Deborah Brooks Lawrence

Deborah Brooks Lawrence, EdD is a native New Yorker, who believes that equitable access to viable resources will pave the road for universal recognition and sustainability of Human Rights; and as educators we without question need to prepare all of our practitioners and students to embrace the possibilities of equitable opportunity. This is couched in her witness to, and participation in, the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements as well as her first-hand witness to Apartheid and Nyerere’s Pan Africanism. It is through this inclusive lens that she weaves theory, research, advocacy and practice in her current role as a City Research Scientist with the City of New York. Alongside her current role, Deborah was a Teaching Fellow in Educational Leadership and Development for the Summer Principal's Academy (SPA) at Columbia University, she co-taught a Dissertation Research course, at Teacher’s College Columbia University, and designed and teaches a course on the historical and philosophical foundations of education at Bank Street College of Education. Prior to this work, Deborah taught Logic and Rhetoric for Antioch College’s NY Extension, taught in a charter elementary school and was the founding director of the only supplemental educational program to mandate parents’ attendance to learn and discover alongside their children. Deborah’s scope of work includes work as the interim Director with ReServe (Organization for retired individuals), Education Director of in-school, out of school, and after-school programs throughout NYC for a large non-profit, work on tolerance with the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), and pivotal work with immigrant populations, disenfranchised adults, marginalized children and families, education and child welfare practitioners. She is the co-author of Inherited Wisdom: Drawing on the Lessons of Formerly Enslaved Ancestors to Lift up Black Youth (Cognella, 2022).