Each year, this work draws on the contributions of individuals and organizations outside the class for expertise, knowledge, and practice. This corner of our site is a space to honor and note the work of individuals and organizations in the Philadelphia area.
Jia Lee has been a New York City special education public school teacher for nineteen years and UFT chapter leader for twelve years. She is also a proud public school parent. Jia is a member of a caucus within the United Federation of Teachers called the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE). She organizes with other parents and educators in New York City and across the state to expose the harmful impact of high stakes standardized testing.
John Braxton is an Associate Professor of Biology at The Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), former co-president of The Faculty and Staff Federation union of CCP and a board member of Jobs With Justice and US Labor Against the War.
Dan is a high school history teacher at Science Leadership Academy in The School District of Philadelphia. He has been a member of The Caucus of Working Educators, a progressive group of rank and file members currently contesting the leadership of The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) union, for six years. Dan is acting treasurer for the caucus and believes that WE can create a stronger union focused around racial and social justice issues. Starting his activism in high school, Dan’s accomplishments include, eliminating class tracking, stopping school closures and winning fair funding for healthy school buildings. He hopes to be elected the new treasurer for the PFT under The Caucus of Working Educators in spring 2020.
Ismael Jimenez is a dedicated educator, who for the last thirteen years has worked with students in Philadelphia from preschool age to high school. After working as a secondary social studies teacher at Germantown High School until it was closed in 2013, Ismael then was appointed to Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School where he teaches primarily African American History. Along with teaching at the high school level, Ismael has facilitated several professional developments with colleagues in the school district and at postsecondary institutions like University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University and Princeton University on issues ranging from structural racism to bridging the knowledge gap of students between high school and postsecondary institutions. Also, he has taught a graduate educational research course at Villanova University and an undergraduate social studies methods course at LaSalle University. Currently, Ismael is co-chair of the Caucus of Working Educators, co-founder of the Philadelphia Black History Collaborative and the Melanated Educators Collective, while being an active participant in several other organizations that seek racial justice in education and across the city of Philadelphia. The philosophical orientation that guides Ismael’s teaching and activism is rooted in the theoretical educational framework developed by Paulo Freire which emphasizes the interconnected nature of education with participating in the transformation of the world.
Chris (he/him/his) was born and raised in Chester, PA and is now a Ph.D Candidate within the Reading/Writing/Literacy program at PennGSE. He is a core member of Teacher Action Group Philadelphia and Public Programs Director for the Paul Robeson House Museum. For the past two years, he served in a national capacity with The National Black Lives Matter Week of Action At School, supporting curriculum.
VanJessica Gladney has worked with the Penn & Slavery Project since its first semester. As an undergraduate researcher, she studied the slaveholding 18th Century trustees & faculty members, and the connections between slavery and Penn's original and current campuses. After graduating in 2018, she served as the Provost's Public History Fellow, presenting information about the project to members of the greater Philadelphia community. Over the summer of 2019, she assisted with the design of an Augmented Reality mobile application which will feature student work.Currently, she manages the project's website, speaks at campus events on behalf of the project, and is pursuing a PhD in Penn's History Department. Learn more about the Penn & Slavery Project here.
Devin William Daniels is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. His work examines 20th-century American literature and film from a perspective influenced by media theory, Marxist political economy, and critical data studies. He is currently serving as meeting coordinator for GET-UP (Graduate Employees Together at UPenn).
Audrey Jaquiss is a second-year Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania where she focuses on modern and contemporary political theory. Audrey is an internal communications coordinator for GET-UP (Graduate Employees Together at UPenn) and has been a proud member since 2018.
Kalela Williams is a writer, arts administrator, and historian living in Philadelphia. For more than seven years, she has directed artistic, cultural and civic-engagement programming at the Free Library of Philadelphia, afters serving as Assistant Director of James Madison University's Furious Flower Poetry Center, a center devoted to the study of black poetry. Her writing, which has been most recently been featured on a BBC 4 program as well as in Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature for Women, centers on stories rooted in African American history. Kalela leads African American history tours in Philadelphia, and she is a longtime member and current chair of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Young Friends Board. She is the founder of Black History Maven, a social media site and local events host.
Image from The Temple News
Adam DePaul is a Tribal Council Member of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, where he also holds the positions of Storykeeper and Coordinator of the Rising Nation River Journey. He co-curates the Lenape Cultural Center in Easton PA and the exhibit Existing Artistry, Enduring Presence: The Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania at Temple University. DePaul is a PhD candidate and instructor at Temple with a primary research area in Cultural and Mythological Studies, and the co-founder and president of NAISAT (Native American and Indigenous Studies at Temple).
Art Teacher
ESL Teacher
Sam Graduate Science Leadership Academy in 2018 and worked as the Finance Director for UrbEd. He currently attends Villanova University where he studies Chemical Engineering. When he is not busy with a number of academic enrichment and mentorship programs, Samuel can be found in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia getting coffee, showing interest in Japanese culture, or coding within his home.
“UrbEd is a for-students-by-students organization that advocates for students and families that are being deprived of a quality and efficient, urban education. We as a non-profit work directly with students, parents, teachers, school staff, policy-makers and organizations fighting for the same objective. We hope that students are able to be provided a quality and efficient urban education by 2026.”
State of Education Release; Leadership Opportunities - UE Advocates (Ambassador Program); School Presentations / Advocacy Trainings; Community Events; Civic Engagement Competitions
Tamir Harper, Founder and Executive Director. (267) 777-7065
Charlotte Serves as Executive Director at Girls Justice League and as the Associate Director for the Independent School Teaching Residency program (ISTR), where she coordinates and designs the day school strand of this residency-based collaborative teacher education program. Dr. Jacobs also teaches a course on adolescent development in the Urban Teaching Residency program at Penn GSE.
“The Girls Justice League (GJL) is a girls’ rights organization dedicated to taking action for social, political, educational, and economic justice with and for girls and young women. The League is a collective of young women and their allies working to build and reinforce a culture where girls are fully empowered and where gender, race and other disparities are identified and confronted in the systems which affect their futures. GJL uses multiple mediums to tell girls’ stories, disseminate research that accurately describes girls’ current realities and, social justice organizing toward a different future for all girls.”
The Institute; The Status Project; stories; dialogue; organizing; research
Charlotte Jacobs, Director. (857) 225-1191
Ricardo Calderón is Director of the Philadelphia Youth Commission, in the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office. He is a first-generation Latino-American who is the product of a loving, supportive, and empowering community. As one of the first in his family to graduate from a university, Calderón has spent over 10 years in service to community and youth development. As an advocate, educator, and mentor, Ricardo strives to inspire, motivate, and empower underrepresented and marginalized youth to discover their inner greatness.
Our mission is to “Give a voice to Philadelphia’s youth in advising key leadership in the city about policies, programs and actions that affect youth. Through this work, the Commission will be influential in ensuring that decisions that impact young people have been carefully considered and that the youth perspective is incorporated in the process. The Commission will work to bridge the gap between adults and youth, fostering a greater sense of unity, communication and partnership throughout the city...The Commission represents Philadelphia’s youth in public hearing and gives testimony that reflects the youth perspective. We work with the City, non-profits, community organizations, and private entities to develop strategies to improve the lives of Philadelphia’s youth. The Commission also advises the Mayor, City Council, Philadelphia Schools, and other key decision makers inside and outside of city government.”
Comment on legislation and policies that impact youth; create public service programs that improve the lives of youth; monitor and measure the effectiveness of youth programs and policies; partner with neighborhood youth organizations on shared issues; prepare youth for leadership roles
Ricardo Calderon, Director. (215) 686-2159
Monique / Mo Perry is a doctoral student in the Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education program at the Penn Graduate School of Education. Monique participated in the first iteration of Activism Beyond the Classroom, in Spring of 2017, while a master’s student in Education, Culture, and Society. Perry is also a trainer for the Penn LGBT Center and previously a graduate student assistant for the Alice Paul Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies.
She worked for several years as a community educator for Women Against Abuse providing professional development workshops and classes in the Philadelphia School District around teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, and healthy interpersonal relationships. Prior to WAA, she taught social justice service-learning as an AmeriCorps member in North Philadelphia. Before coming to Philadelphia, she worked as an English teaching assistant at the University of Michigan. She is a graduate from the College of Literature, Arts and Science at the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts. She studied a liberal arts curriculum with English and Political Science emphases.
Perry's research interests include gender, sexuality, critical pedagogy, mixed methodology, and intersectionality. Her goals include the expansion of research specifically surrounding school climate, child welfare, intimate violence, and adolescent relationship violence. Additionally goals include building relationships and organizing structures with community groups, local schools, and academia. Her professional goals include teaching and instruction, teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum design, community advocacy and organizing, educational policy work, educational research and doctoral study.
“Our mission is to actively challenge, resist and dismantle systems of oppression that adversely impact the Black and Brown worker. Thus, we push for the social and economic liberation of the Black and Brown worker...Our mission stands at the intersection of both the Worker's Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Workers’ Rights Advocacy; Community Building; Community Organizing; Community Consciousness Raising; Direct Action
Abdul-Aliy Muhammad
Shani Akilah
