Why Kristin does this work:

I am a longtime educator and advocate for equal justice. My “why” stems from my belief that knowledge is the most direct path to individual freedom and my awareness that systems, both those seemingly benevolent and those obviously cruel, are often at odds with that quest for individual freedom. I do this work with the hope of restoring the relationship between education and personal liberation. Or, to borrow the wisdom of James Baldwin, I believe: “The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions…. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it — at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.”

Biography

Kristin joined THEI as the Program Manager for the Student Resources Initiative in 2024. Prior to joining THEI, Kristin worked as an instructional coach, an English teacher at the middle and high school levels, and as a staff attorney and development specialist for a non-profit law firm. Kristin is a graduate of Brown University (B.A. Literature and American History), the University of Oregon School of Law (J.D.), and Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education (M.P.P., Educational Policy).