Alicia Nance

alicia nance, PhD (sibling/we/they, elle/ella/she) is a sibling, titi, cousin, friend, adult co-conspirator and the wildest dreams of her ancestors. She is a somatic abolitionist, memory worker, storyteller, racial justice and liberation strategist, pro-liberation (anti-racist) cultural organiser, critical lover, and disrupter. Her work focuses on making spaces worthy of communities at the margin and centring expansive, decolonised, joyful, intersectional and healing diasporic Black liberation and sovereignty through earth-, birth-, spirit-, and youth- work as a spiritual herbalist, doula, farmer, facilitator and coach.

alicia believes that earth-work and a direct connection to place, space, land, and interdependent communities are essential for healing and getting free. She loves spending time with her intergenerational collective; reading voraciously; leveraging the healing power of art, food, and music; finding ways to nurture and sustain Black love; travelling and connecting our stories; rooting for the underdog; finding time to feel soil under her nails, sand between her toes and salt on her skin; and loving on her dogs, goats, and chickens.

With 25+ years of professional experience in a wide range of PS-20 educational settings, alicia has served as a school leader; Director of Equity and Inclusion; instructional coach; department and grade level chair; Special Education Coordinator; program manager; and classroom teacher focusing on culturally sustaining and responsive literacy and numeracy, and exceptional and culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

alicia holds advanced degrees and certificates from Louisiana State University, The George Washington University, and Georgetown University in Curriculum and Instruction, English, Africana Studies, Special Education, Women’s and Gender Studies, Curriculum Theory, Ethnic and Cultural Studies, and Educational Leadership and Management. She has been an Abolitionist Teaching Network grantee, Soul Fire Farm BIPoC FIRE facilitator, Farm School Program for Visiting Schools Fellow, Deeper Learning Equity Fellow, High Tech High Graduate School of Education New Schools Creation Fellow, Foster America Fellow, and 4.0 Schools Wave 4 Tiny Fellow.