Episodes

Stacie McClam went from being bused to "better" schools as a Black child in LA, to teaching across DC, Japan, Denver, and Kuwait, and what she found everywhere was the same broken system dressed up differently. She became the "fix-up lady," repeatedly hired mid-year to salvage classrooms other teachers fled. She watched Black and Latino kids get pushed through grades without learning to read, saw phonics stripped from US curricula that worked brilliantly in Kuwait, and fought systems that celebrated bare minimum as excellence. The toll was real: shingles, hair loss, depression, and a PTSD diagnosis when it was all over. So she quit. Both teaching and law were another system she found too biased to use. Instead, Stacie picked up a camera. Her film production company, School Dismissed, is making a trilogy of narrative fiction films tackling AI surveillance, education inequity, and what Black students deserve. Her first film, Mr. Advocate, premieres this month. Her message is cl…

S. Jae Ali, EdM, has taught in Charlotte, Chicago, China, and Brazil, and every classroom taught her something the next one couldn't fix. In this episode, the South Side Chicago native and former educator gets honest about the racism she faced in her teacher prep program, the mental health toll of toxic leadership, the thrill of watching struggling students soar, and why she ultimately walked away from the classroom. From COVID lockdowns in Zhengzhou to a private school in São Paulo where she was the only Black teacher, Jae's story is proof that the problem isn't always the kids and that choosing yourself isn't quitting. Now running wellness workshops and speaking engagements through her platform S. Jae Ali Speaks, she's still teaching. Just on her own terms.

Danica Moore, Ed.D. knew she was meant to teach before she even had a lesson plan, from sharpening skills with second graders at 10 years old to taking over her Sunday school class on a dare. With nearly 20 years in education, she's worn every hat: special ed teacher, ESL specialist, reading and math coach, equity facilitator, district office leader, and now founder of Fortified Educational Practices and Program Director for the National Freedom Schools Partnership. But this episode isn't just a career highlight reel. It's an honest look at what happens when the work you love starts to cost you when equity work becomes a cage. Dr. Danica opens up about the emotional toll of being one of the only people of color in predominantly white spaces, navigating colleagues who never hid their resistance to the work, waking up in tears every day during her first year at the district office, and learning how to reconnect with herself after years of pouring out. She and I explore what radica…

What happens when the system tells you that you "care too much"? For Jamita Horton, Ed.D, that moment in a Milwaukee principal's office was the beginning of a decade-long journey of pressing reset on her classroom, her career, and ultimately herself. In this episode of The Exit Interview, Dr. Horton takes us from Sunday school teacher's aide to kindergarten teacher to assistant principal, unpacking how rigid behavior management, a lack of mentorship, and the slow erasure of her identity pushed her out of traditional K-12 spaces not once, but twice. She gets real about what COVID revealed (protected planning time IS possible), what it feels like to leave a school after six years with barely a goodbye, and why she finally had to ask: "Who am I outside of the classroom?" Now running a teacher policy fellowship at Teach Plus Dr. Horton has found her sweet spot developing educators and advocating for change at the systems level, without losing herself in the process. Whether you're a …

Dr. Nadia A. Bennett doesn't just talk about leading; she's lived it, from an air mattress on the floor of a Philly apartment to founding her own national education consulting firm, When Brown Girls Lead. In this episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, I sit down with Dr. Nadia for a raw, spirit-filled conversation about what it actually takes to climb the educational ranks as a Black woman. Dr. Nadia shares the unlikely moments that shaped her path: a stranger's advice in a retail store, the loss of a beloved cousin, and a woman in a Howard cohort who looked her dead in the eyes and said, "You're called to this." She talks openly about the grief of leaving a school where she poured everything, the tokenism she faced as a charter superintendent, and why she walked away from a six-figure leadership role without a plan. This episode is just as much about what comes after the exit. Dr. Nadia breaks down how she built a thriving consulting firm powered largely by B…

Melissa Leonard-Goodlett, EdD. knew she was a diversity hire. She took the job anyway because she was also the most qualified person in the room. In this episode of The Exit Interview, Dr. Melissa breaks down a career that went from dyslexic kid playing teacher with her siblings, to AP English instructor watching Black students pay for a high school education they never actually received, to burning out at a wealthy PWI where parent surveys went straight to HR and her principal never once stepped foot in her classroom. She saw the literacy crisis from both sides: underfunded schools pushing kids through, and affluent schools inflating grades to protect their reputation. Same problem. Different zip code. After years of microaggressions, invisibility, and hives she couldn't explain, she resigned. Now she's an educational consultant, reclaiming her why one new teacher at a time.

Kamye Hugley is back, and this time, she's talking about what happens when you trade the classroom for the nonprofit world. Fan favorite Kamye returns to The Exit Interview to share her truth about making the leap from Black educator to nonprofit professional. Spoiler: it wasn't the escape she imagined. From navigating workplace dysfunction to rediscovering her worth, Kamye breaks down how she transferred her teaching skills into a brand-new arena and what she wishes someone had told her before she made the jump. If you're a Black educator eyeing the nonprofit sector as your next move, this episode is your required listening.

Nye Trusty brings a candid, layered, and deeply necessary conversation about identity, belonging, and why representation without inclusion is just window dressing. She's worn many names and even more hats: teacher, coach, doctoral student, and now nonprofit founder. In this episode, she gets raw about what it really means to show up fully in spaces that weren't built for you, including what happened when Black leadership asked her to strip her classroom of its Blackness. From growing up in Far Rockaway, Queens, to teaching seventh graders in Baltimore and Louisiana, Nye's journey through education is one of resilience, demoralization, and ultimately, radical reinvention. She opens up about the moment she knew it was time to leave the classroom, not because she stopped loving her students, but because the system had worn her down to the point where she had nothing left to fight with. And she's honest about something the education world doesn't like to say out loud: sharing a skin ton…

Her closing words? Joy chaser. And she means it. Born in Anchorage, raised to become a lawyer, and fully resistant to the classroom, Jessica Reed-Thomas, Ed.D., fought off teaching for years. Then, a mentor, a university employee with good intuition and an air-conditioned education building at Temple University, changed everything. What followed was a 12+ year career spanning classroom teacher, technology integration specialist, service-learning coordinator, agriculture curriculum lead, and, eventually, assistant principal overseeing 2,700 students and nearly 500 IEPs in the School District of Philadelphia. But the real story is what it cost her. Dr. Thomas opens up about surviving on leftover event food, falling asleep in her guacamole, being physically injured on the job multiple times, and staying in toxic workplaces the same way you stay in a bad relationship until the people she was serving told her to leave. It was her students who said, " Go". It was her daughter…

Kelly Mitchell's journey through education is a crash course in recognizing when systems are working exactly as designed...not for us. From stumbling into teaching via Craigslist after the 2009 recession, to middle school math teacher, to high school dean managing 350 students, to state workforce development, Kelly kept asking, "Who can fix this?" only to realize the system kept saying, "Not us." Kelly's revelation: education's recruitment problem isn't about signing bonuses, it's asking Black people to return to systems that actively harmed them their entire childhood. The retention problem? Leaders who laugh off racism when test scores are good, colleagues who outsource racial incidents to the "Black representative," and the invisible tax of carrying everyone else's learning curve. Now running Inclusive Design Group and pursuing her PhD, Kelly's done the full bingo card: classroom, admin, state, nonprofit. Her conclusion? The answer was never in climbing higher within broken s…

Kai Hamer's journey from aspiring rapper to special education teacher to parent engagement director is a love letter to the Bronx. Starting in shelters and after-school programs, she spent 10+ years teaching in her own neighborhood, collecting kids from behind soda machines, visiting grandmothers who couldn't leave home, and fighting for students whose gifts didn't show up on standardized tests. But when colleagues went to the principal instead of coming to her about her social media post on police brutality, she realized some teachers couldn't truly love the Black children they taught. She left the classroom to train educators in what she never got: real support for building authentic relationships with families. Her mission now? Help teachers get free, because you can't pour into kids when your own cup is dry.

This conversation is a testament to how classroom teaching can birth movements that extend far beyond what we could ever imagine. In this episode, Dr. Asia sits down with Latoya Turner, M.A., a Detroit-born educator, author, and filmmaker who spent 13 years in the classroom before pivoting to create Brown Hands Literacy, a nonprofit dedicated to educating children about HBCUs through books, films, and community events. LaToya shares her journey from a high school cadet teaching program to teaching across Detroit, Maryland, and Cincinnati, where she discovered her passion for literacy and began writing children's books during lunch breaks and planning periods. She opens up about the pull of family that moved her from city to city, the birth of her son August (now a published author himself), and how she coached 90 Black men ages 18-24 through the Leading Men Fellowship program, planting seeds of literacy that will impact generations. From turning her book "Brown Hands, Black Schools…

What does it mean to be the only Black teacher at the table year after year? In this powerful episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, Dr. Asia Lyons sits down with Monika Robinson, a former public school teacher, instructional coach, nonprofit leader, and founder of Reparations Ed, to unpack the quiet isolation many Black educators experience in predominantly white and suburban school systems. For six years, Monika was the only Black teacher in her building. While she describes her experience as not bad, she also names the subtle but persistent exclusion of being left out of informal gatherings, navigating leadership roles without support, and carrying the weight of representation alone. Her story highlights how school isolation is often normalized, minimized, or dismissed even when it impacts retention and wellness.

This episode with Whitney Tolliver is essential listening for educators at any stage of their career, administrators who wonder why they can't retain staff, and anyone who's ever sacrificed their well-being for a job that demands perfection over presence. In this powerful episode of the Exit interview, Whitney shares her journey from enthusiastic first-grade teacher to assistant principal and ultimately, to leaving education altogether to prioritize her wellness. Whitney opens up about the toxic workplace culture she encountered early in her career, including a principal who demanded perfect attendance even after losing both parents, and how that mentality permeated her entire educational experience. Now the founder of The Teacher Retreat, a nonprofit dedicated to educator wellness, and All Things Well Collective, Whitney is on a mission to help educators understand that self-care isn't just spa days and massages, it's moisturizing your whole body, drinking water, and learning to re…