Principal Investigator and Convener
Chezare A. Warren
Associate Professor of Education Policy, Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations;
Associate Professor of Teaching & Learning (Secondary); Department of Teaching and Learning
Chezare A. Warren, Ph.D., is a scholar of race and intersectional justice whose research interests center on understanding the conditions that enable Black students’ education success and wellbeing. A former secondary math teacher and school administrator from Chicago, Dr. Warren is principal investigator of THE POSSIBILITIES PROJECT, an “arts-informed knowledge hub” that generates original research in Black Education.
Graduate Students
De’Ja E. Wood
Doctoral Candidate
De’Ja Wood is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University, Peabody College. Before her doctoral studies, De’Ja served as a college adviser in Atlanta Public Schools through Georgia College Advising Corps.
Taydi O. Ray, M.S., CCC-SLP
Doctoral Student
Taydi O. Ray is a bilingual speech-language pathologist and doctoral student in early childhood special education. She is interested in early language development and intervention (birth to three) with Black and Latino children and their families. She aims to use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods to develop language interventions that are effective, accessible, and culturally congruent.
Savannah Morgan
Doctoral Student
Savannah Morgan, M.S., is a second-year doctoral student in the Clinical Science program. Her research focuses broadly on community- and school-based prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing youth violence and suicide, with a particular emphasis on marginalized populations. Her work seeks to identify developmental, social, and contextual mechanisms that link experiences of violence, whether as a victim, perpetrator, or witness, to suicide risk, with the goal of informing more effective prevention and intervention strategies.
Jahna Riley
Master's Student
Jahna Riley (she/her) is a master’s student in the Community Development and Action (CDA) program at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. As a third-generation educator, she draws on her professional experiences in schools and nonprofit organizations to inform her research on community-led social change. Her areas of inquiry include Black education, Black feminist thought, the Black Radical Tradition, and Black geographies. Through these lenses, she explores how race, gender, and place shape the ways Black communities navigate, create, and transform educational institutions.
Collaborators
Krista Mehari
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College
Krista Mehari, Ph.D., is a community-based researcher who studies youth violence prevention by collaborating with schools, police departments, local businesses, and organizations to understand factors that catalyze youth violence and to develop violence prevention programs and strategies.
Dorinda Carter Andrews
Professor of Race, Culture and Educational Equity, Michigan State University
Dorinda Carter Andrews is a former industrial engineer, high school math teacher and kindergarten teacher and has teaching experience in suburban, urban, charter and independent schools. Her research is broadly focused on Black education and racial equity and justice in P-20 learning environments. Carter Andrews utilizes critical racial and Black feminist/womanist frameworks and methodologies
Bryan Beverly
Director, Office of K-12 Outreach, Michigan State University
Bryan Beverly is a lifelong Michigan resident, and takes pride in the quality of education he received in public schools and is passionate about providing similar impactful experiences with students in today's schools. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Policy from Michigan State University, is an alum and co-coordinator of Michigan's Educational Policy Fellowship Program and is a former member of the Lansing Board of Education.
Kenneth Frank
Research Foundation Distinguished Professor, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, College of Education, Michigan State University
Kenneth Frank received his Ph.D. in measurement, evaluation and statistical analysis from the School of Education at the University of Chicago in 1993. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and MSU Foundation professor of Sociometrics, professor in Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education; and adjunct (by courtesy) in Fisheries and Wildlife and Sociology at Michigan State University.
Alum
Carla P. Wellborn
Research Associate
Carla P. Wellborn, Ph.D., is a graduate in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include black families, school choice, and school reform.
Nana Addo Padi-Adjirackor
Research Associate
Nana Addo Padi-Adjirackor specializes in applying causal inference and advanced analytics to real-world healthcare data to inform strategy, policy, and care delivery. His work focuses on leveraging large-scale administrative datasets, such as Medicaid, to evaluate how digital infrastructure, insurance design, and care delivery models affect healthcare utilization, costs, and disparities.
