Teresa Willis: Teresa is a middle-school humanities teacher who’s spent the past eight years teaching  English and social studies in New York City public and private schools. Teresa is also an expert Restorative Practices facilitator skilled in leading restorative circles for youth and adults, and in providing training, consultation and coaching for educators and youth development professionals seeking to implement Restorative Practices in their schools and organizations. 

Teresa earned her undergraduate degree in psychology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned graduate degrees in journalism and social work – both from Columbia University, and her M.Ed. from Metropolitan College of New York.  

Teresa’s “emotionally wrenching yet brilliantly triumphant” debut novel, Like A Tree Without Roots (Ase Publishing, 2013), chronicles the lives of urban teenagers and their struggle to overcome internalized white supremacy and the light-skinned, dark-skinned, good-hair, bad-hair madness. She wrote her first book, It’s All Good Daily Affirmations for Teens (Emp! Emp! Press, 1999) because of the murder of an 11-year-old Chicago boy – a child she didn’t know yet one whose struggles she knew all too well.  

Currently, Teresa is working with a committed group of teachers, parents and community members to birth Middle Passage School for Life – a private school serving a very public mission in Harlem, USA.