Dr Carole Rene’ Collins Ayanlaja

Assistant Professor, 

Eastern Illinois University 

Dr. Alison Taysum is a prolific researcher and scholar. Her commitment to international education, leadership development, and policy implementation across the k-12 and higher education landscape is unparalleled. Dr. Taysum’s focus on equity, access, and community engagement in educational decision-making establishes empirical and theoretical foundations that guide program implementation and propel progressive equity-driven practice in teachers and educational leaders across the continents. 

My work with Dr. Taysum as a member of her team of Associate tutors in the MSED program of University of Leicester,Leicester, U.K. has immersed me in an arena of expertly aligned standards of practice, expansive resource materials, and mentoring strategies that have improved my technique as a graduate student coach and parlayed my skills to holistically serve cadres of diverse educators who successfully matriculate to lead k-12 schools across the world. 

Additionally, as a burgeoning scholar, I continue to share collaboratively with her through our intellectual partnerships. She freely offers her expansive cognitive gifts and unique abilities to synthesize multiple sources of information in her continued outreach through diverse partnerships with researchers and writers worldwide. Her desire to mentor and support colleagues dedicated to equity, access, and inclusion is deeply embedded and indicative of her heart driven commitment to the tenants of democracy and social justice. Dr. Taysum is undeterred and unassuming in her life’s mission to give voice through her work and build the capacity of those whose stories have not been heard because of social injustice that keeps the silenced. I deeply appreciate her as a partner in progress to propel a truly “more perfect union” in America and throughout the world through her research, practice, and publications.