Thank you, Kimberly Ellis

Kimberly Ellis is a force, and we were thrilled to host her part-time as the Education Anew Fellow at Teaching for Change, in partnership with Communities for Just Schools Fund (CJSF), for the last two years. Brilliant because she is ever-curious, Ellis is unwavering in her commitment to social justice. She made profound contributions to many aspects of our work, most robustly co-facilitating the D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice program. In addition to documenting more than a dozen teachers’ classroom stories, Ellis:

• Co-planned the inaugural Social Justice Curriculum Fair in 2022 and the second and now annual fair in 2023

• Co-facilitated the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose programs, notably a dialogue with Black Was the Ink author Michelle Coles

• Guided a Prologue DC intern on creating curriculum for Mapping Segregation

• Supported three D.C. Area #TeachTruth Days of Action

• Penned a book review of Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? for Social Justice Books

• Co-led the D.C. area’s Teach Central America Week events, including a sponsored book talk by La Casa de Cultura El Salvador

• Supported Teaching the Black Freedom Struggle online classes as a breakout group facilitator

• Wrote Teaching Stories about how teachers applied their learning from Teach the Beat professional development workshops and ways they taught about go-go’s mobilizing power.

This is only a partial list of her many contributions made to Teaching for Change during this two-year fellowship. We also experienced firsthand some of the outstanding work she coordinated at CJSF. We’re excited to continue partnering with her as she transitions to fully dedicating her time with CJSF, and we thank her for nurturing the DCAESJ program during her time!