alicia nance

alicia nance, Ph.D. (she/ella/we/they) is a proud southern diasporic Black, queer descendant of enslaved peoples who fought for freedom in the Global South. A memory worker, storyteller, racial justice and equity strategist, anti-oppression educator, cultural organiser, critical lover, and disrupter, alicia’s work focuses on Black liberation and sovereignty through earth-, birth-, spirit-, and youth- work as an herbalist, doula, farmer, facilitator, teacher, and coach. alicia is a daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend, and the wildest dreams of her ancestors, who believes, “She who learns, teaches.” Her work in education is rooted in her family’s legacy as educators, organisers, and revolutionaries who leveraged education to uplift and prove what’s possible in their communities.

alicia is the founder and chief equity officer of She Who Learns, an intergenerational, grassroots collective of diasporic Black women who specialise in co-creating liberatory spaces in schools and communities by focusing on our relationship to land, space, and place through community organising; cultural somatics; sustaining, responsive, transformative, and healing-centred pedagogy and practices; development and coaching of people in education and human services; and youth participatory action research. For more than 20 years, alicia has fought for the liberation of Black, immigrant, queer, trans, indigenous people, and people of colour through her involvement in racial, reproductive, transformative, language, and economic justice movements. Her work as a strategist and organiser has allowed her to work with communities to hold charter schools and management organisations accountable; elevate the voices and needs of Black immigrants; decrease food insecurity and address food apartheid; highlight the needs of youth in and aging out of foster care; co-create eviction and bail funds for Black women and femmes; defend sex worker rights and HIV positive women advocacy; aid the protection of Black farmers’ land; increase awareness of and interventions for gentrification; eradicate intimate partner violence; and co-conspire with BI&PoC youth-led movements dedicated to ending gun violence and advancing policies that help communities most harmed by the criminal justice system.

alicia holds a B.L.S. in “Youth and Society” (Sociology, Ethnography, and Education), M.A. in Transition Special Education, M.A. in English and Cultural Studies, an Ed.S. in Curriculum Theory and Africana Studies, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Africana Studies.

When she’s not engaged in the work, alicia enjoys getting free through keeping soil between her toes and under her nails with her partner on the farm, communing with plantitas, laughing loudly, dancing freely, participating in marathons and triathlons, loving up on people and animals, making art, traveling, and dreaming with her communities, all while listening to her never-ending playlist.