Amber Bradley, Ed.D. Email & Phone Number

My mission is to help school districts find a path to create safe learning environments that are nurtured by educators. I want to share the stories of community members and educational leaders redirecting funds from law enforcement to programs that meant students graduated with hope for the future rather than a criminal record. By the time I was a student in high school, I was keenly aware of the negative effect of having law enforcement officers on school campuses. After earning my teaching credential, I began teaching in a school committed to modeling restorative justice for its students. My principal facilitated my receiving training and then launching a program that moved behavior management from punishment to an educational model. Students thrived in an environment where classrooms became communities, conflict was resolved through conversation, and suspensions were replaced with opportunities to participate in the restorative justice process.After teaching for several years, I decided to take on the challenge of earning an Ed.D. while continuing to teach full-time. As a graduate student, I studied other districts committed to integrating restorative justice into their schools. I tracked the processes and challenges they faced moving away from law enforcement and toward community-based models to ensure a positive learning environment and campus safety.The research for my dissertation focused on three communities facing the challenge of moving away from an educational model that included campus policing. These communities embraced abolitionist research showing that eliminating police from campuses decreases on-campus violence. Each group struggled to gain support to relocate funds previously used for campus policing to fund counselors, social workers, nurses, and teacher training.I currently share my passion and strategies for creating community-based education reforms in workshops and presentations. The book based on my dissertation is in progress.