Cierra Kaler-Jones

Communities for Just Schools Fund Director of Storytelling

Cierra Kaler-Jones is a social justice educator, writer, scholar, and artist based in Washington, DC. In 2021, she received her Ph.D. from the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at University of Maryland – College Park studying minority and urban education. Through her research, she aims to highlight and amplify the brilliance of Black girls and how they use arts-based practices (i.e. movement, music, hair) as mechanisms for identity development and resistance. She was also an Education Anew Fellow with Communities for Just Schools Fund and Teaching for Change, in which she worked to help shift national narratives in education by centering youth, family, and educator organizers’ experiences and stories in education work. Her writing has been featured on Education Post, Nia Magazine, Midnight and Indigo, Medium, and on Ebony.com.

Press Clippings:

• When SEL is Used as Another Form of Policing
• Here’s a Baltimore Teacher who Champions Students Inside and Outside of the Classroom
• Here’s a Teacher Who Shows Teaching is a Profession of Love
• Students Inspired to Uncover and Teach the True History about Washington, D.C.
• High School Students’ Fight for School District Equity Fueled by a Classroom Unit on Gentrification