About Lynette

At a young age, Lynette recognized grave educational inequalities existed depending on what a person looked like and where a person lived.  She began her education career nearly three decades ago as an elementary classroom teacher and high school athletic coach and committed herself to provide all her students – predominantly children of color and children of poverty – with a high-quality education.

Since 1995, Lynette has served in myriad educational roles including teacher, coach, literacy coordinator, school/district administrator, professional developer, researcher, lecturer, education consultant, and education delegate throughout the United States and within five continents – Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.  Lynette has visited hundreds of schools and classrooms and interacted with, trained, and supported many educators worldwide.

Lynette helped to transform two low-performing schools into #1 ranked high-performing schools – one as a literacy coordinator and the other as a school principal.  In 2009, she was one of only five students accepted to participate in Harvard’s elite Urban Superintendents Doctoral Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  There, Lynette researched and learned about the grave educational inequalities that existed for incarcerated youth.  She committed herself to learn more about the triumphs and challenges juvenile justice educators experience and figure out how to best support these educators to be successful working with our nation’s most marginalized populations.

Lynette is an independent education consultant and is an adjunct lecturer on education at Harvard.  She is the author of Educating Incarcerated Youth: Exploring the Impact of Relationships, Expectations, Resources, and Accountability (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Surviving Elder Financial Abuse (2021).  Lynette has additional published writings in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management (2020), the Harvard Educational Review (2017), the National Association for Public Defense (2016), educationpost (2015), and Education Week (2014). Her work is also featured in the Harvard Ed. Magazine (2021, 2015, 2014, 2013), The Hechinger Report (2018), The 74Million (2016), and The Harvard Crimson (2020).

Lynette holds both a Doctor of Education degree (2013) and a Master of Education Policy and Management degree (2010) from Harvard University, a Master of Educational Administration with Distinction degree (2003) from Kean University, and a Bachelor of Elementary Education Cum Laude degree (1995) from Greensboro College.