Building Belonging: Online Conversation Space for School Leaders - April 2024

Frank Stebbins is a Senior Program Associate at Facing History. Frank facilitates professional development, and is a member of teams focusing on school wide program development, Holocaust and Genocide scholarship, and Teaching for Equity and Justice. Before joining the Facing History team, he was a New Jersey educator for 17 years.

Kerrith Dezyer Griffin has been lauded as a phenomenal and rising leader in the fields of education and youth development. Apart from her first love as a devoted mother to John Lexington Griffin III, she excels in organizational and systemic operations in the education, ecumenical, and community landscapes. Kerrith is a curator of strong culture and climate and overall program efficiency. Graduating from the University of Memphis with a BA in English and Union University with a MA in Teaching, education is what drives her to illuminate purpose, destiny, and life fulfillment in the lives of those with whom she is connected. She has spent the last 20 years pouring into diverse youth groups and shaping young minds to be productive citizens. Her current position as the Executive Director of University Middle School at the University of Memphis affords her the opportunity to also build and maintain relationships that will enhance the lives of the students she serves and foster relationships with community partners. She gets great joy out of providing community service opportunities for her students with nonprofits and community based organizations throughout the city of Memphis, including her own sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a strong advocate for social justice and civic engagement, and works to display her passion by educating youth and young adults in these areas. Service to God and to the community is an everyday way of life for Kerrith. Her impact on the urban youth in the city of Memphis is prolific and reverberates throughout the families, community, and city in which she resides.