The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators

In this impactful episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, Oakland educator Whitney Redd discusses how her experience in after-school programs, youth shelters, and mental health settings has shaped her approach to teachingcombining heart, structure, and intentionality. After being diagnosed with ADHD, Whitney redefined discipline as creating joyful structure, fostering a classroom environment built on positive reinforcement, trust, and student voice. As a teacher, I already have power, she states. I dont need to enforce it, I need to build it." Whitney openly shares her experiences leading a third-grade class of 39 students, tackling systemic inequities, and addressing the emotional challenges faced by Black teachers expected to do it all. Despite these challenges, her story is filled with joy, humor, and a fierce dedication to her students brilliance. Through Thee Redd Method, Whitney now helps other educators balance accountability with compassion and data with care. Her story emphasizes that true liberation in the classroom begins when educators embrace curiosity over control, and when Black joy becomes the foundation rather than a reward.

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.

What happens when the bad kid becomes the kind of educator the system never saw coming? In this episode of The Exit Interview, Dr. Asia sits down with Aurelius Raines II, whose unorthodox path into education began not with a degree, but with curiosity, care, and disruption. From aftercare teacher to museum-based innovator, Aurelius shares how his early struggles with school shaped his radical approach to teachingand why his students thrive because of it. Together, they unpack what it means to teach without permission, learn outside the lines, and reimagine what a science education can look like when rooted in joy, justice, and relevance.

This episode is a masterclass in reclaiming purpose, honoring your calling, and choosing wholeness over hustle. If youve ever been called too much for simply doing whats rightthis one is for you. In this episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, Dr. Asia Lyons sits down with transformational leader Dr. Mary Hemphill for a powerful conversation about the cost of caring deeply inside systems that werent built for us. From returning to teach in her childhood classroom to leading statewide academic reform, Dr. Hemphill shares how purpose, pressure, and policy collided in her journeyand how her exit became a path to liberation. Together, they explore: The tension between being vigilant and being labeled a vigilante Why transformational Black educators are often placed in the most broken schools How systemic neglect and adult complicity show up in schools (especially for Black boys) The challenge of leading with vision when the system prefers silence What wellness actually looks like for Black women leaders in education

What happens when a Black educator survives a natural disaster, a political awakening, and a broken school systemall in the same year?In this deeply moving episode of The Exit Interview, Colorado State Representative Jennifer Bacon recounts how her early teaching career in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina became a catalyst for her journey into law, education reform, and public service. Reflecting on her experience as a young Black educator with Teach For America, she vividly recalls the chaos and trauma of evacuating during the storm, witnessing the devastation, and volunteering at a Red Cross shelterwhere she saw her students arrive with little more than plastic bags of belongings. Jennifer shares the inequities she witnessed in the aftermath, including the erasure of Black educators, the rise of charter schools, and the criminalization of Black youthall of which shaped her understanding of systemic racism in education. Her reflections unpack the historical and political roots of educational injustice, from the collapse of the Orleans Parish school system to the national charter school movement. She explains how these experiences fueled her decision to attend law school, organize against the school-to-prison pipeline, and eventually serve in elected office. Now a key voice in Colorado education policy, Bacon discusses current challenges like the states school funding crisis, the importance of mandating financial literacy courses, and the urgent need for Black teacher recruitment and retention. The episode ends with a raw and heartfelt meditation on rest, resilience, and the moral obligation to fight for systems that truly care for Black children and communities.

What happens when an educator's deep love for liberation collides with the realities of traditional schooling? In this episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, Dr. Asia Lyons sits down with Jamilah Pittseducator, author, yoga teacher, and founder of She Imprintsto explore her journey through the education system and beyond. Jamilah shares how her childhood experiences with Black women teachers inspired her dream to teach, and how her international work, from Boston to the Dominican Republic to India, shaped her vision of education as a tool for healing and activism. She opens up about the emotional toll of navigating toxic school environments, the complexities of internalized racism among leadership, and the moment she chose her own wellness over a broken system. Throughout the conversation, Jamilah offers a deep call to center healing in our schools, reimagine leadership, and honor the full humanity of educators.