T. Elijah Hawkes has more than two decades experience as a public school teacher and principal. He has worked in rural and urban communities, including ten years as principal at Randolph Union in Central Vermont, and six years as the founding principal of the James Baldwin School in New York City.

In addition to New England and New York City, he has lived and worked in Senegal and Benin.

In July, 2020, Hawkes joined the faculty of the Upper Valley Educator Institute as the Director of School Leadership Programs. He is an Associate Professor at St. Michael’s College, teaching in the Holistic Restorative Education Certificate Program and offers workshops for educators through the VT Higher Education Collaborative.

He is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Schools Committee, on the Board of Directors of the Vermont Humanities Council, and Senior Education Advisor to the Polarization and Extremism Research Lab (PERIL) at American University.

His writings about teaching, school leadership and democracy have appeared in various books and publications.

Hawkes is the author of two books: School for the Age of Upheaval: Classrooms that Get Personal, Get Political and Get to Work (2020) and Woke Is Not Enough: School Reforms for Leaders with Justice in Mind (2022).