Elms College Welcomes Tyra Good as Faculty Director of the Center for Equity in Urban Education
CHICOPEE, Mass. — College of Our Lady of the Elms announced the appointment of Tyra Good, Ed.D., from Pittsburgh, PA, as the college’s first faculty director of the Center for Equity in Urban Education (CEUE).
“I am pleased that Dr. Good, a nationally recognized educator, has joined Elms College to become our first full-time faculty director of the Center for Equity in Urban Education,” said Elms College President Harry E. Dumay, Ph.D., MBA. “In her work experience, she has addressed the persistent issue of learning gaps among students from various socio-economic, race, and ethnic groups in the Pittsburgh area and I look forward to working with her to decrease the achievement gap here in western Massachusetts.” In this new position, Good is responsible for the strategic oversight and management of the college’s efforts to address this issue.
The CEUE was launched in September 2019 to increase the number and diversity of qualified teachers in the Chicopee, Holyoke, and Springfield school systems. In these school systems, the racial and ethnic composition of teachers is not representative of the students. This area also experiences an 800-teacher annual gap across K-12 schools, especially in specific roles such as special education, English language learners, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
Through a partnership with philanthropists, school districts, and charter school networks, and with a re-imagined curriculum, Elms College and Good aim to increase the pipeline of teachers, including teachers of color, who are culturally prepared to inspire the students whom they teach.
“I am elated to be leading the CEUE with students, staff, faculty, school leaders, foundations, and community members, who are also committed to creating educational equity and justice,” said Good. “Through culturally responsive course work and experiential learning experiences, a graduate of the Center for Equity in Urban Education will have expertise in both content and cultural knowledge to teach and lead in an urban setting, as well as within rural and suburban settings.”
Good has more than 10 years of experience teaching education, and, most recently, she was assistant professor of practice in education at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. Good is the founder and chief academic consultant for GOOD Knowledge Connections and the founder of the Black Educators Network (BEN) of Greater Pittsburgh. The BEN is a strategic team of K-12, Higher Education, and community educators working across school district and community lines to help ensure the academic and personal success of African-American youth from underserved communities.
For her dedication and commitment to diversifying the teaching pipeline and preparing pre-service teachers to work in urban settings, Good has received a myriad of award recognitions. Most recently, she was awarded a 2019 National Deeper Learning Equity Fellowship through Big Picture Learning and Internationals Network for Public Schools. Deeper Learning Equity Fellows are exceptional leaders, education practitioners, policy advocates, and researchers who are committed to expanding Deeper Learning educational practices aimed at improving public education opportunities for underserved communities.
Good received her bachelor’s in business management from Howard University, a master of arts in teaching from Chatham University, and a doctorate in educational leadership and evaluation from Duquesne University.
About Elms College
Elms College is a co-educational Catholic college offering a liberal arts curriculum that gives students multiple perspectives on life. Founded in 1928 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Elms College has a tradition of educating reflective, principled and creative learners, who are rooted in faith, educated in mind, compassionate in heart, responsive to civic and social obligations, and capable of adjusting to change without compromising principle.