“At a time when our society is questioning who we are and who we want to be, pilotED's Identity Fellowship is providing the resources, support, and context for a diverse group of teachers to co-create curriculum needed to further generational healing, cross-cultural understanding, and the conversations required for us to access our personal genius and uphold the promises of American democracy.”
-Jacob Allen, pilotED Foundation CEO
-Jacob Allen, pilotED Foundation CEO
pilotED believes deeply in the power, expertise, and leadership of teachers. Through this newly created fellowship, pilotED has selected a diverse cohort of seven talented, values-aligned teachers serving students in Indianapolis, Chicago, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Burlington, Wisconsin. This summer and fall 2021, teachers will create, implement, and revise lesson- and unit-plans; hone their data collection and analysis skills to improve their instructional decision-making and practice; and, leverage community-engaged research skills to evaluate and iterate upon their curriculum design and implementation.
Fellows will nurture their sense of belonging within and beyond their school communities as they join pilotED’s nationwide movement to ensure American education actively engages students in co-creating a more sustainable, multicultural democracy. This fellowship will cultivate fellows’ sense of their collective power and prompt their collective knowledge-building. It will enhance their capacity to engage in critical, courageous dialogue and collaboration as they further the individual and collective work required to create anti-racist, multicultural, and liberatory classrooms and school communities in their cities and states across our country.
Fellows will nurture their sense of belonging within and beyond their school communities as they join pilotED’s nationwide movement to ensure American education actively engages students in co-creating a more sustainable, multicultural democracy. This fellowship will cultivate fellows’ sense of their collective power and prompt their collective knowledge-building. It will enhance their capacity to engage in critical, courageous dialogue and collaboration as they further the individual and collective work required to create anti-racist, multicultural, and liberatory classrooms and school communities in their cities and states across our country.
Read more about the inaugural cohort of pilotED's 2021 Identity Fellows below. If additional information is requested, please reach out to Lauren Hall (LHall@pilotED.org), pilotED’s Director of Identity.
2021 Identity Fellows
KRISTEN WOODRUFF | Las Vegas
Woodruff is an elementary educator with over eleven years of classroom experience in the United States, Costa Rica, Uganda, and the United Arab Emirates. She currently teaches 3rd grade at Steve and Linda Cozine Elementary in the Clark County School District. She is also currently part of Opportunity 180's Nevada teachers’ cohort which focuses on the impact of culturally relevant education as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion in order to elevate liberatory practices for students of color. She has held many other leadership roles within education including: professional development facilitator, Community Development Chairperson, and as a School Improvement Plan Committee member.
MELISSA STATZ | Burlington, Wisconsin
Statz teaches 4th grade in Burlington, Wisconsin. She is actively involved in an anti-racism coalition called the Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism, and currently serves as the group's Treasurer; she previously served as the group’s Justice and Equity in education team lead. She has also taught in Chicago and in Boston where she provided health lessons to Boston Public High School students who lacked access to a health curriculum. She holds a dual degree in Elementary Education and Psychology from Northeastern University.
ELIZABETH SULLIVAN | Chicago
Sullivan is a primary grades teacher at the National Teachers Academy, which is part of Chicago Public Schools. She has taught in Chicago for eight years and previously taught for two years on the Navajo Nation where she “loved learning about a completely new culture and background.” She leads on her school’s Efficacy Team, Grading Committee, and was elected to their Professional Problems Committee. She served as the Alpha Sigma Tau National Sorority President and was an Alternative Breaks Board Member and Site Leader.
JENNIFER LOVE | Indianapolis
Love has taught for thirteen years, and currently teaches K-6 STEM at Anna Brochhausen Elementary within Indianapolis Public Schools. Her teacher leadership experience includes serving as a: 2021 Indiana Department of Education Teacher Leader Bootcamp fellow; 2020 Teach Plus Policy Fellow; and as a teacher coach within Indianapolis Public Schools. She researches building long-lasting relationships with students by way of student-teacher trust and is passionate about infusing social-and-emotional learning through rigorous academics. She is also an active member of the national collegiate organization, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated.
ARIEL CAMPBELL | Las Vegas
Campbell is a 2nd grade teacher and grade level chair at Futuro Academy, where she also teaches dance and creates multicultural events. She completed a Radio-TV-Film undergraduate studies at Howard University and earned a Master’s Degree in Special Education from University of Nevada Las Vegas. She served as a Teach For America (TFA) Corps Member in Las Vegas in 2015, was the TFA Transitional Team Leader for new teachers in 2017, and is currently a teacher mentor and coach for the 2021 TFA corps. She was recently a member of TFA’s School to Prison Pipeline Cohort as well as TFA’s 2021 Teacher Leader Excellence Cohort. She has earned several awards for her service to the Las Vegas community. She earned the 30 under 30 Caribbean-American Emerging Leaders and Changemakers award in 2017, as well as the TFA Social Innovation Community Award to create her own free summer arts dance camp for children in East Las Vegas 2019.
DANA BERENS | Chicago
Berens is a Chicago transplant from Wellesley, Massachusetts. She moved to Chicago to serve as an Academy for Urban School Leadership resident and has now taught for over six years. She currently teaches 3rd grade in Chicago Public Schools at Howe Elementary. She serves on her school’s Professional Problems Committee, which facilitates collective problem-solving between her school’s staff and administration to ensure the school runs as best as possible. She is also an active member of her school’s Social-and-Emotional Learning (SEL) team; her goal is to help students expand their "emotional toolbox" so that they can de-escalate, regulate, and reflect and ultimately face challenging topics with confidence navigate struggles in adolescence and adulthood. She also coaches her Girls on the Run team, and mentors and supports new teachers. She has an undergraduate degree in education from Marquette University and a Master’s Degree in Urban Education and has a Learning Behavior Specialist 1 Endorsement.
BRENNA BLAZIS | Atlanta
Blazis has over 10 years of experience in education, teaching in both the United States and abroad. She currently teaches an Autism Self-Contained K-2 Special Education Teacher at Peyton Forest Elementary in Atlanta, where she develops instruction for students' diverse abilities and needs. She found her love for curriculum writing during her four years of Peace Corps service. In partnership with Liberian educators, she helped to create the Let's Read Phonics Curriculum; as a Letras de La Semana Program Writer in the Dominican Republic, she created a guide to implement their new national literacy curriculum through student-centered practices. She is currently spending her summer in Liberia continuing to support the ongoing work of Liberian educators and community leaders.