The Challenge
Every day, educators of color walk into schools where they are outnumbered, unsupported, and undervalued. The result: they leave at disproportionately high rates — and when they go, students lose.
The research is clear on what's at stake. A Black student with one Black teacher by 3rd grade is 13% more likely to enroll in college. With two, that jumps to 32%. Studies also document a spillover effect: white students and non-Black students of color show achievement gains when Black educators are present.
But the impact isn't limited to matched-race outcomes. A diverse educator workforce benefits all students, building the cross-cultural understanding and broader perspective every student needs. This isn't a niche issue — it's a student achievement imperative.
What the research shows (Learning Policy Institute, 2026):
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Black teachers leave the profession at rates more than 20% higher than white teachers
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3 in 4 teachers who leave do so for preventable reasons — leadership, job, and workplace satisfaction
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Districts spend $12K–$25K every time a teacher walks out the door. For a district losing 10 teachers a year, that's $120,000–$250,000
While Black educators are well-documented, emerging research — including Support and Retain Educators of Color (Gabbadon, 2023) — shows similar patterns among Latino, Asian American, Indigenous, and other educators of color.
Retention is not an HR problem. It is a leadership problem — and a solvable one.
Services
Evidence-Based Leadership Professional Development
What's at stake: Administrators are one of the single greatest factors in whether educators of color stay or leave. Educators who feel supported by their leaders are 2x as likely to stay.
What we do: Evidence-based professional development for district and building leaders, leadership teams, and teacher leaders grounded in Dr. Gabbadon's book, Support and Retain Educators of Color.
Formats:
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Keynotes
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Summer intensive (2 days, 4 hrs each)
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Half-year partnership (3 sessions, 2 hrs each)
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Full school-year partnership
(6 sessions, 2 hrs each)
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Leadership Institute (2.5 days)
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Direct Affinity
Group Facilitation
What's at stake: Isolation is expensive. When educators of color feel unseen and unsupported, they leave — and school culture and institutional knowledge leave with them.
What we do: We lead identity-affirming affinity spaces in your context to support educators of color. 95%+ of affinity participants report feeling belonging, connectedness, and being seen and valued. We handle the design, facilitation, and structure — you see the results.
Formats:
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Half-year partnership (3 sessions, 2 hrs each)
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Full school-year partnership
(6 sessions, 2 hrs each)
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Facilitator Training
& Capacity Building
What's at stake: Great educators don't automatically make strong facilitators of outcomes-driven, identity-affirming spaces for adults focused on empowerment and retention. And if you're not identifying and training up internal talent now, what happens to your affinity spaces when the people currently leading them leave?
What we do: We train your staff to design, launch, and sustain affinity groups independently so the work takes root and grows. One trained cohort can reach hundreds of educators for years to come.
Formats:
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Half-year partnership (3 sessions, 2 hrs each)
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Full school-year partnership
(6 sessions, 2 hrs each)
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Executive Leadership Coaching
What's at stake: Leadership in schools is demanding, isolating, and rarely structured for reflection. Without dedicated thinking partnership and identity-affirming support, even strong leaders can struggle to lead with clarity and sustain their own capacity.
What's we do: Six customized sessions (one 75-minute intake plus five 50-minute sessions) over three to four months, with async support between sessions via email and Voxer, structured pre/midpoint/post measurement, and reflection prompts to keep progress active between meetings.
Who this is for: Aspiring principals preparing for their first leadership role · Sitting school leaders navigating high-stakes decisions · Teacher leaders stepping into broader influence
Common focus areas: Instructional leadership · Building strong teams · Sustaining yourself as a leader
Purchase Support and Retain Educators of Color!
Support and Retain Educators of Color sets school leaders on the path to creating a culturally diverse environment where all students and teachers can thrive.
Multiple studies have explored the benefits of teacher diversity and strategies to recruit educators of color, but few focus on how to retain them. As professional demands on teachers intensify, many are leaving the classroom—and educators of color, already underrepresented in the field, are walking away at higher rates than their white counterparts. Research indicates the presence of educators of color benefits all students, so we must act now to lessen this financially and culturally costly turnover.
Dr. Gabbadon presents six principles to guide school leaders in their efforts to support and retain educators of color:
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Acknowledge that teacher diversity matters.
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Cultivate reflection and self-awareness.
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Assess and plan for action.
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Commit to sustainable and high-impact instructional supports.
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Foster supportive environments for culturally responsive approaches.
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Lead for an inclusive community.
Featuring voices from teachers in the field, research-based strategies and solutions, and recommendations for resources to enhance understanding and practice, Support and Retain Educators of Color is a vital tool for leadership intent on cultivating an affirming, validating, and inclusive school environment to serve a diverse population of staff and students.
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WRITING
In addition to writing "Support and Retain Educators of Color: 6 Principles for Culturally Affirming Leadership”, Dr. Gabbadon has contributed to a wide range of prestigious academic journals and educational media, including:
Urban Education
The Urban Review
Educational Leadership Magazine
EdWeek
Through these platforms, she has leveraged her insights to advocate for critical issues surrounding culturally responsive and sustaining education, school racial climate, and educator diversity.
SPEAKING
Dr. Gabbadon is a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator.
She has spoken on a range of topics including:
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Healing in Community: Racial affinity groups as an institutional strategy for self and collective care.
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Culturally affirming leadership to support and retain BIPOC educators
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Advancing Equity through Instructional Leadership
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Creating Safer Spaces: Leadership strategies to combat microaggressions
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Developing a Plan to Recruit and Hire Teachers of Color
Her keynotes and workshops draw on 15 years of experience as a classroom educator, instructional coach, and assistant principal/director of curriculum and instruction in both traditional public and charter schools. Additionally, her doctoral training as a qualitative researcher and current work in the field allows her to bring a deep, scholarly understanding of issues facing the education systems and practical strategies on how to address them.
