Cierra Kaler-Jones

Cierra Kaler-Jones is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at University of Maryland - College Park studying minority and urban education. Her research focuses on how Black girls use arts-based practices, such as movement, music, and dress, as forms of expression, resistance, and identity development. As a dance teacher for over seven years, Cierra runs a community-based program, which uses culturally affirming arts-based curriculum as a strategy to teach issues of leadership, goal setting, mental/emotional/physical health and wellness, and social justice. She currently serves as the Education Anew Fellow with Communities for Just Schools Fund and Teaching for Change in Washington, D.C., where she works to bring together organizers and educators across the country for the purpose of aligning strategies to advance liberatory education and fight for racial equity in schools.