Veteran educator Dr. Kari-Lee Grant has been appointed Supervisor of the Nassau BOCES Equity, Inclusivity and Belonging (EIB) cooperative service. In this trailblazing role, Dr. Grant researches and designs professional development for school district staff and community constituents, among other responsibilities. “We know educators’ time is precious,” she observed, “and we want to make sure that we have a wide variety of opportunities in which they can participate. Nassau County is extraordinarily diverse, so we must have equally diverse workshop offerings and other support services.”

EIB is the latest addition to the Curriculum, Instruction and Technology Department’s roster of support services. The purpose of EIB is to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the agency’s partnerships with its 56 component school districts. The service ensures that Nassau County schools and districts have the support they need to implement the New York State Education Department’s DEI practices, plans, and policies.

“Everyone is included,” Dr. Grant said of the process, “from each individual student to the highest-level state officials. EIB may be a fairly new service, but it’s not a new concept to Nassau BOCES. There are so many people here and throughout Long Island schools who are putting incredible effort into this field. We don’t often know much about them, much less thank them, but we should. The practitioners who support others also need support, in our schools and in our communities.”

Dr. Grant understands the importance of equity and inclusion from a deeply personal place. She was in college in her native Jamaica when her mother, a nurse, was recruited to work in the U.S. Though she had been studying computer science in school before emigrating to the states, she ended up working as a supermarket cashier after running into systemic bias in employment here. She was counseled to ‘dumb herself down’ and to put her dreams on hold, all for the sake of fitting into American society as a newly arrived immigrant.

“Justice has always been the cornerstone of my beliefs,” Dr. Grant said of her work. “Justice and fairness drive my passion for education. Unfairness is the antithesis of all I hold sacred. That is why it is so vital that we make sure every individual feel included, regardless of their ethnicity or social status. We want every single student to be welcomed and affirmed in our schools. That requires each of us — educators and administrators — doing that work for ourselves.”

Inevitably, Dr. Grant broke out of the preformulated constraints of who some people thought she was supposed to be and continued her education, this time in education. She was soon introduced to linguistics by a trusted mentor, where she discovered teaching English to speakers of other languages (known within educational circles simply as TESOL).

Dr. Grant earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the City University of New York at Queens College, where she studied linguistics, TESOL, and secondary education. She went on to earn a certificate of advanced study in educational leadership and administration from the College of Saint Rose, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Concordia University Chicago. She is certified by New York State as a school building leader, school district leader, school attendance teacher, and TESOL educator. She has additional certification in workplace DEI from the University of South Florida.

In addition to her career as an educator at the Pre-K–12 and higher education levels, Dr. Grant has a comprehensive list of other credits to her name. Among them, she has served on New York State Education Department’s committees for the NYS English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT); peer reviewed, presented, and chaired sessions for both the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the World Education Research Association (WERA); and is a member of AERA, WERA, TESOL International Association, Society for Caribbean Linguistics, New York State Association for Bilingual Education, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, PDK International, and ASCD.