Just Keep Showing UP and Always Learning with Dr. Asia Lyons (EP153)

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Dr. Asia Lyons is the founder and lead consultant for Lyons Educational Consulting LLC, a consulting and coaching firm that supports schools and other non-profits through equity auditing of their programming, co-creation of culturally responsive programming and curriculum, and job-embedded coaching. She also co-facilitates a Black Educator Wellness Cohort in the Denver Metro area.  

Your WHY

My WHY is about the reciprocity of a shared equity focus and design thinking for youth voice from beginning to end. 

Your Background

I worked as a K-12 educator for over 10 years and also served as the Equity in Schools Specialist in a Denver-based non-profit, a role in which I worked with schools and non-profit partners across the Denver Metro Area to provide communities with resources to support the closing of the access gap for BIPOC youth.

Your Education Journey

I learned my work ethic and focus on social justice growing up in Detroit which is changing now. My boyfriend (husband now) and I moved in 2006 to Denver. My first job was at Cherry Creek Sunrise Elementary year-round school. The principal gave me options to teach anything for sixth-grade social studies so I taught “Social Justice.” Some of the topics included asking what is humanity and the roots of social justice. Kids voted on the topics. In 2016, the focus changed in the community and the class. I decided to leave teaching in 2018 and started my doctorate.

Research on Equity

I obtained my doctorate in Leadership for Educational Equity, where my research focused on the ways that racism-related stress crosses over from Black educators to their families.

• Racial battle fatigue
• Racial violence impacts leadership for ed equity
• Educator battle fatigue

Opportunity Gap

• Worked for a non-profit to support new immigrants with education. 
• Wellness Cohort
• After school work with museums and zoos

Lyons Educational Consulting 

https://www.lyonseducationalconsulting.com/

I am the founder and lead consultant for Lyons Educational Consulting LLC (LEC), a consulting and coaching firm that supports schools and other non-profits through equity auditing of their programming, co-creation of culturally responsive programming and curriculum, and job-embedded coaching.

We support the design of programs that provide space for people to feel
cared for, their lived experiences seen and their voices amplified.

Vision Statement
Lyons Educational Consulting imagines work and school cultures where everyone brings their best selves forward, creating a place where the individual and the organization thrive.

Mission Statement
In partnership with communities, organizations, and schools, Lyons Educational Consulting co-creates truly inclusive programming in which the dignity of all can be honored.

LEC Equity Design Principles
The equity-centered participatory design principles have come from being a part of work in and with communities. They are the anchors that allow us to come back to the center. These principles also allow us to live on the edges of what some would deem as acceptable ways of being.

The Black Educator Wellness Cohort

The Black Educator Wellness Cohort is a year-long program of support for educators who identify as Black, African American, and African Descendants of Enslaved People. These trauma-informed healing spaces are places for participants to explore and process thoughts, feelings, and emotions related to their racial identity and racialized experiences that occur both at work and in their personal lives. Healing sessions are focused on Black resilience, Black racial healing, and Black finesse. They are places to restore wholeness so that participants can experience joy, gratitude, and hope in their roles as educators. There is a stipend for childcare. Breakfast and lunch are provided.  At the end of the program, we invite participants to a three-day wellness retreat in the mountains of Colorado.  

For more information, check out this flyer The Black Educator Wellness Cohort

“The Exit Interview” Podcast

https://www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/

I am the co-host of this podcast that focuses on the lived experiences of Black educators. The Exit Interview hopes to inform school district administrators, teachers’ unions, families, educators, and others interested in better understanding the challenges of retaining Black people in education.

Dr. Asia’s contact information

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/asia-lyons
Website: https://www.lyonseducationalconsulting.com/ 
Email: asia@lyonseducationalconsulting.com
Podcast: www.exitinterviewpodcast.com/ 
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lyonseducationalconsulting 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lyonseducationalconsulting.  

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I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Dr. Asia on my virtual porch. It was such an honor that she shared the story of her journey from Detroit to Colorado, teaching 6th-grade students “social justice”,  her consulting business and podcast, and the Black Educator Wellness Cohort. I know you’re going to be glad you listened and checked out the post here about Dr. Asia. Please share this podcast and the post with your friends.

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