Our staff
Sarah Abdelaziz (they/them/theirs)
Director, Activists in Residence program
Sarah is a former educator as well as an organizer/activist who has worked in fostering and supporting community centered struggles for 10 years. Sarah is from the global and national south and finds inspiration and meaning in fighting alongside the communities they find themself in: queer people of color who are rowdy because they know they deserve more. It is the realization of the abolition freedom dream that keeps them connected and accountable to our collective liberation.
Email them at SarahAbdelaziz at AbolitionistTeachingNetwork.org
Ashley Woodson (she/her/hers)
Director, Virtual Freedom School
Ashley Woodson, Ph.D. is a writer, educational consultant and advocate for radical social studies teaching. She researches how Black history is taught and how Black kids express their civic identities. She teaches and supports out-of-school and summer school learning opportunities across the country, and celebrates her roles as mother, play cousin and mentor to young leaders.
Email her at AshleyWoodson at AbolitionistTeachingNetwork.org
ominira mars (they/them/theirs)
Communications & Outreach Manager
ominira is a Black southern queer-feminist student, educator, and writer born in Columbus, Georgia. Their people are poor/working class folks who saw education as a path to liberation. They are passionate about political education, abolition, and building strategic counter-narratives through story-telling and radical imagination to disrupt systems of oppression. They identify as non-binary gender fluid
Email them at OminiraMars at AbolitionistTeachingNetwork.org
Meg Hensley (she/her/hers)
Director of Operations
Meg Hensley, Ed.D. is an educator, writer, and organizational consultant focused on the development, growth, and sustainability of justice-minded organizations. Meg's work is centered in Black feminist thought, and she is passionate about dismantling systems of oppression and collaboratively building new constructs that value, support, and center those who have been historically pushed to the margins.
Email her at MegHensley at AbolitionistTeachingNetwork.org
Our board
Bettina L. Love (she/her/hers)
Chair, Board of Directors
Bettina Love is an educator who teaches, writes, researches, and advocates at the intersection of racism, education, and abolition. She is the author of the book We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.
Contact her at BettinaLove at AbolitionistTeachingNetwork.org
Brandelyn Tosolt (she/her/hers)
Secretary/Treasurer, Board of Directors
Brandelyn Tosolt is an educator who amplifies voices from the educational margins. She works with teachers and educational leaders in the greater Cincinnati area to transform schools into places which celebrate Blackness and joy.
Contact her at BrandelynTosolt at AbolitionistTeachingNetwork.org
Chelsey Culley-Love (she/her/hers)
Board Member
Chelsey Culley-Love is a third grade educator in Atlanta, GA. She began teaching Exceptional Student Education in Homestead, FL. Culley-Love is currently working to build an engaging and effective learning community in Atlanta’s Fourth Ward. This work is facilitated by her experience and belief in the power of education to ensure students are having a meaningful, social justice oriented, joy-filled learning experience!
David Stovall (he/him/his)
Board Member
David Stovall, Ph.D. is Professor of African-American Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His work with communities, students, and teachers manifests itself in his involvement with the Peoples Education Movement, a collection of classroom teachers, community members, students and university professors in Chicago, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to his duties and responsibilities as a professor at UIC, he also served as a volunteer social studies teacher at the Greater Lawndale/Little Village School for Social Justice from 2005-2018.
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Cynthia Dillard (she/her/hers)
Board Member
Cynthia B. Dillard (Nana Mansa II of Mpeasem, Ghana) is an enstooled Queen Mother/Black feminist teacher educator/school builder/researcher/retreat leader whose life and work spans the US and Ghana, West Africa. She is the author of three books about the work of spirituality in teaching and learning for Black life and is currently working on her fourth book, We (Re)member: Black Women Teachers and the Spirit of Our Work.
Farima Pour-Khorshid (she/her/hers)
Board Member
Farima Pour-Khorshid, Ph.D. is a professor of Teacher Education at the University of San Francisco (USF) in California and holds leadership roles in grassroots collectives such as the Teachers 4 Social Justice, the People’s Education Movement and the national Education for Liberation Network. She has over a decade of experience teaching at the elementary level as well as lecturing, supervising and supporting educators locally, nationally and internationally through her roles as a university professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant and grassroots community organizer.
Martha Allexsaht-Snider (she/her/hers)
Board Member
Martha Allexsaht-Snider, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia, has worked for many years with educators and families in diverse multilingual settings, including U. S. Latino/a and immigrant communities, as well as rural and indigenous communities in México. Her focus has been on engaging with families and educators to promote equity in mathematics and science teaching and learning. Recently, she has worked with educators, parents, and children in schools in Turkey serving multilingual families with refugee status.