Sankofa: move forward while looking back
Before Sankore had a name, this work was already underway. For over a decade, we've partnered with government agencies, school districts, and community organizations to build the kind of systemic change that outlasts any single consultant, contract, or workshop. The Simple ABCs Pathway™ and the 5 C's of Courageous Leadership™ are what we've learned by doing this work not a theory we're hoping holds up in the field, but the field is where it came from.
When MDHR set out to address discipline disparities affecting Black, Indigenous, and other students of color across the state, we were brought in to help lead the response. Over the course of a multi-year engagement, we facilitated a statewide committee of district and charter school leaders working under settlement agreements, analyzed compliance data twice yearly, and authored the initiative's reports surfacing what was actually working in the districts making the most progress, and naming what was standing in the way for those making the least. The engagement was extended twice based on continued impact
Every licensed teacher in Minnesota completes Cultural Competency training to earn and renew their license. We helped build the version many of them have taken: co-creating the statewide curriculum with a team of respected educators, delivering it in districts across the state, and training the next generation of facilitators to carry it forward. When demand grew for something deeper, we built an advanced, topic-specific version to meet it.
A year-long residency with one of Minnesota's longest-standing race-equity coalitions, focused on transforming school climate statewide. We designed the original Justice Toolkit still in use by districts today, and built the relationships and credibility that would go on to open the door to our work with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights proof that this kind of work compounds.
An open semester in the graduation requirements. A community demanding better. We led the coalition that turned both into Minneapolis's first African American History course built across departments, without waiting for permission, by finding the leaders ready to say yes. That single course became the seed for a full sequence of ethnic studies offerings, and by 2025, ethnic studies was a graduation requirement for every Minneapolis Public Schools student.
Co-founded with Alex Luizzi, Ground Up took a different approach to building a pipeline of BIPOC educators: instead of designing a new program from outside, we partnered with the organizations already doing the work Freedom School and Black Men Teach among them and built from there. We led curriculum design; the resulting CLEAR curriculum is still in active use today, licensed to Black Men Teach and Education Minnesota.
A multi-year partnership supporting Hope Community's C2C program an unusual role, since most consultants doing similar work elsewhere were on staff. We mentored and developed the program coordinator and co-led digital empowerment programming as the initiative grew from laptops in a conference room into a full Teen Tech Center.
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Led a comprehensive equity audit incorporating school board, staff, and parent engagement alongside a staff book study. Partnered with the Kuumba Collective — using their youth-specific “Hip Hop” engagement framework — to lead a youth listening session (“No Cap”) and ensure authentic youth voice was captured. Designed a reusable Interview Protocol as part of the engagement, since carried forward into subsequent equity audit and strategic planning work.