Videos

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. (https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#) , 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 …

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

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 sys…

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 systems…

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.

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 systems…

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

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.

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

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. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/latoya-turner-m-a-a94957201/) , 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 gener…

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: H…

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

This was a first for me. "Why would you go to your grave hating on someone you barely knew. She barely knew me!" Thank you, Monika Robinson, M.Ed., for sharing this story on The Exit Interview. Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #blackvoices #storytellingpodcast #shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #viralpodcast #MustWatch #educatortalk #TalkThatTalk #realtalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #subscribenow

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, M.Ed., 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.

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.

Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

How many of us have received perfect attendance awards growing up? How is that not serving us now that we are adults? Thank you, Whitney Tolliver, for sharing a part of your journey. #BlackEducatorsBeWell #healing #rest Check out the podcast's website: https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ Instagram: @hellodrasia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons/ Learn more about combatting racial battle fatigue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7KXbRlf6Dpnl4PffXHvuIlLE0CKUEa8/view?usp=sharing #teachers #educators #wellness #retention #education #healing #storytime #Podcast #BlackVoices #StorytellingPodcast #Shorts (for YouTube Shorts) #ViralPodcast #MustWatch #EducatorTalk #TalkThatTalk #RealTalk #PodcastLife #YouTubePodcasts #NewPodcastAlert #ListenNow #SubscribeNow

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 rest…

This episode with Whitney Tolliver (https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-tolliver-a9978924b/) 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 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-tolliver-a9978924b/) 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 th…