Cierra Kaler-Jones, Ph.D. (she/her) is the first-ever Executive Director of Rethinking Schools, a non-profit publisher and advocacy organization dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism. She is currently on the leadership team of the Zinn Education Project and on the Steering Committee of Black Lives Matter at School. She previously served as the Director of Storytelling at Communities for Just Schools Fund. She promotes her heart's work through Unlock Your Story, an organization that supports women in leveraging storytelling for liberation, community-building, and social change. Cierra’s research broadly focuses on creating and sustaining educational spaces rooted in joy and love, while refuting control and management tactics in schools that deny young people opportunities for creativity and critical consciousness-building. Her dissertation explored how Black girls use arts-based practices (e.g. movement, music, and hair) as mechanisms for identity construction and resistance. Dr. Kaler-Jones’s writing is featured in academic journals such as Girlhood Studies, The Urban Review, Middle School Journal, and the Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity. Her work is in books including Strong Black Girls: Reclaiming Schools in Their Own Image and Black Girl Civics: Expanding and Navigating the Boundaries of Civic Engagement. In addition, she has been contracted to write papers commissioned by the federal government, the National Geographic Society education team, and USAID. Through her storytelling and education work, she’s worked with universities and colleges including the Pennsylvania State University, Louisiana State University, Rutgers University, and more; given over 300 talks and keynotes including TEDx, SXSW, SXSW EDU, and Council for Exceptional Children annual convening; and has led professional development workshops for schools, businesses, and organizations across the country. ​Over the past ten years, Cierra has learned alongside preschoolers, K-12 students, college students, and adults. With her roots in dance and arts education, Cierra has also taught U.S. history, public policy, and social change & leadership classes. Her heart’s work includes facilitating a program that uses art and political education to fuel social change through the co-creation of healing-centered spaces for and with Black girls and TGNC (transgender, non-conforming) young people.​