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I am...a Southern. Black. Feminist. Woman. 

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I am...a Southern. Black. Feminist. Woman. 

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I stand on the shoulders of queens...like Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker in the fight for racial advancement and equity!

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When your social justice isn't tied to my survival...

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When your social justice isn't tied to my survival...

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I'm with Auntie MO, nah!

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through the lens of a Black, Southern, Feminist, Woman living in Louisiana working fearlessly to reveal and remove educational inequities, vestiges of a caste system, based on race and other interlocking identities. As racial realist, I know the inequities are rooted in the permanence of racism that need to be uprooted and created anew.

As a leader, my 9-5, is to build the leadership capacity of others willing to do the work necessary to make this a reality.

As Gardner (1990) states, “To exercise leadership today, leaders must institutionalize their leadership. The issues are too technical and the pace of change too swift to expect a leader, no matter how gifted, will be able to solve personally the major problems facing the system on which he or she presides. So we design an institutional system – a government agency, a corporation- to solve the problems, and then we select a leader who has the capacity to preside over and strengthen the system. Some leaders may be quite gifted in solving problems personally, but if they fail to institutionalize the process, their departure leaves the system crippled. They must  create or strengthen systems that will survive then” (p. 12) As an organizing strategist at Leadership for Educational Equity, a leadership development organization, I am a leader disrupting institutionalized systems of oppression, I’m tasked with developing a pipeline of leaders that under race and other interlocking isms’ that create and maintain educational inequity, if I walk always, there is a pipeline of leaders developed and ready to move into action.

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My personal leadership theory is rooted in the core values of who I am:
I am...
enjoying new things in life, relatable, confident, restorative, adaptive, intellectual, introspective, faith-driven, unapologetically black, bold, creative, funny, people-centered, considering context in the action i take, business savvy...I know these are my core values, because I see them in other leaders I choose to follow.

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Southern. Educator. DisruptHER. Organizer. 

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Southern. Educator. DisruptHER. Organizer. 

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Smith said it was Teach for America that brought her back to Louisiana.

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BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Kristin Smith was assigned to East Feliciana High School in Jackson last year. In her second year working as a Teach for America volunteer, she's mobilized a new club for students.

As they gather in the school library, they are chattering and long lanky bodies slide into chairs along long folding tables. These students are here because they care about others. This is the United Way's Youth Volunteer Corps. It's a program offered to teens all over the Baton Rouge Metro area, but here at East Feliciana, they're going much deeper than most teens.

Earlier in the day they had gathered to listen to a woman from the Baton Rouge domestic violence center known as the Iris Center. Now this meeting was to figure out ways to raise money among the students in the school to donate to the Iris Center.

A boy raised his hand, "How about a movie day and like, the entry fee, is like a clothing item or a toothbrush..."

Smith smiles, "Great idea! And what else?"

And they added "Pie the Principal" to their flip chart of ideas.

Smith says she conceived of the group as a way to hands and feet to good ideas.

"We always ax them questions," she said, betraying her Louisiana upbringing, "and they come up with themes and topics and it's really student led. So they bring the enthusiasm and we follow up on it."

"I didn't know much about East Feliciana Parish," Kristin admitted, "But I love it. And the kids here are so enthusiastic, we'll do great things!"

Capital One Bank, the United Way's Volunteer Center and WAFB are sponsors of the Power of 9 Awards to give outstanding volunteers a chance to shine before a larger crowd.

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BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Kristin Smith was assigned to East Feliciana High School in Jackson last year. In her second year working as a Teach for America volunteer, she's mobilized a new club for students. As they gather in the school library, they are chattering and long lanky bodies slide into chairs along long folding tables.

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My Leadership Song: In world of social media, it is sometimes much easier to be a trendy, social media social justice warrior. It is one thing to support equity online, it is another thing to do it live, off-line. This song reminds me of several things. For starters, the revolution will not always be streamed live, or marked for the history books, but each courageous action is an opportunity to advance, to progress forward, with or without recognition, but more importantly, it reminds me and others to be in the moment and to press forward! The revolution is not only real, but it is rooted in each moment, that I choose to lead individually and collectively to create and strengthen social just systems

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My Leadership Song: In world of social media, it is sometimes much easier to be a trendy, social media social justice warrior. It is one thing to support equity online, it is another thing to do it live, off-line. This song reminds me of several things. For starters, the revolution will not always be streamed live, or marked for the history books, but each courageous action is an opportunity to advance, to progress forward, with or without recognition, but more importantly, it reminds me and others to be in the moment and to press forward! The revolution is not only real, but it is rooted in each moment, that I choose to lead individually and collectively to create and strengthen social just systems

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My Leadership in Action: Pushing Equitable Disability Legislation while Shifting Hearts & Minds...throughout the Louisiana Legislature 

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My Leadership in Action: Pushing Equitable Disability Legislation while Shifting Hearts & Minds...throughout the Louisiana Legislature 

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Capper, C. A., Rodriguez, M. A., & McKinney, S. A. (2010) contend, “Certainly we recognize that over representation of some students in special education is part of the problem and we acknowledge the importance of inclusion; however we contend that social justice leaders must move beyond this conversation to build truly integrated, socially just schools and districts, not just for students with disabilities but for all students” (p. 176).  This passage expanded my own limited view in advocated with disabled students and families. Much of our focus at the time, was center first around disparities amongst students with disabilities and the rate of corporal punishment. However, if I am to truly lead, I need to entrench myself with more knowledge about disabilities studies and current issues impacting these students and families. As suggested in this article, as an organizer, I’m committed to conducting house meeting to surface issues beyond over and underrepresentation in order to help foster healthy learning communities that focus less on the label and more on the holistic education of every student.

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by Tank & The Bangas
I listen to this sermon from one of Nawlins' finest talent when I get weary and when I have to essentially remember, all I can do, is my best

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Tank & The Bangas meets Sweet Crude "Doing My Best" Nuits de l'Alligator 2019

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Citing new state law, protesters demand immediate parent meetings at 59 struggling Baton Rouge schools

Most of these students are overwhelmingly, black and brown.

As a social construct, race has everything to do with leadership. Gooden (2012) argues, “Practitioners should first develop a working understanding of individual, institutional, and societal racism. Understanding these terms and distinctions between them will help leaders, aspiring leaders, and those who train them address White privilege and subtle systems embedded within education that work on multiple levels to advantage Whites and subordinate Blacks and those from other racial minority groups (p. 79). If we refuse to recognize the root cause of educational inequity: racism, then we are merely treating the system and allowing its perpetual existence.

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Activists from four different Louisiana education groups protested Thursday night outside the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board Office, accusing the school system of not complying with a new school accountability law.

The state law, Act 555, which was approved last year, requires that public schools with state-mandated academic improvement plans must hold at least one detailed public meeting on school grounds so that parents can learn what educators are doing to turn the schools around.

The latest school report cards were released Nov. 8. Two-thirds of Baton Rouge public schools are obliged to have an improvement plan. Thirty-eight schools - or 44 percent - lagged with all students, while 21 schools - or 24 percent - lagged with groups of students.

The groups argue that Act 555 required public meetings quickly after Nov. 8, and that the East Baton Rouge Parish school system has failed since then to share their plans with the parents at these 59 schools.

"Here it is February and nothing has happened," said Kristopher Lewis, a teacher and a member of the South Louisiana Coalition for Education, or SLCE.

SLCE was joined by Our Voice Nuestra Voz, Education Trust Louisiana and the Urban League. They protested as the School Board was meeting inside. The protesters plan to visit schools in other parts of Louisiana that have yet to hold Act 555 meetings.

East Baton Rouge Parish school officials argue that's an incorrect reading of the law. They say that while Act 555 took effect in August, the meetings it calls for aren't required to be held until April 17 at earliest.

That's when the state is set to approve the next batch of academic improvement plans. If approved, then Act 555 requires the affected schools to hold public meetings "within 60 days," or by mid-June.

Sydni Dunn, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Education, said Friday that is also how the state education agency is interpreting Act 555.

Schools in Baton Rouge with improvement plans adopted before Act 555 took effect also held public presentations on those plans at regular open houses in August and September.

Follow Charles Lussier on Twitter, @Charles_Lussier.

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Citing new state law, protesters demand immediate parent meetings at 59 struggling Baton Rouge schools

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Activists from four different Louisiana education groups protested Thursday night outside the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board Office, accusing the school system of not complying with a new school accountability law.

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Capper, C. A., Rodriguez, M. A., & McKinney, S. A. (2010). Leading beyond disability: Integrated, socially just schools and districts. In C. Marshall and M. Oliva (Eds.), Leadership for social justice: Making revolutions in education (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Gardner, J. W. (1990). On leadership. New York: Free Press.

Gooden, M. (2012). What does racism have to do with leadership? Countering the idea of color-blind leadership: A reflection on race and the growing pressures of the urban principalship. Educational Foundations, 26, 76-84.

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“I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.”

― Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road