Janae A. Peters, MSW
Janae enters spaces with growing awareness of what it took for her to exist and to be creating a life in a way that many before her could not readily access. She presences her family (past, present, and future), those with whom she is in strong relationship, her mentors, and the intellectual mentors of her mind. She is because of them, so they are always with her.
Janae Peters is an educator who actively integrates clinical social work into all aspects of the educational environment. She spends most of her time working with high school students and graduate students, but has also taught at the undergraduate level. In every realm, she has engaged a relational and process oriented approach to teaching and learning and always has a highest goal of understanding how different social, political, historical, and environmental contexts influence the learning process. A growing concern about identity development, social identity, social identity threat, and the impact of oppression and oppressive systems on student and educator achievement in the educational environment created in her a sense of urgency in working to learn how to improve the educational and identity development experience for all people, regardless of what we are learning.
Janae has created and re-envisioned advisory programs, implemented policy and programmatic shifts that center racial equity, racial justice, anti-racist, and restorative practices, served as a dean of students, school counselor, dorm head, teacher, coach, has taught on the East Coast, in the South, in the Midwest, and in South Korea for a summer. She is currently on a team that has designed and opened a school in Cleveland, Ohio that works hard to transform education as we have come to understand it and the lives of the people within that environment. Janae is also a social worker and has experience in crisis intervention, individual outpatient practice, and in holding space for social work students and faculty in institutions poised for transformative shifts.
Consideration of B.L.A.C., Black liberation, transformative pedagogy, intersectionality, critical race, social identity, and person-in-environment theories is crucial to her work with people. She enters most spaces with the goal of continuing to learn and making the most of opportunities to engage with other communities in their various stages of their shifting processes.
Here’s the more personal side of presencing:
It is important to presence the people, relationships, experiences, and consultations that have contributed to the creation of this virtual space. I have a great deal of gratitude for:
- Kay Williams, whose ethic of Black Love and Care and space at The Discovery Initiative has deeply shifted my personal and professional sense of purpose.
- Shaakira Raheem, whose openness to connection around growth and purpose sparked the inspiration for this initiative.
- James Greenwood, whose optimism about what can be and who might contribute to that future keeps me motivated.
- Sharon Howell, whose vision and ability to dream big about innovative education and a just world serves as a reminder that nothing is impossible.
- My sister-friends, whose constant encouragement and check-ins keep me on track on this journey towards freedom and collective transformation.
- Every educator who has dared to work to transform the educational landscape.