Deborah has been immersed in the field of education for over two decades as a practitioner, researcher, and activist - and is committed to research and teaching practices that support the work of social change. Her interests include a critical examination of U.S. public education, public education activism, engaged pedagogy, community engagement, storytelling for social change, anti-racist education in predominately white institutions, and the pedagogy and practice of solidarity, resistance and liberation struggles for hope and healing.

Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in human ecology and earned a k-8 teaching certificate from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. She also holds a master’s in education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in anthropology from UMass Amherst, where she studied the social and political foundations of U.S. education, the contemporary context and culture of teaching and learning, and how institutions of higher education can create spaces for students to become critical scholars and activists.