ABOUT US

Black Male Educators Alliance of Michigan (BMEA) is a collective of educators, mentors, community leaders, and other professionals who believe that strong Black male educators are essential to transforming our education system. Recognizing that there are institutional impediments to diversity in the education profession, our mission is to increase and strengthen the community of Black male educators in Michigan classrooms to improve educational experiences and outcomes for all children.

We achieve this by partnering with educational agencies at the local, state and national level to support RECRUITING black men into education, RETAINING black male educators, and DEVELOPING leaders to improve the education of urban youth.

Founder and CEO, Dr. Curtis L. Lewis, in 2015, had a vision to galvanize all his learning, years of experience, and network of educators to marshal in a new organization with the primary goal to recruit, retain, and develop black male educators. Black Male Educators Alliance of Michiganwas established to dismantle the institutional impediments to diversity within the educational profession, thereby improving the educational experiences of all children.

In its pilot year, 2017, due to overwhelming commitment to the mission and volunteer support, BMEA provided quality programming, professional development, networking opportunities, and a transformational midwest regional conference to over 500 educators, community leaders and policy makers in the Midwest region.

In the Fall of 2019, Black Male Educators Alliance of Michigan (BMEA) partnered with Henry Ford Learning Institute (HFLI) to offer a unique fellowship opportunity to 20 black male educators through the MBK Innovation Challenge Detroit initiative. The Developing Strong Black Male Educators Fellowship focused on supporting black male educators with their work to engage young men of color in positive and effective learning experiences. The Fellowship was designed to provide fellows with new tools and methods that draw from best practices in leadership, instruction, culturally responsive teaching and design thinking.

The 2020 Fellowship drew on lessons learned from our pilot year, and due to the pandemic this year’s fellowship sessions were hosted online via a virtual platform.

THE MISSION

Our Mission is to increase and strengthen the community of Black male educators in classrooms across the nation, to improve educational outcomes for all children.

We achieve this by partnering with educational agencies at the local, state and national level to support Recruiting black men into education, Retaining black male educators, and Developing leaders to improve the education of youth and transform their overall educational experience.

The Network: BMEA’s Focus Areas:

Policy: BMEA works closely with educational policy makers in Detroit and the Michigan Department of Education to bring awareness and to advocate for change or support in all policy areas that greatly impact students and staff.

Mentoring: BMEA mentors young black male students at the middle and high school level. The mentoring program will focus on academic excellence, responsibility to community, social justice and the importance of education.

Recruiting: BMEA is committed to recruiting top high school black male talent into colleges of education, and to recruiting the top professionals into teaching.

Instructional Leadership & Training: BMEA facilitates various professional development training sessions to educators and leaderships, and hosts an annual fellowship to black male educators in the areas of Culturally Responsive Education, Restorative Practices, and other best practices in the classroom.