South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education Candidate Profile: Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad – The Village Green

Seven candidates have filed to run for three seats on the 9-person South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education (election day is Tuesday, November 5, 2019). Village Green is posting profiles for each candidate. The following profile was submitted by Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad, who is running for her third term on the SOM BOE. Read Village Green’s Election Guidelines here.

Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad has her hands – and heart – in a lot of pots. As a mother, wife, community activist, school board member, college trustee and technology consultant, Stephanie has always put the concerns of others above her own. She has always worked to help make her community live up to its potential.

In 2012, as our district was navigating difficult discussions around leveling vs. de-leveling, Stephanie raised her voice and began to engage in issues around equity for all students. She found a community of like-minded advocates and started supporting Board of Education candidates committed to improving equity. Eventually, Stephanie was encouraged to run for the Board herself.

During her first campaign she was energized by her conversations with people throughout the community – parents and grandparents of children in both district and outside schools; residents without children who still wanted the best for our students. Listening to the concerns and ideas of those residents, and sharing with them the vital importance of our schools’ and our students’ success to everyone in our community, reinvigorated Stephanie’s spirit of community engagement.

Shortly before the election, Stephanie was invited to join the Board of Trustees at Bloomfield College. Bloomfield is the 15th most diverse national liberal arts college in the United States. More than half of its students identify themselves as first-generation American and are the first in their families to enroll in a college or university. Excited by what she could learn from Bloomfield and what she could bring to its Board, Stephanie accepted. Within a month she found herself serving on both the Bloomfield College Board and the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education. Over the last six years on both boards, Stephanie has worked hard to drive solutions at both the K-12 and collegiate levels.

Stephanie has served as the Board of Education representative to the Essex County School Boards Association and the NJ School Boards Legislation Committee. Over the course of her tenure, she served on every committee and chaired Finance, Facilities and Technology; Policy and Monitoring; and Access and Equity.  She has served as liaison to SEPAC and the Community Coalition on Race. She has developed a deep knowledge of the cares and concerns of constituents across the district and brings a thoughtful consideration to every vote and every position for which she advocates.

Stephanie is also an active and vocal opponent of school segregation, not just in our community, but across the state. In August of 2018, she led a meeting of elected leaders, parents, teachers, experts, ministers, and civil rights leaders with the Governor’s senior staff to call for a meaningful fix for New Jersey’s problem of school segregation. In November 2018, Stephanie convened and chaired a public meeting with over 100 superintendents, legal scholars, academics, board members, NAACP leaders, teachers, parents, and local elected officials to build grassroots support for meaningful desegregation efforts across the state of New Jersey.

Just this summer, Stephanie launched her Erasing Essex’s Borders: Blurring the Lines initiative, with a festival at the Hat City Lofts Courtyard in Orange. In Stephanie’s words, “I have a vision of erasure for Essex County. Not the erasure of our history, but of the borders that divide us. The lines that lift some and lower others. The sense of hierarchy and the lack of belonging. I want to be part of a movement that is about unifying our county, creating a sense of belonging that transcends boundaries – borders – lines.”

Stephanie’s most important role is as mom to her three children. Gibran (19) is a sophomore at Temple University, Jordan (17) is a senior at Columbia High School, and Justice (13) is in 8th grade at South Orange Middle School. Her husband, Khalil, is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Visit Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad’s campaign website at slm4boe.com.