This dynamic professional learning opportunity supports fellows in the design and implementation of individual projects that work to urgently disrupt pressing educational inequities in North Carolina. While remaining in their educational field or profession, fellows will receive ongoing mentorship and support to design and carry out their projects.

2023-2024 Equity Fellows

Anitra Cook - School Leader Fellow

Anitra Cook has worked as an assistant principal for Pitt County Schools for the last 5 years. She is a graduate of East Carolina University, earning her B.A. and M.A. in English as well as a Masters in Library Science. She earned her school administrator licensure from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has taught middle school ELA and Social Studies and has served as an elementary school librarian before entering school administration.

Anitra is very active in school leadership and advocacy. She has been a part of NEH Summer Institutes, Pitt County Teacher Executive Institute, C-Span Educator Institute, NCSLMA's Emerging Leaders and NCPAPA’s Future Ready Leaders. She was the Pitt County Schools Media Coordinator of the Year in 2018.

She works to develop community partnerships to create exposure opportunities for the students that she serves. This year, she has a collaborative partnership with ECU medical students to offer a Physiocamp program to students grades 3-5 as a way to introduce them to early EMT skills, vocabulary, and hands-on learning opportunities.

Anitra is committed to developing rich connections and providing equitable access to her students. She has a vested interest in the future of her students and our world. One of her primary goals is to create opportunities for students that integrate technology, literacy, and interdisciplinary real-world application while developing teacher leaders who can grow learners and build self-capacity.

Laurie J. Carr - District Fellow

Laurie J. Carr was hired as the Chief of Schools and Achievement in Orange County Schools in 2022. Prior to joining the OCS team, she served as a School Support Officer (the equivalent of an Area Superintendent) in Guilford County Schools and as a School/District Transformation Coach with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, where she worked with leadership teams to guide and support the state’s lowest-performing schools and districts toward improvement.

Laurie has a diverse educational background. She began her career in education through Teach For America, serving vastly under-resourced schools as an English teacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for 5 years before moving to Switzerland, where she taught primary, ESL, and IB English courses at a boarding school. After another year serving as a lead teacher at a middle school in Colorado, she moved into school administration in Boston, Massachusetts.

A lifelong learner, Laurie has been awarded multiple fellowships over the years, including a Fulbright-Hays fellowship in Australia, an early childhood Schott fellowship, and a T.E.A.C.H. fellowship. She was recently invited to become a member of the LeveragEd Foundation’s Collective, a national convening of educational thought-leaders centered in values-aligned work in order to push each other’s thinking and leverage each other's strengths in order to change practice and improve outcomes for children.

After education, her secondary love is travel and adventure. Laurie’s visited five continents and over 30 countries; she believes in being a citizen of the world and learning as much as she can from people and cultures unlike her own so that she can continue to strengthen her allyship and hone her equity lens in order to change outcomes for all children.

Dr. Mark Maxwell - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow

Dr. Mark Maxwell, PhD is passionate about equitable access for children in education. Currently, the Lead Equity Coach with the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools, the role gives the opportunity to use researched-based strategies to improve the outcomes for children while educating the district’s stakeholders about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Prior to the current position, Mark spent seven years in the classroom as a teacher of African American Studies, American History and World History. In 2014, Mark earned a PhD in Public Policy and Law from Walden University with a dissertation focused on the impact of North Carolina’s second parent adoption policy on same-sex couples with children adopted from North Carolina’s foster care system. The study was published in the Journal of Health of Human Services.

Five young men call Mark dad. All were adopted from foster care. In recent years, Mark has served on the board of Fostering Perspectives, written articles for the publication and worked closely with Freedom to Marry and the Campaign for Southern Equality in their efforts to gain marriage equality in the United States.

A lifelong learner, Mark served as a realtor for 15 years before becoming an educator. Before that, roles included being a television anchor/reporter. Each professional and academic background have prepared Mark to be a diligent, student focused, and equitable leader with the goal of dismantling historic and institutional barriers for all children. Mark enjoys traveling the world and is a painter inspired by travels and lived experiences. Mark’s artwork is regularly exhibited and can be seen here.

Kayla J. Baker - Higher Education Fellow

Kayla J. Baker is a native of Baltimore, Maryland who works as a diversity program manager at a physics non-profit organization that works to increase equity, diversity, and inclusion in the sciences. Additionally, Kayla enjoys developing and teaching courses that center the social construction of race, the exploration of social identities, and leadership.

Previously, she served as a higher education administrator, working in various departments such as student engagement, diversity and inclusion, campus activities, leadership development, undergraduate research, assessment, student success, and academic advising.

Kayla earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from North Carolina A&T State University where she was very involved in student government and other campus activities, became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and discovered her passion for mentoring college students. To begin a career in student affairs, Kayla went on to earn her Master of Education in Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). During her time at UNCG, she began co-teaching college courses and discovered her skill in facilitating conversations around DEI concepts.

Kayla recently completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational Studies with a concentration in Cultural Foundations (UNCG). Her research interests are campus climate, Black student experiences, and race-based digital campus spaces on social media platforms. Her dissertation research specifically looked at the experiences of Black undergraduate students at historically white institutions who participate in same-race peer groups on social media. She has presented at local, regional, and national conferences including topics that range from understanding racial identity affirming spaces, Black women as social change agents, how race impacts educational experiences, and enhancing campus climates for diversity.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling, mentoring high school and college students, teaching dance classes, and building her brand, Artistic Intellectual. Through Artistic Intellectual, Kayla combines her creative and scholarly efforts to display her research through dance and other artistic modes.

Shericka Usher - Educator Fellow

Shericka Usher is a passionate and invested educator with over 8 years of diverse experience in teaching, advising, and developing students in under-resourced educational settings. Ms. Usher’s passion for education grew out of her own childhood experiences. Growing up in urban Atlanta, she experienced first hand the educational obstacles and opportunities unique to children living in underserved areas: inequitable access to high quality public schools, and racism when she was bused more than an hour from home to a different community. On the other hand, she also experienced a few educators who truly showed up, invested in her, and changed the trajectory of her life. Ms. Usher thanks these educators for seeing not only the need, but the potential in her and her classmates, and she attributes much of her success in life to their sacrificial investment.

Shericka became the first member of her immediate family to earn a college degree with a BA in Sociology from Salem College. She then earned her M.Ed in Urban Education from UNC-Charlotte. Ms. Usher is proud to step into the role that many educators played in her life, as she sees the tremendous need in many urban educational settings, while also seeing the beautiful potential in the students inhabiting those classrooms.

Shericka’s passion is student development and she is committed to creating pathways for Black and brown students to have the necessary tools to flourish in their academic, career, and unique personal potential. Ms. Usher is determined to use her skills and experience to help create a more inclusive and empowering environment for the next generation.

Ja’Quez Taylor - School Board Fellow

Ja’Quez Taylor is a transformational leader and a passionate advocate for education and student success. He understands the role of improving educational equity, preparing life-long learners for success, and providing students in urban schools an equitable opportunity for their college and career journey.

Ja’Quez holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in African American History from North Carolina A&T State University. He is currently a candidate for his second masters in curriculum and instruction. Ja’Quez started his career as a CEO/Director of Tutoring Education Services and School Partnerships for a successful tutoring organization he founded in Thomasville, NC. He also taught elementary education in Dallas, TX, and Greensboro, NC where he then moved on to serve as an Impact Manager/Coach for an education non-profit that supported students and schools with full-time, near-peer interventionist, and mentors in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Ja'Quez has served in various roles such as Director of Elementary Programs, Program Director, as well as K-12 Education Consultant. He is currently serving as an Assistant Director of TRIO Upward Bound at North Carolina Central University. He was most recently elected for a 4-year term for Thomasville City Schools Board of Education, a historical moment for Thomasville as this is the first time in history where the citizens elected their first school board members.

Ja'Quez was honored and nominated as one of South Florida’s Top Black Educators in 2021-2022. A native of Thomasville, by way of Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. When he is not traveling enjoying his friends, Ja’Quez enjoys reading, research, shopping and putting clothing pieces together for style.

Aprille' Morris-Butler - Media Fellow

Aprille' Morris-Butler is a mother, educator, journalist, consultant and culture critic. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Animal & Poultry Science from Tuskegee University, and is currently pursuing a Master of Communication from Wake Forest University. She became a teacher in 2019 as a Teach for America corps member in Charlotte, NC, after witnessing the ways in which the school system systematically disenfranchises Black & Brown students during her son's first years of school.

Her experience opened Aprille's eyes to the ways in which lack of equity affects all areas of our lives. Specifically, listening to the ways her students described the media they read, watched and listened to made it clear that there are few Black & Brown reviewers covering popular media. Students often expressed discontent with how storylines played out--claiming that they didn’t make sense from their point of view. After watching some of the shows they complained about, Aprille’ realized that the primary issue appeared to be a lack of diversity in writer’s rooms and in journalists who wrote about what they consumed. This inspired her to begin a career in media review, through the lenses of BIPOC individuals.

Aprille’ joined the team at OffColour–a digital publication committed to uplifting marginalized voices in media review–in 2020 as a staff writer, and quickly worked her way up to assistant editor before being appointed Head of Editorial in 2022. Under her leadership, OffColour has expanded its reach, adding staff writers and editors, and developed a podcast, with more in development. Aprille also helped fine-tune OffColour’s vision, ensuring that it has become the go-to publication for reviews by and for BIPOC individuals.

Aprille’ has become a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic, a member of the African American Film Critics Association, and has been invited to several prestigious film festivals, including Sundance. With an eye on exploring the ways in which media influences our reality, Aprille’ writes pieces that challenge creators to be more inclusive, express more care in their handling of sensitive material, and open the doors to reviewers of color around the world. Aprille’ understands that the written word is one of the most powerful tools in the fight for racial equity, and is determined to use it in ways that truly impact the environment our students live and learn in.

2022-2023 Equity Fellows

Kumar Sathy - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow

Kumar Sathy is an educator, award-winning author, speaker, and professional development presenter. He joined the teaching profession in 2002 as a Teach for America teacher in Atlanta, GA. He is a licensed North Carolina educator with a K-12 Principal’s License, an undergraduate degree in Biopsychology from Earlham College, and a Masters Degree in School Administration from UNC Chapel Hill.

Kumar has consistently delivered his unique brand of high expectations and inclusive instruction to public, private, Title 1, and international schools. He has been selected to speak at several conferences, workshops, panels, events, and news outlets in regards to equitable practices in his classroom, school, and community. Kumar is not afraid to talk to his students about important topics like race and gender, and he offers support for his colleagues to implement this practice in their respective classrooms. Inspired by the work of Reshma Saujani, he considers himself to be a Brave Not Perfect educator and he encourages his students to be Brave Not Perfect as well.

His commitment to social justice in education started with complaints he registered with his local newspaper and superintendent when he was a high school student in rural West Virginia, where his school flag was the Confederate Flag.

In college, he volunteered in village night schools serving railway and low-caste communities in Thailand and India. He engages in educational equity work because he believes all students should receive the premium education that only some students currently have the opportunity to receive. Kumar realizes how different his life trajectory would have been had he been lucky enough to receive the premium K-12 education that he has since offered to his own students in classrooms in the US and abroad.

He is currently the Equity Facilitator for Orange County Schools in Hillsborough, NC, where he is a fierce co-conspirator in the effort to dismantle educational oppression.

Esther Mateo Orr - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow

Esther Mateo Orr grew up in a small milltown in Massachusetts and experienced a tight-knit community with educators who advocated for all students and provided challenging instruction. She received a BA in American Studies from Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA, and pursued a Master Of Science in Elementary Education, from Alfred University, Alfred, NY.

Esther desires similar outcomes for all underserved students, and believes a supportive school community free of oppressive barriers to learning is the catalyst to better outcomes for Black and brown students. She taught in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools for 16.5 years and in recent years has worked as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Specialist for the very same district.

As a life-long educator, Ms. Mateo-Orr is passionate about, and dedicated to equalizing the playing field for our most underserved, and marginalized populations.

Courtney Higgins - Educator Fellow

Courtney Higgins, daughter of Sammie and Dorothy Higgins, is a New Bern, NC native, School Counselor, College Professor, and Curriculum Writer that's passionate about creating opportunities for underprivileged and underserved students so they are able to overcome disadvantages and find success.

She has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics Education from Fayetteville State University, Master's Degree in School Counseling from Liberty University, Graduate certificate in Student Affairs and Higher Education, and currently pursuing her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Student Affairs and Higher Education, her studies are primarily focused on educational equity and college access for Black and Latinx students.

With prior experience as a Mathematics educator at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in rural Eastern North Carolina, she was recognized as being in the top 25% of the state for her EOG and EOC scores. Higgins enjoys assisting students with their social-emotional, academic, and career development by taking a holistic approach.

Cheri Fennell - Educator Fellow

Cheri Fennell is a public school educator with Durham Public Schools. She is a summa cum laude alumna of North Carolina Central University where she majored in Mathematics and Computer Science. Shortly after her undergraduate studies, she began her teaching career before returning to graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pursue her M.Ed. in Math Education.

Cheri has over 17 years of teaching experience at the middle and high school levels. Cheri has held several teacher leadership roles, currently serving as Equity Champion at the school level. Cheri is a lifelong learner and continues to expand her knowledge and skills through professional development opportunities including multiple trainings with the National Equity Project.

Cheri is committed to developing and strengthening problem-solving skills in her students. She is passionate about building relationships with students and helping them reach their full potential by incorporating metacognitive processes and growth mindset strategies in her classes. Cheri strives to create a liberatory learning environment promoting a safe healing space in her work.

Sabreen Mutawally - School Leader Fellow

Dr. Sabreen Mutawally, better known as ‘Dr. SaM’, has dedicated her entire professional and personal life to serving others, especially children. Dr. Mutawally holds a Bachelor of Arts in Health and Physical Education from Hampton University, a Master of Science in Adapted Physical Education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and more recently, has earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Education with an emphasis in Leadership, Policy and Change from Walden University.

As a sought-after instructional and curriculum coach, agent of social change, and advocate for children, Dr. Mutawally continuously seeks to ensure that education amongst the minority population receives heightened awareness. Her vast knowledge of instructional strategies, especially in the area of minority male students, has resulted in her presenting at various conferences throughout the United States, including the Thomasville City Schools Teacher-Lead Conference, the United States Parole Commission Black History Month Program, the North Carolina New Schools Summer Institute, SREB Making Schools Work Conference, and the College Board A Dream Deferred Conference, just to name a few.

Dr. Mutawally currently serves as an Assistant Principals at Walter Hines Page High School. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Her personal and professional tenure include Teacher of the Year in 2010 and 2013,Black Business Ink Magazine 40 Most Influential African Americans in the Triad Under 40, and Hampton University Forty Under 40 Honor Society, among others.

Outside of academia, Dr. Mutawally is a collaborative author of ‘Next in Line to Lead: The Voice of the Assistant Principal’, an Amazon best-seller. Dr. Mutawally developed ‘Think Tank Thursdays’ for the purpose of educating her high-school and collegiate students in various areas including finances, mental wellness, professionalism/ career, and much more. However, one of her greatest joys is serving as a mentor to pre-service and new, especially, minority teachers. She currently serves as the Vice-Chancellor of the Sister Circle University, a subsection of Sister Circle, Inc., a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization that thrives on respect, value, and honor to nurture women’s God-given gifts to the world.

Kimberly Crutcher - District Fellow

Dr. Kimberley Crutcher has over 10 years of experience in the field of education. Dr. Crutcher commits her work to improving student outcomes by implementing innovative, research-based strategies and practices in her classroom and the school communities she serves.

Dr. Crutcher delights in building educators' capacities through sharing research-based strategies and practices that are both effective and practical. Dr. Crutcher's research interests are: organizational change, school culture, and educational equity.

Alvin C. Jacobs Jr. - Media Fellow

Alvin C. Jacobs Jr. is a transplant to the Queen City of Charlotte who honed his craft on the front lines of America's social justice movements. He has since emerged as a premier photographer and photo-documentarian. His distinctive aesthetic is marked by a propensity toward highlighting stark contrast and in dealing in the black & white - both in photography and in the world. This talent for capturing the heart of his subjects on camera has led to him being named one of Charlotte Magazine's "Charlotteans of the Year" and Creative Loafing's "Best Photographer." Welcome to Brookhill also received top honors by Creative Loafing readers as "Best Exhibit" An inaugural Leading on Opportunity Champion he also became the Gantt Center's Artist in Residence.

Jacobs specializes in social documentary and professional sports, portrait, editorial, and fashion photography. He has been commissioned by the NFL, NBA, and NASCAR and has been interviewed by CNN, HLN, Fox News and various local media outlets. Jacobs' work has been displayed in a Black History Month exhibit for Clifford Chance, LLP in New York and formerly a featured artist in the co-curated exhibition K(no)w Justice, K(no)w Peace at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte and at Davidson College in the photography exhibit Three Steps Back: A Call To Action.

Prior to shooting the award-winning photography exhibit as part of the Harvey B Gantt Center's permanent collection Welcome to Brookhill, Jacobs was commissioned to photograph multiple record-breaking dates for Jay Z's 4:44 Tour. An Artist in Residence at the Van Goh Immersive Experience and featured artist in Local Street 2021 and 2022, he continues to use photography as a means of image activism and creative expression.

Eduardo Haynes - Board Fellow

Dr. Eduardo Haynes has a rich history of over 25 years in financial services with IBM, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Edward Jones, and over 17 years in higher education with affiliations with several Universities as a professor. Haynes also serves as Managing Director at Well Appointed Group, which specializes in Education and Design Consulting.

Active in the community, Haynes is the current VP of Future Leader Development for the National Black MBA Association, Vice Chair for Pine Lake Preparatory Academy Board of Directors, past Board Chair of Project One Scholarship Fund & the Mooresville Community Alliance, and was a member of the Mooresville Graded School District Business Advisory Council & the United Way of Lake Norman. He has also served on the Big Brothers Big Sisters Leadership Council and Impact Fund for the Foundation for the Carolinas.

2021 - 2022 Equity Fellows