The Grief of Leaving, the Liberation of Becoming with Candice Renee Person
In this episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, Dr. Asia sits down with Candice Renee Person, a 20-year veteran educator, organizer, writer, and soon-to-be digital nomad. Candice shares a deeply layered journey that spans classrooms in New York City, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Virginia, and beyondeach chapter shaped by resilience, grief, discovery, and a fierce commitment to both education and community.
Candice opens up about her unexpected entry into teaching through the New York City Teaching Fellows program and the steep learning curve of working in special education without adequate preparation or support. She reflects on the vital mentors and assistants who kept her grounded during her toughest first years and how family circumstances, especially the loss of her mother, shaped major moves in her career.
Listeners are taken inside her experiences teaching in challenging special education settings, including building a thriving, joyful classroom in an autism unit that had once been unsafe and chaotic. She speaks candidly about being treated like a pawn within school systems, constantly shuffled between placements, and what that revealed about how little care is often given to educators humanity.
Her story expands beyond teaching, highlighting her time as a writer in an MFA program, where summers abroad in Argentina, Italy, Paris, and Ireland rekindled creativity and reminded her of the importance of honoring multiple passions. She explores the challenges and beauty of raising her children while teaching, and the ways motherhood informed her approach to education.
Back in Massachusetts, Candice delved deeply into anti-racism and equity work, helping transform a local charter school into a space where community partnerships, storytelling, and racial justice were at the center. She describes the excitement of creating community walks, affinity groups, and equity-driven professional development, as well as the heartbreak of eventually facing gaslighting, pushback, and grief as the organization shifted away from its initial commitments.
Today, Candice has found joy in new forms of teaching. She adjuncts at the college level, runs her own business, The Edu Tutor Hub, and is preparing for her next adventure: a digital nomad lifestyle with her children, which will begin in Mexico. She reflects on what wellness means to her, emphasizing the importance of therapy, authenticity, exploration, and honoring her whole self, and offers a powerful reminder that Black educators are multifaceted individuals whose gifts deserve to flourish both within and outside the classroom.
This conversation is rich with lessons about perseverance, grief and healing, the power of community schools, and the possibilities that open when educators permit themselves to imagine more.
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Amidst all the conversations about recruiting Black educators, where are the discussions about retention? The Exit Interview podcast was created to elevate the stories of Black educators who have been pushed out of the classroom and central office while experiencing racism-related stress and racial battle fatigue.
The Exit Interview Podcast is for current and former Black educators. It is also for school districts, teachers' unions, families, and others interested in better understanding the challenges of retaining Black people in education.
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Peace out,
Dr. Asia Lyons
