About Rema Reynolds Vassar

Throughout her career, Rema Reynolds Vassar, PhD, has been a passionate advocate for education, championing the needs of marginalized, victimized, overlooked, and struggling individuals within the educational environment. This focus remains the cornerstone of her life’s work and dedication.

Dr. Rema’s extensive expertise includes educational leadership, organization, and school culture in underserved and global contexts; administrator, teacher, and counselor preparation; cross-cultural awareness and competence contextualized in critical educational issues; school and community relationships with an emphasis on parent-school partnerships; race, gender and class implications in schools; implications of policy and practice on student achievement and outcomes; equity, justice, access, and inclusion for minoritized communities; critical race theory and critical leadership theories.

She spent more than 20 years as a K-12 public school teacher, counselor, and administrator. Currently, Rema Vassar organizes students and parents for the holistic wellness of school communities, serves on Michigan State University’s (MSU) Board of Trustees, and teaches Educational Leadership at Wayne State University.

A Focus on an Inclusive, Equitable, and Empowering Educational Landscape

Dr. Rema believes in the power of education to change the world. Consistently creating with communities, she brings authenticity to every space and is known for her love for the people and her desire to actualize the collective power of the people.

Dr. Rema has taught and presented at professional conferences throughout the United States and in over 20 countries, focusing on developing transformative servant-leaders committed to radical hope and love. Her research centers’ schools serve culturally diverse students and families.

Committed to every student’s learning, Rema Vassar consults for school districts across the country, equipping educators with reflexive practices that allow them to take deliberate action and increase equity and access for all students.

Founder of CBCE

In 2021, she founded Centering Black Children in Education (CBCE), a comprehensive movement focusing on wellness, student agency, transformative leadership, and advocacy. An annual FREE virtual conference highlights the scholarship of thinkers across the world. Unlike traditional educational organizations, CBCE is more than just a gathering of academics and educators. It’s a space where Black students, parents, educators, and community members unite to celebrate Black children, identify harmful policies and practices, and advocate for transformative change. CBCE’s central components coalesce into a fugitive space, a homeplace for resistance against oppressive forces that have historically and contemporarily marginalized Black children.

Founder of Leading Well

Rema Reynolds Vassar, PhD, is also the founder of Leading Well, a holistic program dedicated to empowering and supporting Black women’s educational leaders by providing them with essential resources and a strong community to thrive.

She served as co-chair of the 2024 American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting, was appointed to the governor’s MiSTEM Advisory Council, and has received prestigious honors, including Crain’s Detroit Business Notable Leaders in Higher Education Award and the National Action Network MLK Dream Keepers Award. A passionate advocate for the next generation of leaders, Vassar is dedicated to building a future where every student has the opportunity to succeed.

The Sankofa Scholarship Collective

Aligned with her mission, Vassar founded and runs the nonprofit Sankofa Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships for young people in higher education. To help raise money for the foundation, Vassar holds a charitable ball that brings together community leaders, educators, families, and supporters.

Additionally, Vassar serves on two nonprofit boards: MiLib and Friends of the Children Detroit, whose mission is to help break the cycle of generational poverty by connecting children with a professional mentor.

Distinctive Professional Career

During the last four years, Rema Vassar, Ph.D., has been a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Wayne State University’s College of Education. Prior to this, she held various prestigious professorial positions at Eastern Michigan University, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Azusa Pacific University. She was a Global Instructor for five years with a Master’s in Organizational Leadership in Ethiopia, Kenya, Singapore, Haiti, and Ghana.

Vassar also held various positions at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California, Riverside.

Her extensive public school experience includes serving as Counselor & Community Liaison, Pasadena Unified School District; School Counselor, Downey Unified School District; Principal, Downey Unified School District; Parent Educator, Downey Adult School, Downey Unified School District; Language Arts Educator, Bellflower Unified School District; and Language Arts Educator, Covert Schools, Covert, Michigan.        

A Strong Educational Background

Dr. Rema holds a doctorate, with Honors Distinction, from UCLA in Urban Schooling and a Master of Science in School Counseling & Administrative Credential from National University, where she graduated magna cum laude. Her dissertation was “Holla If You Hear Me; Giving Voice to Those We Have Missed: A Qualitative Examination of Black Middle-Class Parents’ Involvement and Engagement Activities and Relationships in Public Secondary Schools.”

She holds a BA in English with a minor in Communication & Secondary Education Curriculum from Western Michigan University, graduating cum laude. She also has an AA in Liberal Arts from Honors College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

A Prolific Writer

Rema Vassar’s work has appeared in many peer-reviewed scholarly journals on topics such as parent-school partnerships, race, gender, and class implications in schools, implications of policy and practice on student achievement and outcomes, and equity, justice, access, and inclusion for minoritized communities.

Her Path to Higher Learning

Vassar’s path to higher learning was forged in her early years with her mother, who instilled a tremendous regard for education. Her mother’s impact was significant. She read to Vassar every night, emphasized the importance of education, made sure her children had library cards and took them to the library on a regular basis.

When she was old enough to go to the library alone, Vassar happily checked out as many books as she could. She immersed herself in books such as the Little House on the Prairie series, devoured Hardy Boys stories, and adored Beverly Cleary’s works, beginning with Ramona Quimby. Later, she went on to Judy Blume’s novels.

In eighth grade, Vassar discovered something that changed the way she read. She was living in a mostly white rural town, surrounded by novels with white characters when she came across one with a Black author on the cover. That revelation filled a void she wasn’t aware existed and sparked a stronger relationship with literature and representation.