Biography
Dr. Lisa Green-Derry is proud to refer to herself as NOLA BRAR (pronounced “bruh”) - New Orleans Born, Raised and Returned. She attributes much of her success to family, members of the Seventh Ward community where she grew up, and to her teachers in public schools.
Dr. Lisa has collaborated with universities and school districts to write and strengthen teacher preparation policies, specifically those that focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Dr. Lisa’s expertise and advocacy for policies that influence teacher preparation has been recognized by American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and National Science Foundation. She has served on an advisory committee for NBPTS to establish teacher residency academies in collaboration with Jackson State University and Xavier University of Louisiana. While a high school science teacher and advocate for policies around communities affected by HIV and AIDS, she was nominated to become a Met-Life Fellow and subsequently invited to co-author a chapter entitled Cultivating a Heartfelt Sense of Community: An Essential Teacher Competency for Preventing HIV and AIDS in Humanizing Pedagogy through HIV and AIDS Prevention: Transforming Teacher Knowledge.
In recent years, Dr. Green-Derry has worked with local and national public housing organizations, property developers, community based organizations, and educational institutions to revise family engagement policies. Understanding that in communities where families are marginalized, programs are developed without considering families’ funds of knowledge, she designed an intergenerational extended learning model based on what families wanted.
Community resources, retired educators as instructors, adult family members and siblings as teaching assistants, along with culture bearers as providers of physical, social, and emotional enrichment, were intentionally included in the model. Dr. Lisa has been a medical laboratory scientist, classroom teacher and supervisor in pre-kindergarten through post-secondary educational institutions, and administrator of a national non-profit.
Dr. Lisa’s knowledge about trauma’s effect on learning and teaching informs the integrative approach she employs with students, families, schools, universities, and as well with non-educational organizations. Dr. Lisa served briefly as Board Chair of Operation Spark. She has collaborated with New Orleans’ Parent Leadership Training Institute, Gilbert & Associates, McDonogh 35 Alumni Association, Our Voices Nuestra Voz, Brothers Empowered to Teach,
W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and other organizations to design and facilitate professional growth activities. All of Dr. Lisa’s professional experiences coalesce around teaching, learning, and advocating for policies of equity that support positive educational and social outcomes for families.
Dr. Green-Derry holds a B.S. in Medical Technology and M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction, Secondary Education from Xavier University of Louisiana, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas, Arlington.
She is the proud wife of Horace Derry, a retired educator with expertise in teaching children identified with special educational needs. Dr. Lisa is also the mother of three adult children, their spouses, and “MiMi” to six grandchildren.