ABEN combines and disseminates evidence-based research findings, education strategies, and culture through offering professional development opportunities, student-focused programming, and curricula designed to empower the educators of Black students and Black students themselves. Specifically, ABEN supports and partners with educational institutions - schools, churches, non-profit organizations, educators, researchers, parents, corporations, foundations, especially those who focus on African-centered education - that work to ensure Black students reach their full potential. Kmt G. Shockley is professor of educational leadership at the University of Houston. His interests include research on African-centered education and maroonage. Dr. Rona Frederick serves as a coordinator of Education Studies at the Catholic University of America. She has written more than a dozen research articles on culturally responsive teaching of children of African ancestry.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Hampton University, a Master's Degree in Professional Studies with a focus on Africana studies from Cornell University, and a Doctoral Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on teacher education, evaluation, and equity from the University of Maryland, College Park. Joyce E. King (BA, PhD Stanford University) is the Benjamin Mays endowed chair for Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership and Professor of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University. A past president of the American Educational Research Association, she was provost at Spelman College and director of teacher education at Santa Clara. Her recent books include Heritage knowledge in the curriculum (with E. Swartz) and We be lovin' Black children: Learning to be literate about the African diaspora (co-editors G. Boutte, G. Jackson, & L.

King).