Cierra Kaler-Jones, Ph.D., is a storyteller, teaching artist, cultural organizer, and researcher dedicated to using the arts as a tool for liberation. Her heart's work includes cultivating Black Girls S.O.A.R. (Scholarship, Organizing, Arts, Resistance), a community-based program that nurtures Black girls by providing support and platforms for artistic expression, scholarly research, and community organizing to challenge injustice and inspire change in schools. She is the first-ever Executive Director of Rethinking Schools, the nation’s leading grassroots publisher for racial and social justice in education. Cierra is also on the Zinn Education Project's leadership team and a Black Lives Matter at School steering committee member. Over the past thirteen years, Cierra has learned alongside preschoolers, K-12 students, college students, and adults. With her roots in dance and arts education, she has also taught U.S. history, public policy, storytelling, digital media, and social change & leadership classes. In her work as a dance teacher, choreographer, and yoga and meditation guide, she seeks to create loving spaces for embodied storytelling. As a community-based researcher, Cierra supports communities in leveraging participatory, arts-based research methods to organize for more equitable school policies and practices. Her research can be found in journals such as Girlhood Studies, Middle School Journal, The Urban Review, The Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity, and more. She earned her Ph.D. in education from the University of Maryland – College Park. In 2022, she was named to Black Enterprise’s 40 Under 40 list for her social impact work.

Image Credit: Photo by M. Shonell Photography.