Will French

Will (he/they) is a Ph.D. student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has worked in public education, college access, and community organizing for over 10 years in Minnesota and Tennessee. Will seeks to create more affirming educational systems for gender-expansive students and students of color. Their research explores how school systems (the interconnected network of educational policies, practices, physical spaces, and educators), at times, can function as safe havens for students of color and gender-expansive students and, at other times, alienate, retraumatize, and pathologize students and their experiences through racism, cisgenderism, and heterosexism. His research specifically examines how educational leaders (e.g. principals, superintendents, and school board members) navigate complex policy landscapes and lead for gender-expansive students and students of color. Will empowers school communities with the knowledge and tools to create schools with greater racial and gender justice.

Growing up Black, queer, and hard-of-hearing informs Will’s commitment to cultivating racial and gender justice in schools. He leverages a human developmental perspective, his personal background, and his professional expertise as a former school counselor to build cross-sector collaborations, foster systemic change, and humanize education. He previously earned B.A. degrees in English and Theater from Macalester College and an M.Ed. in Human Development Counseling from Vanderbilt University. They worked as a high school counselor, advised their school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance, and facilitated racial and gender equity trainings to educators across Tennessee.

Teaching

ELPA 890, Applied Research in Educational Administration: created policy briefs, co-presented webinar series about engaging with local school boards with GSAFE (local nonprofit).