Contributor Bios

Sara P Alvarez is Assistant Professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) and 2018-2020 Cultivating New Voices Fellow at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Sara’s qualitative research focuses on the multilingual and academic writing practices of self-outed U.S. undocumented young adults. Her past research ethnographically examined the multilingual social media literacy practices among second-generation Latina/o/e youth and their transnational families in Kentucky. Her publications have appeared in the journals Equity and Excellence in Education, World Englishes, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, among others.

I grew up on the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation in Arizona, where I learned early on about the complicated issues of race, culture, history, and oppression. Since then my continuous work to develop my understanding of being a mixed-race person (Pascua Yaqui Indian and Mexican-American) would, and continues to, inform all aspects of my professional career. During my time as a teacher in K-12 and post-secondary, my desire to support others in the development of their intercultural competency and their passion for social justice grew. As such, I have spent the past decade developing skills for this work by using methods that include Indigenous Circle Work, the Theatre of the Oppressed, various forms of art, and dialogue and literacy tools. I am currently at the University of British Columbia Vancouver, in the Faculty of Education. My main focus is on helping teacher candidates and licensure students develop capacities for working with diverse student populations in culturally responsive and humanizing ways. I also consult for a number of groups and organizations both nationally and internationally, including in Canada, Germany, and Mexico.

Grace D. Player’s work is rooted in her experiences as a Woman of Color, a daughter to an immigrant woman, and a sister to many. She is a literacy scholar, educator, and artist who has a longstanding commitment to collaborating with communities of Color. Following a career of classroom teaching and literacy professional development, she pursued her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania where she developed as a community partner, researcher, and educator. Her work takes on a feminist of color lens and is primarily aimed at better understanding the ways that Girls and Women of Color mobilize their raced, gendered, and cultural knowledges and ways of knowing to forge sisterhoods that resist injustice and transform worlds. Her work attempts to challenge colonizing methodologies by centering relational and collaborative knowledge building and by utilizing the power of arts and aesthetics in communicating and exploring theory. She is currently an assistant professor of literacy at the University Connecticut Neag School of Education, where she is co-facilitating a critical autoethnographic coalition with a group of preservice and early career Woman of Color teachers.

This graphic was created as an envisioning of the ethos of love, care, vibrancy, and transformative power that Dr. Nyachae centers in her work, including in The Evolving Education Project. I hoped to convey the beauty of People of Color, Teachers of Color, and Youth of Color learning, creating, gathering, listening, vibing together. In these spaces of togetherness, we evolve in ways that are transcendent of the status quo, that refuse deficit ideologies, and that are radically loving. This piece is an ode to, a celebration of, folx committed to evolving education in the name of joy, justice, and love.

Aja D. Reynolds is a healer, activist, artist and educator. She is the legacy of Linda and the late Ralph Reynolds, a testament of her family’s survival and resistance in the US. In the many roles she is positioned in, she is led by a Black feminist spirit of care, collectivism and courage to confront systems of oppression. Her gifts possess the power to bring people together and bring light into dark places through laughter. Currently, she is a Visiting Professor of Urban Education and Critical Race Studies at Wayne State University. Her classroom is an invitation to grapple with critical theories, deep reflection with ourselves and brave dialogue. Aja’s research interests are inspired by her on-going relationships with Black girls to engage theories and practices in geography, youth development, and social movements. Her collaborative engagement with Black girls focuses on creating ‘fugitive’ or freedom spaces with Black girls through the use of art, activism, and healing. Aja’s dissertation, titled “Ain’t Nobody Checking for Us: Race, Fugitivity and the Urban Geographies of Black Girlhood,” is her most current work that documents this labor of love. Additionally, she is part of national education networks, including the Education for Liberation Network, in which she organizes with teachers, youth and community organizations to develop justice-centered educational sites. Her favorite Black girl saying to date is “it’s the (insert noun/verb/adj) for me.”

Ruqayyah Simmons received both her B.A in Public Communications and her M.S. Ed from Buffalo State. She also has a M.S in Executive Leadership and Change from Daemen College with specializations in Non-Profit Leadership and Business. Miss Simmons started her career working for Say Yes to Education Buffalo as a Community Schools Navigator, then as a Long-Term Substitute for a 2nd grade class before accepting a full-time 5th grade teaching position. Miss Simmons has a longstanding commitment to community service. She has volunteered with many organizations including but not limited to: Open Buffalo, The Buffalo Urban League Young Professionals, Center for Urban Education Steering Committee for Canisius College, Changemakers 30 under 30 Awards, and Midtown Bible Church. Miss Simmons is also cofounder of the Western New York Young Achievers Awards, Inc. Miss Simmons currently resides in Buffalo, NY with her daughter Amani and their dog Roxy.

Stephanie R. Toliver (S.R. Toliver) is an assistant professor of Literacy and Secondary Humanities at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her scholarship centers the freedom dreams of Black youth and honors the historical legacy that Black imaginations have had and will have on activism and social change.