Crystal Gillis

Owner, Crystal Clear Reflections

Crystal Gillis-Drayton is a native of Colorado. She grew up in the Cherry Creek School District. She graduated from Eaglecrest high school. She attended Metro State to receive a bachelor's degree in Human Performance and Sport and continued her schooling for a Masters in Special Education at Colorado University at Denver. She recently resigned as an educator in the Cherry Creek School District teaching Physical Education and Health at Smoky Hill high school. She also sponsored groups that focus on students of color at Smoky Hill High school. She currently works for YAASPA (Young Aspiring Americans for Social Political Activism) as an educator and Healing Centered Engagement manager. At YAASPA her voice is heard and amplified in spaces as a Black educator. YAASPA also created a space that requires one to work within one's own cultural identity...authentically. Her passion is breaking barriers to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline and inequalities that her students of color have to unnecessarily deal with in the public school system. This will be her 15th year teaching. She loves gardening, nature, working out, and spending time with her three children.