People in Education

Detroit-based educators ✨
Join us this Wednesday, January 28th at CAIRO Coffee for our monthly meet-up rooted in connection, care, and collective power.
This gathering is for teachers working in any child-centered or learning environment who are committed to liberatory education across the city. This month, we’re centering the ongoing efforts of educators across the U.S. to create sanctuary for children in our classrooms and learning spaces.
-Coffee’s on us
-Meet other educators in your network
-Build frameworks of support for yourself and your learning community
Come as you are. Let’s strengthen the web together.

CommunityAsMedicine

Community as Medicine is about tending relationships so educators can thrive. We’re so grateful for our participants this year! So far, we’ve shared meals and coffee, reflected on our roles in education, and traced the paths that brought us to teaching. Our first gathering centered on welcome—breaking bread, building trust, and sharing the stories that brought us to the classroom. Our second meal invited reflection on family systems and generational cycles, exploring how care and lineage shape how we show up for students.
Looking ahead to our next dinner, we’ll turn toward educator rights and sustainability—creating space to understand how protecting ourselves, both holistically and legally, supports healthier classrooms. Together, we’ll begin mapping the needs, connections, and protections necessary to sustain our teaching practices amid an evolving educational landscape.

Application for Community As Medicine extended till Tuesday September 30th!

We are seeking fifteen Detroit based teachers to join our third year of Community As Medicine! Open to educators working in traditional and non traditional education spaces.
Click the link in our bio to learn more about the program and apply today!

Community As Medicine is back! 🗣️
We are seeking fifteen Detroit based, early career educators to join our third Cohort.

This year’s dinners will delve into radical teaching practices within the contemporary classroom, exploring themes such as non carceral conflict resolution, teacher and student rights advocacy, sustainable approaches to classroom structures, and more. Community as Medicine is a professional development series dedicated to transforming isolation into collective power. We bring together early career teachers, artists, organizers, and community spaces to imagine new possibilities for education rooted in care, creativity, and social change.
We believe educators are not only practitioners but cultural architects, shaping the collective imagination of our society. Together we work to disrupt the isolation of teaching, build bridges across disciplines and neighborhoods, cultivate networks of mutual support and creative resistance, and develop new pathways for education that center community and collaboration.
Within this program, every teacher is both a learner and a leader, contributing to a growing ecosystem of education that reaches beyond traditional boundaries. Community as Medicine is more than a support network, it is a foundation for a more inclusive, connected, and transformative future in education.

Please visit the link in our bio to apply!

Applications are open through September 22 2025

CALLING YOUTH RESEARCHERS! 🗣️
PIE is thrilled to announce a new collaboration with the Youth Development Resource Center Detroit! We are looking for Youth Researchers to support us refreshing the standards for Detroit’s out-of-school programs.
Are you a young person between the ages of 16-24? Have you participated in after school programming that you felt strongly about? We would love to hear from you!

More info:
We are hoping to enlist the support of Detroit youth between the ages of 16-24 to:

1) provide us with feedback on the existing YDRC quality standards guide; offering suggestions on design and format, language accessibility, and overall content.

2) provide us with insights into their personal experience as youth in afterschool programming in Detroit.

3) offer feedback to us in the creation of the refreshed version of the quality standards guide

For your support!
We are offering 5 youth researchers stipends of $500 for their thoughts, participation and support over the course of 5 in-person sessions with our team.

Interested applicants can fill out a short form in our Bio. Our selection process will take place at the end of March and applicants can expect to hear back the first week of April.

What does it mean to Lead?
In 2023 PIE made a commitment to shifting towards a lateral leadership structure. In doing so, we hoped to honor the diverse voices that make up Detroit’s educational landscape by having 3 co- executive directors with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Since then Kiarra Ambrose, Jose Rivas and Cyrah Dardas have been working collaboratively and holding different portions of our programmatic offerings. Throughout our time of holding these roles, we have invested a considerable amount of time working together on our non hierarchical leadership structure as well as investing in the design and implementation of an advisory council. At PIE we feel strongly that the creation of and tending to this type of leadership format is integral in making sure that the work we do is rooted in a diverse and inclusive approach. It gives us a playground to experiment with loving, self-led accountability, equitable distribution of power, and the invitation to be lifelong learners. All these principles are intertwined with every offering we put forth into the larger community, charting a path of repair and reciprocity for the future. Click the link in our bio to learn more about what leadership means to us at PIE!

This month we wrapped up our 2nd iteration of Community As Medicine! For our final meal we were generously hosted by an artist-­‐run neighborhood-­‐based nonprofit arts organization nestled in Hamtramck.
Throughout our time together, we have been contemplating and discussing ways we can care for each other as teachers navigating the often challenging realities of the educational landscape in Detroit. Centering our practice of meal sharing as medicine, we decided to create a small cookbook for each other and to share with other educators. This little book is meant to spark inspiration in the kitchen’s of its readers; Each recipe was picked specifically by our teacher members for its power to weave love into a meal, gathering, supper club picnic or party. Our final gathering of the year was a chance for us to celebrate the co creation of this book over *yet another* stunning meal provided by our food parter in the lovely Pops Packing home garden.
Thank you to our friends for always supporting our media project dreams and helping us make this cookbook together.

‘Gather’ A cookbook for teachers by teachers will be available soon :)

Announcing FOUNDATIONS OF RADICAL WELLNESS a summer program led by Kiarra Ambrose in collaboration with The Reclaim Series exploring connection, body awareness, and reflection to develop personal root practices that keep us grounded and connected to self.
This program is specifically designed for leaders in education; principals, assistant principals, directors of nonprofits and anyone who is in a leadership position with an organization that works directly with young people.
What to expect-
Participants should expect to spend some time reconnecting with their core values and doing so through light movement. They should wear clothes that are comfortable and be prepared to move in the space individually and collectively.
To apply click the link in our Bio! Applications will open on May 28th and stay open until June 11th or until we reach capacity.
, , , ,

Community as Medicine, March dinner: Ancestral guides to a new beginning
Our second communal meal was guided by our transition into spring with the vernal equinox or Nowrooz celebrated by many cultures and peoples which symbolizes the renewal of the year and the spirit of new beginnings. It’s a time for cleansing, making space for fresh energies and experiences. Nowrooz calls on us to reflect on our past in order to make room for our future.

We contemplated this theme in relationship to the change and new beginnings we see are so deeply needed within the educational landscape at this time. During our gathering, we held meaningful conversations about our journeys as educators. From our motivations to the influences of our ancestors and role models, to the personal experiences within our bloodlines that continue to shape our teaching practices today. As educators, we understand the importance of reflection, both on our own educational paths and those of our students. Through shared stories and insights, we deepened our understanding of the generational and personal factors that led us to this noble, and timeless profession.
Thank you again to our partner for your incredible cooking 🌱 and to for hosting us.

In continuation of our Community As Medicine dinner series, last month we gathered at our community partner’s home for a shared meal and conversation. This time, we considered what collective care in action looks like. 💙
Guided by our friend Angela, head chef of .chifanle, we made dumplings and shared the delicious meal we co created.

Community as Medicine is a project led by teaching artists Maya Davis and Cyrah Dardas that centers the needs and dreams of early career educators in Detroit through facilitated dinners to connect and build community, to process their experiences and collectively cultivate a network of support. This project is crafted by and for teachers with the understanding that being an educator is a rigorous practice and requires a depth of tending to cultivate personal and professional growth.

Welcome People In Education’s New Leadership Team!
In the continued evolution of PIE, we are excited to introduce our new leadership team! This fall, we welcomed Kiarra Ambrose, Cyrah Dardas and Jose Rivas to serve as our Leadership Team!
Last year as PIE prepared for a leadership transition, we reinvisioned leadership roles and positions. Moving away from a single Director, towards a team in hopes of building a supportive and collaborative structure. This leadership team is made up of people who have long standing commitments to PIE and our mission to humanizing learning. We are beyond excited for y’all to get to meet this team over the coming months as they share their vision and plan for the next phases of PIE’s work
Click the link in our bio to learn more about the new leaders of PIE 💙

Last month we gathered for our first meal in our Community As Medicine dinner series! As we gathered over delicious food, our conversation was guided by this quote and prompt-
“We seldom admit the seductive comfort of hopelessness. It saves us from ambiguity. It has an answer for every question: “there's just no point” hope on the other hand, is messy. If it might all work out then we have things to do. We must weather the possibility of hope.”
-Jarod. K Anderson
Let us weather the possibility of hope together; what does radical hope look like for you in your practice?

Throughout the meal, folks shared about their relationship to the education system in Detroit and the ways in which hope and hopelessness impact them, both personally and professionally. Together we collected practices of hope in which we nourish ourselves as people, and as educators.
Grateful for our partners for hosting us, for nourishing us and for each of the invitees that generously offered their unique insight and compassionate understanding✨