Gina Tillis

Teacher, Scholar, Activist

Gina English Tillis is a professor, scholar and practitioner that draws from community informed theories and methodologies to engage in a critical analysis of sociopolitical challenges affecting how our schools serve our communities. Over the last couple of decades, she has taught secondary and collegiate courses that center the experiences of BIPoC and LGBTQ+ in social history, sociology, cultural anthropology, social-psychology, ethnic studies, and more recently, curriculum and instruction.
Her administrative experience building community-school partnerships has enabled her to develop a keen understanding of the complex relationship between culture and community, classroom curriculum and instruction, and the political economy of our school systems. She professes that education, creative expression and reflection, such as Hip Hop, is ultimately the practice of freedom and that all students deserve engaging, enlightening, and empowering experiences that helps them envision the relationship between knowledge facilitated in the classroom, who they are, and who they ultimately aspire to become.