Meet Facing History & Ourselves in North Carolina

Kimberly Jones is an English and Humanities teacher for Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools and the 2023 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. She has been a teacher in Chapel Hill/Carrboro since 2006. Kimberly earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Education from Wake Forest University.

Kimberly has spent the majority of her career teaching high school English and has a special dedication to Holocaust and Human Rights education. She serves as a Regional Site Director for TOLI, a National Holocaust and Human Rights education nonprofit, and also works as an education consultant for PBS on the state and national level. She also serves her profession in a variety of board and commission positions that seek to advance public education, improve student outcomes, increase equity and cultural relevance in teaching and learning, and elevate teacher voice and efficacy. 

These positions allow Kim to support fellow educators throughout the state and country in building lessons that help students to use their learning to build positive, productive, and empowered futures for themselves and their communities.

Kim has won numerous awards in her teaching career including recognition by Governor Roy Cooper and the NC African American Heritage Commission for contributions to public education across North Carolina and the NC Attorney General’s Dogwood Award for public service in the field of education.

Desmond K. Blackburn, PhD began serving as President and CEO of Facing History & Ourselves in April, 2023.

Desmond is committed to bringing Facing History’s resources to more teachers, schools, and districts than ever. He is also dedicated to nurturing a workplace culture where staff are highly engaged and excited to help teachers and their students stand up to bigotry and hate. 

Before joining Facing History, Desmond was Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership for the New York City Department of Education, the largest school system in the nation. In this role, he oversaw executive superintendents in addition to all-district and high school superintendents. Prior to that, Desmond served as CEO of the New Teacher Center, a national nonprofit that works to disrupt the predictability of educational inequities for systemically underserved students by accelerating educator effectiveness. 

His career in education began in 1996 as a high school math teacher. Desmond continued to follow his passion for education as he rose through the Broward County Public School system in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Assistant Principal, Principal, Director of School Improvement, Area Superintendent, and finally Chief of School Performance & Accountability. In 2015 he became the Superintendent of Schools for Brevard Public Schools in Brevard County, where his guidance led to the 10th highest graduation rate in the state with three schools earning the distinguished National Blue Ribbon, and the State of Florida grading the system with an “A” for two consecutive years.

Desmond has served both state and national organizations including the Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) and Chiefs For Change. He sits on the Board of Educational Resource Strategies and is a fellow at the Broad Academy and Pahara Institute as well as an Advisory Committee Member for The Broad Center at the Yale School of Management. He received a BS in Mathematics from the University of Florida along with graduate degrees in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University (MS) and Florida Atlantic University (PhD).