Seattle City Wire

For Black History Month, Dean Cynthia Dillard from the College of Education shares a reflection on how the spirit of justice guides her work:

“How do I lead and mentor? By looking back. By engaging what the Akan people of Ghana call ‘Sankofa,’ turning my full self toward the past to bring forward what I need in the present. But I also Sankofa to create and build spaces today that center the ways of being and knowing of Black people and others that has been ignored and excluded: We are the ones who can heal this world, including our education.

“I am blessed to build with talented faculty, staff and students at SU and to (re)turn here to Seattle where I grew up. This homecoming has been the sacred full circle moment that I wish for everyone: A (re)turn to a place firmly centered in who I am and whose I am, as a Black woman of the world, a Black feminist scholar in education and a teacher of Black history, culture and knowledge. I do this because it fills my cup so that I can be free and can teach others how to be free, too.”

Original source can be found here.