About usTelling our story
The Black Montessori Education Fund (BMEF) is committed to Montessori education as a means of liberation. We are a fiscally sponsored project of MOMIE’s INC with a vision to bridge the educational gap for Black educators and families by providing access to quality and culturally responsive Montessori programs as a means for social, emotional, spiritual, and economic liberation.
Currently, Black children make up only 6% of the population in Montessori schools. Further, only 9% of Montessori teachers in the US identify as Black — and nearly 50% of all Black educators nationwide are living in poverty.
Therefore, we were born out of the glaring need for laser-focused efforts that support the Black community in educational equity and in using education as a liberatory instrument. The BMEF aims to develop a pipeline and network of highly-trained and supported Montessori educators, school leaders, alumni, and communities and to spread awareness of the Montessori method within the under-served Black community.
Our goal is to raise $1,000,000 in the next 2 years as a direct investment in Black educators, students, and administrators worldwide.
-
We aim to increase educational equity and support diversity and inclusion in Montessori education by investing in Black educators, children, administrators, and researchers all around the world.
-
The BMEF, founded by Dr. Ayize Sabater I, is a bold initiative launched from the energy of the Washington DC protests in 2020, which highlighted the need for a more equitable educational landscape in the US, and the impetus to use education as a means of liberation for the Black community. The BMEF celebrates Black educators, including past Black Montessori supporters and leaders such as Mary McLeod Bethune, and promotes Dr. Montessori's holistic philosophy within the Black community in efforts to increase Black engagement with the transformative Montessori approach.
-
The team at The Black Montessori Education Fund (BMEF) is committed to Montessori education as a means of liberation and has over 30 years of combined education and nonprofit experience.
Meet the teamThe BMEF is led by a team of dedicated Black Montessorians and educational leaders who have worked in the field for a combined 30+ years. Their desire for creating an avenue through which to solve the problem of under-representation of Black Montessori educators, leaders, and children has brought them to the BMEF.
A dynamic entrepreneur, community organizer and educator with over twenty years of community building experience, Dr. Ayize brings immense passion for the BMEF cause as one of its co-founders. He is also the co-founder of several community-based nonprofit institutions, including an independent Black school, a chain of live food vegetarian restaurants, community-based non-profit organizations and a Montessori Public Charter school in Washington, DC. Dr. Sabater graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse College and has a Master's Degree in Urban Ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary. He recently completed his doctoral studies on Family Engagement in the field of Urban Educational Leadership at Morgan State University. He has been at the forefront of community activism in Washington, DC and is a published educational researcher who lectures widely on Black Montessorians, community development, cultural empowerment, educational transformation, holistic health, and other topics.
Dr. Ayize Sabater I
CO FOUNDER
Writer, educator, and founder of Montessori Meisha, an online store selling diverse culturally appropriate Montessori teaching materials, Meisha is an accomplished Montessori teacher and program leader who has worked in Montessori environments around the world in various capacities, most commonly in the Lower Primary classrooms when not in leadership roles. She is passionate about education, racial equity, sustainability, and holistic health. She has spent many years volunteering in and pioneering for grassroots organic farming and eco-village communities around the world with a goal of increasing the access that communities have to quality organic local foods. Meisha graduated Magna Cum Laude from William Howard Taft University with a Master’s Degree in Education and a specialization in Montessori. She has an undergraduate degree in Journalism and International Relations, and worked for several years as a reporter and copy editor for the City of Miami, where she learned firsthand about the economic and educational disparity within the Black community that continues to widen the wealth gap in the US. As a Montessorian teaching around the world, she has firsthand knowledge of the importance of true diversity in Montessori and how it enriches communities, and her passion for incorporating more culturally appropriate and diverse learning materials in Montessori led to the creation of her online store.
Meisha Perrin
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Kazi has been with the BMEF since its inception in 2020, helping to create awareness, provide scholarships, and give support to recipients. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies from Howard University, and has been instrumental in helping the BMEF give out more than $200,000 in scholarships in 3 years. Additionally, he has been working for AMI USA for the past 8 years, helping to increase the range of Black education books offered to Montessori educators.
Kazi Chad Dennis
FINANCE ASSISTANT
Tosha has more than twenty years of experience extending capacity-building support to grassroots social justice organizations, starting from her experience as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana. Tosha has been trained as a Montessori Early Childhood teacher’s assistant. She founded an NGO in Togo, West Africa, centered on STEM and maker education. She has launched two licensed Maker Faire events, the first in Francophone Africa, to develop youth entrepreneurship and to promote African innovation and ingenuity internationally. Tosha is a former teacher and has taught at a private international school in Togo, West Africa, and a public charter school in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Howard University and a Master’s Degree from Johns Hopkins University Business School, focusing on nonprofit management. She is a development officer for a national nonprofit providing residential services to vulnerable youth.
Tosha Link
PHILANTHROPY COORDINATOR
Communities we have impacted$95,000+ in Teacher Training Scholarships awarded since 2020 for Black educators to pursue Montessori teacher training.
The BMEF has supported educational leaders in 5 countries start Montessori programs for their communities.
Donations to the BMEF have provided 61 families in the U.S. with scholarship funds to pay for their child’s Montessori school tuition.
Just under 150 scholarships and grants have been given to Black educators, families, and researchers since 2020.
BMEF andMOMIE’s TLCMentors of Minorities in Education Total Learning Cis-tem, (MOMIE'S TLC), a DC-based nonprofit organization dedicated to “nurturing the genius” of our children by creating a transformative educational experience, serves as the fiscal agent for the BMEF and is a 501 (c )3 non-profit organization.
M.O.M.I.E’s purpose is to transform education for at-risk children of color through an educational model that uses social justice and cultural education as the foundation for improving academic outcomes for our children.
