Bios:

Community Minded Educators

 Why the name Educare? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “education” is derived from the Latin roots, ‘educo’ and ‘educare’. Educare means “to rear or to bring up”. Educare itself can be traced to the Latin root words, “e” and “ducere”. Together, “e-ducere” means to “pull out” or “to lead forth”. We believe that the best way to educate children in any field is by using both ‘educare’ and ‘educere’ approaches. We use the term “educare” to communicate our teaching method through which children and adults are provided basic instruction and encouraged to “think” and “draw out” information from within.

Community Minded Educators mission as an educational consultancy that is dedicated to being culturally proactive in assisting high schools, colleges and universities, communities and non-profit organizations to build capacity to address institutional structural and systemic racial inequities. Our commitment is to assist institutions to assess, examine, interpret and improve relationships between people and communities with intersectional and sociocultural identities to develop aspirational cultural wealth and not deficit ideologies of stereotypes for future practitioners and learners for social justice collectivism.

Our vision is to develop and understand power, privilege and oppression to work effectively on the behalf of systemic and structural change through social and cultural capital building to promote coalition collectivism to move from cognitive dissonance, socialization, oppression and move to the understanding of liberation for all.

Our philosophy which is not utopic, is to develop equity and justice minded people that are race conscious and aware of social and historical context of exclusionary practices, and who are willing to engage in necessary brave conversations and decision-making that can lead to transformational change for all. Our programs are designed to raise awareness and consciousness as well as support and provide resources to assist individuals, groups and communities to strategically execute and sustain their work through transformative learning. Our methodology and pedagogy consist of a powerful combination of media, interactive activities and dialogue. Inclusion must be the active, intentional and ongoing engagement in the curriculum, co-curriculum, professional development and training, and in communities which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact.

BIO: Dr. Marcellus Davis

Dr. Marcellus Davis has spent over 20 years working towards racial educational equity in education (K-12 & Higher Education). He has held numerous positions through his educational career ranging from Urban Education amp; Human Relations Professor, Executive Director of a Charter School, Director of Achievement and Integration Equity and American Indian Education. His theoretical development is in the scholarship of Critical Race Theory (CRT), in particular CRT in education. His scholarship also includes racial identity development, in particular, Black identity development. Dr. Davis is an innovative educator who builds programs, and authors powerful testimonies on how students of color, in particular, African American/ Black students experience schools and how to resist White Supremacy as a Black student.

FULL BIO:https://consciouscampus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Dr.-Davis-2020-Bio.pdf

BIO:Alexander Hines

Alexander Hines served in the United State Air Force (USAF) as a non-commissioned officer for 15 years. After separating from the USAF, he earned a B.S. in Management Studies and a double minor in History and Psychology from the University of Maryland, University College, European Division, Heidelberg, Germany and a Masters of Education Degree in Counseling and Guidance Services from Clemson University with an emphasis in Student Affairs. Alexander has 28 years of experience in higher education in student and academic affairs working with traditional, non-traditional, first-generation, underserved and underrepresented high school and college students and their parents/caregivers. Being a first generation college student and African American man, his passions are African American/Black Identity development, and assisting underrepresented and underserved high school students with intersectional identities to gain access to higher education and helping them to become successful in pursuing their dreams of obtaining a postsecondary degree.

FULL BIO:https://consciouscampus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alexander-Hines-Bio-2020.pdf

BIO: Dr. Kenneth O. Turner Jr., Ed.S., Ed.D.

Dr. Turner is a co-founder of Community Minded Educators LLC. This consulting company is about bring attention to race and equality to the forefront of the education of African-American children. Dr. Turner has over 27 years in the education field and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the field of urban education. As a lecturer his primary focus will always be empowerment and inclusion within the urban communities and exposing those who are considered privileged to the cultural diversities and understanding within the broken education system

FULL BIO:https://consciouscampus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Kenneth-O.-Turner-Jr.-Bio-2020.pdf

BIO: Richard Webb

Richard Webb has worked in different capacities training and facilitating experiences that support successful racial and multicultural inclusiveness within diverse environments. He has worked in educational, corporate and nonprofit institutions as an innovator, bridge builder, voice and practitioner. He uses developmental approaches that yield demonstrated behavioral outcomes for individuals and organizations that are goal driven and multicultural/racial proactive and responsive.  Richard as an administrator, instructor, coach, trainer, and consultant, has a gift in focusing on the strengths of his clients and communicates how their set of unique qualities contribute to leadership development and management performance. He is known for his expertise and strategic use of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) in leadership development of individuals and teams, as well as in enhancing organizations’ Diversity and Inclusion strategies. Richard received his Bachelor of Arts in General Studies with an emphasis in Ethnic Studies from the University of Northern Iowa and Masters of Arts in Education with emphasis in Leadership from Augsburg College.

FULL BIO:https://consciouscampus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Richard-Webb-Bio-1.pdf

Programs and Workshops:

Everybody Wanna Be Ni$$a, But Nobody Wanna Be a Ni$$er:

The Mis-Education of Ni$$er and the Historical Understanding of the Evolution of Ni$$er #StillNi$$a!

Ni$$er/Ni$$a is the most pejorative, exploited, offensive, socially acceptable and capitalistic word in the history of the world specifically as it pertains to the misconception of the word being Black/African/African American culture. We will examine and critique its history, present day usage, its global popularity and the future of Ni$$er/Ni$$a, and learn how to use the word as an educational, awareness and consciousness training tool. This workshop will contain extremely sensitive language and engage in understanding the problem, cause, barriers and engaging in discourse to find a collective movement focused on resolving a term created out of White Supremacy to instill inferiority plaguing our public schools, college campuses, communities, and African/African American culture and society.

Is it Diversity, Inclusion, Multiculturalism, Interculturalism or Pluralism?

Reframing our Language for the Shifting Demographics of Our Nation

Now, in order to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. This interactive workshop will explore deficit language and ideologies of social constructionism in reframing the resistance of building a pluralistic society to deconstruct the fear of those being challenged by the concepts of institutional, systemic, and structural racism.

Combating the Matrix: A Survival Guide for Professionals and Students of Color to Survive in Predominantly White Ideology Institutions and School Systems

This presentation has been designed through the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory, in particular the color-blind ideology and interest convergence and how double consciousness and nihilism impact equity. Don’t get it twisted, “Race Matters” in education where the White ideological framework is dominant. Many institutions and educational institutions nation-wide have written checks to professionals and students of color only to be checks that have insufficient funds in regards to providing the most equitable learning and work experience possible for all. This presentation promises to provide the audience with tangible skills to survive in some of the most hostile work environments where inequities, micro-invalidations, micro-assaults and micro-aggressions exist on a daily basis in institutions and claims it is not about race but poverty. Institutions are infested with token people of color and racist white people that place the blame on others instead of critically examining themselves and policies that uphold Whiteness.

Building Diversity and Cultural Competence a Pathway toward Inclusivity:  Preparing Future Teachers for Cultural Competence and Culturally Responsive Teaching to Deliver Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the Classroom

This workshop will provide participants with ideas to create courses, workshops or continuing education courses that address diversity and cultural competence from an academically cognitive approach and a psychosocial theoretical development ideology to not only enhance the skill set of students but also for the professional development of student affairs practitioners to enhance their core competencies in multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills.

Hoodwinked & Bamboozled: Examining Black Male Identity Development through the Lens of Historical and Media Constructs or From Socialization to Liberation: Examining Males of Color Identity Development through the Lens of Social and Media Constructs

This interactive workshop will engage the audience in a dialogue of how young African/African American Males are stereotyped by historical, social and media constructs in their identity development during their P-12 school years, their arrival on college campuses and life in general. The Black Identity Model will be addressed as well as anecdotal information in conjunction with observations from professionals in P-12 and higher education and the realities that we face in dealing with the effects of lowered expectations and diminished opportunities of these talented young men. It is imperative that we re-examine our work with African/African American males in that their humanity is defined by the development of knowledge, therefore it is critically necessary for each generation to learn who and what they are. Know Thy Self!

It Ain’t Covid-19, But It’s just as Deadly: The Negative Effects of White Privilege on People of Color

Breaking News: there is a national race pandemic affecting the world more deadly than COVID-19. The disease is called White Supremacy and White Privilege, an offspring of racism that continues to infest our society. This workshop will engage the audience in a courageous conversation on White Supremacy and White Privilege from a disease perspective and the psychological and physiological effects on indigenous and people of color with intersectional identities which has been parented by institutional, structural and systemic racism. This workshop discussion will focus on how this disease also affects self-image, self-esteem, self-confidence and physical and psychological racial battle fatigue in institutions that impact work performance. We will explore the manifestations of racial inequities and social injustices and how they have had long lasting repercussions and consequences on community members of color and engage participants to become accomplices and change agents so that those resistors and detractors of this unjust systems are encouraged to participate in the change we all want to see and be for humanity’s sake.

The Illusion of Inclusion is Causing Mass Confusion at Predominately White Institutions

Institutions have for years practiced intentional felonious deceitful marketing campaigns creating imagery that creates pluralistic campuses to recruit  students, faculty’s, and administrators of color that have not been accurate in their deprecations. The lack of institutional commitment from the top down to take progressive corrective actions to building culturally diverse and responsive campuses.

This workshop will focus on how white privilege has created a divisiveness amongst ethnic groups within higher education, look at sociohistorical factors that has created this illusion of inclusion and learn strategies to combat illusion that will be benefit our educational systems. This workshop will also focus on developing strategic questioning to propose to your campus to address what a socially just and equitable campus looks like to address campus climate issue for a sense of belonging and well-being.

The Keys to the Game of Life

Community Minded Educators started this workshop presentation in 2009 specifically for high school students of color to provide tangible skills for their tool box to aid in building a bridge over the achievement gulp and address the education debt owed to young people. The keys are designed for the individual to build a foundation and continue to scaffold the keys to build a house with the necessary tools and skills. After presenting at conferences we became cognizant that some adults and specifically adults of color saw this as a professional development opportunity. The road to personal self-discovery will provide obstacles and challenges to overcome dealing with who you are and understanding your own identity.

Reframing the Resistance to Diversity: Building a Pathway towards Inclusivity, Equity and Justice in Education

This presentation will focus on the history of diversity and higher education to demonstrate the successes, and highlight the need for further advancement and movement to include diversity within all stratifications of education versus an outsider looking in or add on. This presentation will argue that diversity education is not second to discrimination compliance, rather, both diversity education and compliance need to be present in education and one should not impede the progress of the other, nor is one more important than the other. Advancing equity and social justice requires that we address multiple dimensions of diversity that correspond with varying forms of bias and injustice, and none of these exist in isolation.

From Socialization to Liberation: Examining Males of Color Identity Development through the Lens of Social and Media Constructs

This interactive workshop will engage the audience in a dialogue of how young men of color, specifically African American males are stereotyped by social and media constructs in their identity development during their P-12 school years, their arrival on college campuses and life in general. Empirical research on male and ethnic identity development theories will be addressed as well as anecdotal information in conjunction with observations from professionals in P-12 and higher education and the realities that we face in dealing with the effects of lowered expectations and diminished opportunities of these talented young men.  It is imperative that we re-examine our work with males of color in that their humanity is defined by the development of knowledge, therefore it is critically necessary for each generation to learn who and what they are. Know Thy Self!

Black Lives Matter: Addressing Injustices and Inequities on Many Fronts

Join us for a conversation on Black Lives Matter and its connection to various movements in America’s History. Yes all lives matter but….it seems to be as though America is saying black lives matter less than another socially constructed race. The movement is not just about police brutality against blacks but about addressing injustices and inequities on many fronts.

Professional Development for Teachers, Non-Profit Educators and Administrators

Racial Equity Workshop Series

Part 1

This first workshop in the series of this training/professional development is designed to develop the capacity of participants to better understand racism in its institutional and structural forms. Topics covered will focus on the understanding of structural racism, implicit bias, and race in America and how this legacy has impacted not only economics and policy. Develop an understanding of how racial identity has been shaped and how those interactions have clashed with the institutional culture. Participants will leave with a better understanding of how to work for change.

Part 2

The second workshop is designed to continue the racial equity framework and the key concepts of race, racism and structural oppression on people. Participants get a better understanding of internalized oppression, inferiority vs. superiority, and how those feelings playout in society. Participants will start to view and develop the understanding of four parts of a problem. The five phases are: 1. Problem; 2. Cause and Barriers of the problem; 3. Solution to the problem; 4. Solution Implementation to the problem for systemic change; and 5. Solution Evaluation. This will help participants focus on a clear and common goal and vision for racial equity.

Part 3

The last part in this series there is where the school, college/university and non-profit institution use the tool presented in part 1 and part 2 of the training to develop a strategic equity plan. CME works with the organization to assist with a deeper analysis for structural, systemic and institutional change, and work on specific goals and action plans. Additional support will be given within this stage to help those organizations look at changes to their policies and practices.

Black Identity Development

This training will explore from an historical perspective how Black identity was shaped from the different countries within Africa to the development of identity of Black people from 1619 to the present. Participants will learn how systematic racism and oppression have created disparities within the Black community and have spread throughout to cause an imbalance in education, wealth, homeownership and life expectancy. CME will use Dr. William Cross’s racial identity development model so that participants learn the different levels of racial identity and how these different levels can be supported within an organization.

NOTE: Workshops and Presentations can be designed to meet the specific needs of institutions and organizations requesting our service.

Additional Services: Leadership Retreats; Welcome Weeks; Cocurricular Program Evaluations; First Year Experience Curricular Design; and Civil Rights Research and Immersion Travel Consultation