I love to share stories about educators who have also enjoyed successful careers in fields other than the classroom. One of these is Marsheda Ewulomi, a former high school English teacher who now works as a lawyer. Her specialty? Police accountability and expanding higher education for Chicago prisoners.
Marsheda was born in Lansing, Michigan. As a young woman, she attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree with a major in English and a minor in African and AfroAmerican Studies in 2012.
Once she earned her degree, Marsheda accepted a position with Teach for America. She was hired as a high school English teacher in Washington, DC. In addition to her classroom duties, Marsheda led a team of four teachers in diverse content areas to create cross-curricular assignments, provided support in classroom management, and identified students at risk of failing academically and behaviorally. She also generated action plans for specific students that led to 100% of the students promoting up to the next grade. The young teacher served in this capacity from 2012 to 2014.
When she completed her obligation with Teach for America, Marsheda returned to her home state of Michigan. There she worked as a Behavioral and Academic Interventionist at her alma mater, the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy. During her tenure there, Marsheda provided professional support for new teachers. She also founded a club to support 7th and 9th grade girls and supervised an after-care program for kindergartners and first graders. As if all that wasn’t enough, she also worked as a floating substitute and coached dance!
After some years at the academy, the former teacher enrolled at the Northwestern Pritzker School of law. She graduated from law school, cum laude, in 2018. She now works in Chicago where she specializes in police accountability and expanding higher education for prisoners.
To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this link to her resume.