Tashika McBride is a Lecturer in the Department of Middle and High School Education at Lehman College, CUNY, where she serves as Program Director of the Human Rights Education & Transformative Justice Advanced Certificate Program. She is a human rights educator, restorative justice practitioner, curriculum designer, and researcher committed to advancing human dignity, educational equity, and social transformation.
Throughout her career, Tashika has partnered with schools, communities, and populations affected by systemic harm to create learning experiences that foster belonging, critical consciousness, and individual and collective healing. Her work includes collaborating with incarcerated youth in South Africa, facilitating restorative circles with survivors of domestic violence and incarcerated veterans at Rikers Island, and developing a transformative leadership program for an all-male high school impacted by the carceral system that centered positive identity development and affirmed their inherent humanity.
Grounded in human rights education, restorative and transformative justice, culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy, trauma informed practice, and somatic approaches, Tashika develops innovative curricula and educational initiatives that promote justice centered learning. She facilitates professional learning and organizational capacity building for educators, schools, nonprofits, community organizations, and youth serving agencies. Across her teaching and community work, she integrates the arts, including storytelling, visual art, music, poetry, and sewing, as pathways for processing harm, cultivating resilience, strengthening relationships, and supporting healing. Her scholarship and practice are rooted in the belief that education can be a powerful catalyst for justice, healing, and collective liberation.