EP. 23 The Power in Stories w/ Kamilah Drummond-Forrester

I'm so excited to have an amazing guest join me for this episode. Her name is Kamilah Drummond-Forrester. Kamilah is currently a Social and Emotional Learning Consultant and a Racial and Social Justice Facilitator at The National SEED Project. She is the former director of Open Circle, a program with the Wellesley centers for women at Wellesley College. 

Kamilah's passion for social justice and the social and emotional well-being of children has fueled her vision for advocating for and educating others about the inextricable connections between social and emotional learning and equity. Kamilah is also a trained leader with the National seed project, where she has led cohorts of colleagues, educators, and parents through a year-long, intense community building across difference via storytelling conversation, and teaching around topics of diversity, equity, and social justice. Prior to joining Open Circle, Kamilah was the co-founder and director of wellness at a charter school in Boston and the director of an award-winning educationally-based re-entry program in the Suffolk County House of Corrections. 

Kamilah is a sought-after speaker, consultant, and workshop presenter on topics of educational equity and social and emotional learning. She writes about these topics and women change worlds blog and recently published articles in EdSurge and the Hechinger Report, Kamilah ground herself and works in the spiritual and contemplate of practices that integrate multiple cosmologies that center healing, radical compassion, and truth as cornerstones to authentic transformation. Kamilah is a first-generation American with Jamaican roots with an unwavering love for her West Indian heritage and history. She is a mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. 

Listen in as we discuss how our stories define us and affect our well-being, our relationships, our present, and our future. We cannot choose our family stories any more than we can choose our ancestors but we can harness light and power from the experiences of our lives to become our best selves.

GUEST INFO —

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamilah-drummond-forrester-71595a1b/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/kamilah.drummond.16

Twitter - https://twitter.com/kamilahdrummon1?lang=en

LET’S GET SOCIAL —

Linked in - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tia-navelene-barnes-ab262576/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/drtianbarnes

Website - https://www.drtiabarnes.com/

MORE ABOUT DR. BARNES —

Dr. Tia N. Barnes is an education researcher with a passion for improving social/emotional outcomes for culturally diverse students and those with emotional and behavioral disorders. Her research focuses on the social-emotional well-being of minoritized populations. To study this she focuses on the areas of social-emotional learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, and special education. Her research has been published in Prevention Science, International Journal of Educational Research, Aggression and Violent Behavior, Infant and Child Development, Journal of School Violence, and Developmental Review.