Caribbean Connections: Jamaica - About the Editors

Deborah Menkart
Deborah Menkart is Executive Director of Teaching for Change, a non-profit organization working for social and economic justice by promoting equity-related teaching materials, offering professional development, and increasing parent power in schools. In her 19 years as executive director, Menkart has developed a catalog that over 40,000 educators from across the country rely on for progressive teaching materials and helped launch the school reform collaborative, DC VOICE. She is also the co-editor of Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K–12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development.

Menkart’s activism began in junior high school when she joined protests of D.C.’s “taxation without representation” and the “dresses-only” dress code for girls. During the 1970s she lived in San Diego, California, where she worked as a shipyard electrician and was involved in the anti-war, women’s, international solidarity, and labor movements.

Menkart received a B.A. in Human Services and a master’s in curriculum and instruction from George Washington University, but attributes most of her learning to colleagues at Teaching for Change, Rethinking Schools, DC VOICE, and the National Coalition of Education Activists.

Catherine A. Sunshine
Catherine A. Sunshine is a writer, editor and translator in Washington, D.C. She edited the previous titles in the Caribbean Connections series: Puerto Rico (1990), Jamaica (1991), and Overview of Regional History (1991). She is the author of The Caribbean: Survival, Struggle and Sovereignty (EPICA/South End Press, 1985, 1988), an introduction to Caribbean history and politics.