Zakkiyya Witherspoon

I have been an educator for over 20 years, and I've always had a love for children. I started with a home daycare because I had one daughter and was always looking for friends for her to play with so she wouldn't be alone. Later, I had another child 20 years apart, and I was in that same situation with another only child. I've always been in the schools trying to energize and work with young people. I worked as a 4th and 5th grade math and science teacher for 13 years in Cambridge Public Schools before transitioning to higher education. I got into higher ed when I applied for a doctoral degree at UMass Lowell and then decided to apply for a job there. Now I work at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the School of Education, working with educators and putting them out into the schools, making sure that they go out into the world culturally responsive. I work with coordinators of all the graduate programs, helping get students enrolled. I work heavily with our EDD program where we have over 160 students across 3 cohorts. I help design their summer residency, get them all into their classes, and serve as the academic advisor for all of our EDD students. I also work with PhD programs and master's programs, working closely with coordinators to make sure their programs run smoothly. I recently successfully defended my dissertation on March 26th and will walk in May. I created an intervention called Clap Club, where we bring culturally responsive hand clapping games to classrooms for Black girls only. This intervention was specifically designed for Black high school girls attending predominantly white high schools to give them a space so they could use their voice and learn strategies for navigating systems that were not designed for them. Now that I'm graduating, I will be adjuncting in the fall, and I've also been trained to conduct the intercultural development inventory to work with our students to help them understand their biases.