Angela Campbell, PhD, started teaching in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at Cabrini in 2013. Three years later, she was appointed Assistant Dean for the School of Education. In 2017, she was named a co-director of Cabrini’s new Center for Urban Education, Equity, and Improvement, which will be hosting their inaugural Shirley Dixon Celebration of Urban Education Symposium this April. Campbell primarily teaches graduate-level courses that focus on the topic of urban education. She is also a dissertation chair member and, newly, a doctoral advisor aiming to help students conceptualize their research and move them from an idea to a project. Campbell is very focused on inclusivity and cultural sensitivity training and research. Currently, she is working on a research project with Maya Gordon, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, that will uncover how microaggressions affect the campus climate. Soon, she will begin running a series of workshops for young women at Roxborough High School to help empower them to work together, solve conflict, and build stronger relationships with one another.
Do you have a favorite subject matter or lesson that you teach?
I like teaching urban education courses because I like talking to my students about strengths-based approaches in education, which entails looking at people as multidimensional, capable human beings who have the capacity to transform their own conditions. I am a big champion for social justice which is why I love our social justice mission at Cabrini. We can use it to pose problems, to solve problems, and to prevent them and that’s what I enjoy doing as a teacher and researcher.
What is your go-to advice for Cabrini students?
You’re amazing, competent, capable, students. You are here on purpose during this time and at this place to make a contribution as well as to learn how to fulfill your own purpose and destiny. I have great faith that when my students believe in themselves they can achieve whatever they will.
What is your favorite item in your office and why?
The pictures of my parents and my children.
What is your favorite quote and why?
"We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes." - Ella J. Baker
This is the quote that I have in my signature line in my emails. It is my favorite quote because I consider myself a scholar-activist. I am very much interested in human liberation and in particular, the liberation, restoration, and empowerment of people of African descent, as an African descendent person, and of all people. I believe that when justice and liberation exist for any group it should exist for all people, but we are at a time where we have inequities and everyone doesn’t have that equal shot at life and protection granted by the constitution.
Do you have any hidden talents or interests? If so, what are they?
Well, they won’t be hidden now, but I am a poet who has yet to publish my poetry. I used to write poetry a lot and I plan on getting back into that one day. I also enjoy singing (in the shower).
What are the top three songs on your current playlist?
“Champion” - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
“Angel” – Lalah Hathaway
“Wisdom” – Gregory Porter
Where is your favorite place in the world?
This is a tough one for me. It’s a toss-up between Miami Beach, Puerto Rico, and the Dead Sea in Israel.
What are two things still left on your bucket list?
Speak Spanish fluently and write a memoir.