Nancy Lawther’s Journey in Education

When Dr. Nancy Lawther was contacted in 2019 from Dr. Feldman, the current District 9 School Board member, “it took [her] about ten seconds” to agree to run for the District 9 School Board seat in upcoming elections. For Dr. Lawther, to run for this position made perfect sense since she had been head of the Miami-Dade County PTA which included about 50,000 members and had worked on education policy in Tallahassee to “increase career and technical education” among other priorities. Dr. Lawther’s own son was raised and educated within District 9.

From her extensive experience as an educator, the candidate “learned to expect just about anything.” In Pennsylvania, she completed courses to become a teacher before attending Washington University in St. Louis to earn her master’s degree and Yale University to earn her doctoral degree in French. At Yale, she had her first teaching experience with undergraduate students.

Dr. Lawther has taught French at Texas A&M University, University of Georgia, and Barry University. Currently, she teaches at the University of Miami’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. With many of her students being elderly, Dr. Lawther has learned that everyone can share valuable knowledge. Dr. Lawther plans on hosting cross-community learning opportunities, either face to face utilizing school site space or remotely utilizing virtual platforms, in which community members can educate the student body in an entertaining manner whether through skills such as music or by telling stories

The candidate believes one of her unofficial responsibilities will be to promote inclusion and antiracist policies within Miami-Dade County. Dr. Lawther shows adamant support for recently passed actions H9 and H10. These actions, proposed by Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindigall and Dr. Steve Gallon III respectively, request the creation of a student task force within schools to discuss systemic racism and reaffirm the school board’s commitment to promoting equity with an emphasis on Black students

Dr. Lawther was recently interviewed by the student-led organization, Youth Education Coalition (YEC), which focuses on emphasizing school board elections to the public. The YEC advocates for student voices to be involved in policy making. In accordance, she plans on keeping the “Coffee & Conversation”’ tradition that Dr. Feldman implemented to meet with parents and other community members from District 9 schools. Dr. Lawther plans on making school board meetings accessible by creating a way for constituents to remotely comment on items and by updating the her school board member webpage to include a space for students to submit concerns. She is “exploring the possibility of creating satellite offices in District 9” where her team would meet with constituents to address concerns. Solutions regarding accessibility are especially relevant given that District 9 is the largest school district in the county

Whether it be promoting student voices or updating Miami-Dade’s curriculum, Dr. Lawther continues contemplating many solutions to the issues that await her during the August 18, 2020 elections.