Beverly Cross is the Morrie and Lillian Moss Chair of Excellence in Urban Education in the College of Education at the University of Memphis. Her research focuses on equity in education, urban education, and teacher leadership. She provides leadership for the Urban Education Certificate Program and the River City Partnership. She engages with the community on African-American family engagement, voice, and power. She currently serves on the boards of the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis and for the School Seed Foundation. Nationally, she is involved with the American Educational Research Association, the Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the National Board of Scholars for Facing History Scholars, and the National Research Scholar for the National Dropout Prevention Network.
Beverly Cross earned her PhD at The Ohio State University. She served as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where her work centered on urban education, equity, and social justice. She taught in a specialized program designed to increase access to teaching for local teaching assistants who used their strengths in community knowledge to improve the quality of education for P-12 students. Now, as faculty at the University of Memphis, she designed a Graduate Certificate in Urban Education that offers an advanced program of study in instruction and curriculum leadership in urban educational contexts. The Urban Certificate focuses on urban communities, educational equity, and improving teaching, learning, and achievement for diverse student populations while honoring and integrating their cultures, races, and languages. The program primarily serves doctoral students who are educational and community leaders and who continue to serve as exceptional influencers in multiple sectors across the city and county.
