LeAndrea works as a Program Design Specialist at UnboundEd. In her current role, she develops professional learning experiences for ELA educators serving students in grades K-5. Prior to joining UnboundEd, LeAndrea served as a classroom teacher for over a decade in North Memphis and Douglass where she grew up. In this revolutionary but disenfranchised community, she learned the value and power of Black educators from examples, like her very first teacher, her grandmother, Velma Taylor.
LeAndrea believes teaching is a calling, and she has served as a literacy coach, district leader, and consultant. In previous roles, LeAndrea shepherded improvement work with striving schools across Memphis, Tennessee to improve literacy outcomes for students. She worked alongside her colleagues in iZone schools, a nationally recognized turnaround school model, to transform underperforming schools. Before transitioning to Unbounded, LeAndrea served as Director of Literacy for a charter school network where she coached teachers and school leaders to bolster student literacy scores on state assessments.
LeAndrea became acquainted with the work of UnboundEd as a participant and joined the team as a facilitator before coming on board full-time. She accredits the knowledge gained from the UnboundEd experience with changing the trajectory of her career and leading to a better understanding of her role as a disruptor of systems, structures, and inequitable instructional practices that lead to inequitable outcomes for students who experience marginalization in American schools.
LeAndrea considers herself a lifelong teacher, however, her greatest role is Mom to her three sons, Devin, Dylan, and Ezekiel.