Fern Gillespie
When educator Dr. Trina Lynn Yearwood realized that young teachers she was mentoring at Brooklyn College were leaving the profession, she decided a new type of outreach was needed. In 2017, the lifelong Brooklyn resident founded Teachers Ready to Educate, Advocate, and Transform (TREAT), a networking and mentoring collective of educators dedicated to the power of teaching.
“They were new teachers, and wanted to leave,” Dr. Yearwood told Our Time Press. “It’s consistent with the research that in the first five years, teachers want to leave. It’s the lack of support. Feeling isolated. Feeling like veteran teachers would shut them down. TREAT is a response to what I saw happening and to keep teachers in the classroom.”
At that time, she was an accreditation manager and teacher educator at Brooklyn College, working with education majors. “There is this disconnect between what they are prepared for and what they actually need,” she said. “There’s also a disconnect between theory and practice. What sometimes happens in colleges and schools of education is that what students learn doesn’t necessarily mirror what’s happening in schools and classrooms.”
Dr. Yearwood’s extensive career in education spans 25 years. She’s served as Associate Dean of the School of Education at LIU Brooklyn and Interim Associate Dean of the School of Education at Queens College. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English and Africana Studies from Brooklyn College, her Master’s in Education from Cambridge College, and her doctorate in Educational Leadership–Higher Education from West Virginia University, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar.
Under President Biden’s administration, she was a recipient of the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Service, recognizing her commitment to community and educational equity. This year, she was appointed the President of the Brooklyn College Alumni Association.
“One of the ways to ensure to retain our teachers is to make sure that they understand the population that they are going to teach. Our classrooms are becoming more and more diverse in spite of the anti-DEI,” she explained. “There is a disconnect between theory and practice, and not being prepared for the realities of the public schools’ classroom. For example, children who might have societal problems that they’re facing like food insecurity, homelessness.”
Years later, she’s still disturbed about a faculty member, who was teaching counseling at one of the colleges, commenting enthusiastically to her that she was “articulate.” “I told her that I hope all associate deans are articulate. I have three degrees and an earned doctorate,” she recalled. “I had a conversation with the dean, and I told him that what was most concerning is that she is preparing students to become school psychologists who are going to assess children who look like me. If those microaggressions and that racist way of thinking show up in her class through her students, it’s going unchecked.”
In addition, she advocates for careers in education not limited to teaching. “I have to show the other pathways that are available in teaching as well,” she said. “Like school counselors, social workers and people who work together for the success of our children.”
She also advocates a holistic mental health approach to teaching.
“I work with younger, newer teachers, and I see so many of them sacrificing their own happiness and well-being because they want to make a difference in their children’s lives. I believe we should always give our all to ensure that our children are successful, but not at the detriment of our own well-being,” she said. “I feel you should always do your very best, but not what it means sacrificing your own well-being. To set boundaries.”
Raised in East Flatbush by parents from the Bahamas and Panama, she initially wanted to be a lawyer. Then a teacher changed her life. Mrs. Barton, one of her few Black teachers at Samuel J. Tilden High School in East Flatbush, assigned her English class to read “A Soliloquy to the Black Women of America,” a poignant poem written by Charlotte B. Brown. “The poem changed how I felt as being a young Black woman,” Dr. Yearwood said. “It was at a time in adolescence, where identity development, and who you are, and where are you see yourself in the world. In that moment, it really shifted something for me. There was this pride.”
“I told Mrs. Barton that I want to be an English teacher just like you. So, I can inspire young minds the way you inspired mine,” she said. After earning her bachelor’s degree in English and Africana Studies from Brooklyn College, Mrs. Barton, then an Assistant Principal in the English/Communications Department, hired her to teach English at her alma mater high school.
It was her first job in education. “Mrs. Barton took me under her wing and mentored me,” she said. “It kind of motivated me to create TREAT. If I didn’t have her during those first three years of my teaching career, I probably would have left. I understood the importance of support as a young teacher.”
TREAT has held education summits with teachers, college students, and high school students. The professional learning network established in 2018 supports and sustains educators through mentoring and networking. TREAT has partnered with schools and organizations, including Brooklyn College Teacher Opportunity Corps Program, New York City Men Teach, Black and Latino Male Initiative, Brooklyn College Department of Africana Studies. TREAT’s work has even extended to Jamaica, Barbados, Ghana, and Vienna.
Dr. Yearwood continues to teach part-time at Brooklyn College and serves as a student teacher supervisor. “We need great teachers and other educators, who are passionate and love the work and understand that they are making an impact on the future,” she said. “I believe that when like-minded individuals come together, monumental things can happen.”
For more information on TREAT, visit www.wearetreat.com