bulletin. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Jet magazine.

She has taught journalism at Biola University, University of Maryland College Park, Regent University, and Bowie State University. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Bowie State University, a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Clark Atlanta University.

Charles Sanderson

High School History Teacher, 1619 Education Network

Charles (he/him) continues to evolve as an educator and is a proud participant in The 1619 Education Network, The Pulitzer Center, Vocal Justice, and the Oregon Association of Latino Administrators. He strives to empower his students to use their authentic voices to speak up for issues that matter most to them.

Johanna Josaphat

Founding Teacher and Teacher Leader

Johanna Josaphat has been a dedicated educator for over 20 years, serving in the NYC Public Schools. As a Founding Teacher and Teacher Leader, she has taken leadership roles across the school, focusing on program development, developing and implementing adult learning, mentoring and coaching early career teachers, and creating innovative curriculum that positively impacts student learning. Outside of education, Johanna enjoys cooking and baking, and she has a passion for visiting walkable cities across the globe.

Kimetrice Tate

Educator and Dual Language Instructional Coach

Kim Tate is a National Board Certified educator and dual language instructional coach at International Prep Academy in Champaign, Illinois. Kim is passionate about connecting identity to literacy and writing for authentic purposes. She is the recipient of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (2023) and NCTE’s Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award (2022). In addition to being a children’s fiction enthusiast, she is a committee member for the Charlotte Huck Award® for Outstanding Fiction. Kim has served as a Teach Plus Illinois Senior Policy Fellow (2022-2023), National Writing Project Panda Fellow (2020-2021) and cohort member of the Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Project Education Network (2022). Kim received her B.S. in Elementary Education from Millikin University and her EdM in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Donja Thomas

English Educator and Black Studies Curriculum Developer

Dr. Donja Thomas is a passionate educator, activist, writer, scholar, TEDx speaker and Black Studies curriculum developer from Columbus, Ohio. She is committed to establishing learning spaces of introspection that generate more critical and expansive understandings about cultural consciousness, and equity-focused teaching, learning and service. 

 For over a decade, she has been engaged in creating classroom curriculums that center the use of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies, critical conscious literacies and the importance of employing curricular practices rooted in the Black experience (literary, historical & cultural) inside and outside the classroom, in order to advance Black Studies and Critical Studies in K-12 schooling. 

Dr. Thomas’ academic endeavors have received support from the National Council of Teachers of English, Pittsburgh Public Schools Leadership Academy, Ohio English Association Educational Foundation, and Ohio Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts, among other notable organizations. She is also an author of several publications centering the role of Black studies, Black culture and literacy in education.

Kimberly Henderson

Digital Curator, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Kimberly Annece Henderson is an author and curator based in New York City, native of North Carolina. Genealogy and Black American lineages are the foundation of her professional practices; using photography, historical preservation, and archives as tools. In 2020, she created the popular Instagram project, @emalineandthem. Her curatorial work can also be seen in the New York Times' 1619 Project Book (2021). Dear Yesteryear (2023), her debut book, is hailed as an "ingenious pairing" of archival photography and a reverent open letter to the ancestors. She earned a Master's in Library + Information Sciences from Syracuse University, and currently serves as the Digital Curator for the Schomburg Center's digital curation initiative.

Abigail Henry

Founder of theBLKcabinet

Abigail Henry is a Schomburg Fellow and doctoral student at University at Buffalo. Prior to moving to Buffalo, Abigail taught 9th grade African American History at a charter school in west Philadelphia for twelve years. Abigail served as content lead for the network and helped overhaul the historic twenty year update to the School District's of Philadelphia's African American History curriculum. She is founder of theBLKcabinet, a consultancy that focuses on Black history education and racial proficiency development. As a graduate fellow at UB she is working to support the development of the Teaching Black History and Racial Center as instructor for the Teaching Black History microcredential program.

Deborah Bertlesman

1619: The Antiracist Inquiry Teacher Collective

Deborah Bertlesman (she/her) has been a Coordinator in the Office of Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives in Buffalo Public Schools for two years. She helps to organize and write curriculum for programs centered on antiracist and emancipatory endeavors. She taught English in public, alternative, charter, and private institutions for eleven years. She is a PhD candidate in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning at the University at Buffalo where her interest focuses on implementation of antiracist inquiry in English Language Arts classrooms. She has been an adjunct instructor at Buffalo State University. She is a current officer and former member of the Western New York Network of English Teachers (WNYNET). Deborah has been previously employed by Buffalo Prep and Upward Bound in summer programs centered on preparing students of color for collegiate experiences.

As a classroom teacher she designed inquiry centered around social justice while giving students the space to explore larger personal and societal questions as they engage in reading, writing, and composing multimodally.  She has advised high school Sexuality and Gender Alliances, coached students in the Lorna C. Hill Speaking Contest, and served as a Guardian of Equity in Buffalo Public Schools.

Valerie Reppi

1619: The Antiracist Inquiry Teacher Collective

Vanessa O'Neil-White has a B.S. and an M.S. Ed.in English Education from Buffalo State University. As an undergraduate student, she co-founded the English Education Student Association and as a graduate student, she helped establish the English Education Alumni Network. Vanessa has taught both middle and high school students in multiple schools in WNY. She currently teaches English at Amherst Central High School.

Kimberly Ferrell

Lecturer at Eastern Michigan University

Kimberly D. Ferrell is an author, a minister, a mentor, historical researcher and an educator. She is a lecturer; teaching social foundations undergraduate courses at Eastern Michigan University. Kimberly holds a Ph.D. in Educational studies, a Masters in Women and Gender  Studies, and a Bachelors in Communication from Eastern Michigan  University. Her work examines the history of multidimensional oppressions (racism, sexism, classism) of Black American women in society and in education. Through her research, Dr. Ferrell offers solutions on ways women can be liberated from oppression by using  Intersectionality and Critical Race Feminism (ICRF) as a theoretical framework.

Tamyka Morant

Community, Herencia Compartida & Action

Tamyka Morant, Ph.D.(she/her) brings over 22 years of comprehensive experience as a Black Feminist PK-8 educator in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Her teaching and learning approach is deeply rooted in the tenets of Black feminism, Black feminist pedagogy, and justice praxis/liberatory education. In her current roles as Freedom and Justice’s mom, Assistant Principal at a public dual language elementary school in Washington, D.C., and member of D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, she is unwavering in her dedication to collaborating with fellow educators, students, families, and community partners to advance educational equity and justice for all students.

Jordan Campbell

Executive Director, Gateway Regional Arts Center

Jordan Campbell is an emerging leader in the American arts and cultural sector, known for his strategic innovation. As Executive Director of the Gateway Regional Arts Center, he has achieved a 522% increase in the budget and tripled participant engagement, enhancing access to the arts in rural Appalachian Eastern Kentucky and setting new cultural standards nationwide.

Jordan holds an Ed.M. from Harvard, a BFA in Musical Theatre, and a BA in Political Science from Western Kentucky University, and studied West African Theatre & Dance in Ghana. At Harvard, he conducted research in arts education and launched the inaugural Harvard Veritas Play Festival.

A Helen Hayes Award-nominated stage actor, Jordan has performed globally and taught theatre to diverse audiences. His teaching philosophy emphasizes the arts as a tool for personal and societal transformation. He has contributed to discussions on youth voice and social justice in arts education.

Jordan's multifaceted career includes influential roles in the Obama administration, Americans for the Arts, and as Director of Research & Learning at Creative Generation, where he led over 50 projects connecting arts, youth, and civic engagement. He is also the Founder and Co-Chair of the Small Town America Institute for Rural Arts & Culture.

Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky, Jordan aims to drive impactful research and leadership in the field.

LaGarrett King

Professor of Social Studies Education and Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the University at Buffalo

Dr. LaGarrett King is an award-winning Professor of Social Studies Education and Director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the University at Buffalo. Dr. King has over 60 publications, including his most recent book, Teaching U.S. Enslavement: Lesson Plans and Primary Sources. Dr. King is most known for his Black history framework, Black historical consciousness, which is the primary topic of his current book chapter, Teaching Black History for 6-12 teachers: An introduction to the Black Historical Consciousness framework for teachers.