Scholar, thought leader, and National Director of Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools, Dr. Kristal Moore Clemons joins us to focus on the foundations of education, academic leadership, and diversity.

Rooted in the Mississippi Freedom Summer project of 1964, the CDF Freedom Schools program has historically and continues to be a part of the Black Community Crusade for Children®. The CDF Freedom Schools program offers engagement through both a six-week summer and after-school literacy and cultural enrichment program designed to serve children and youth in grades K–12 in communities where quality academic enrichment programming is limited, too expensive, or non-existent.

Dr. Clemons is a native of Chicago, Illinois and a graduate of DePaul University having earned her B.A. in Women’s Studies and Political Science. She earned an M.A. from Washington State University in American Studies, her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Education-Culture, Curriculum and Change and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from Duke University.