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Meet Our Team

Our Brilliant Team

Ruby Bafu
Ruby Bafu
Ruby Bafu is a PhD student in Sociology at UW-Madison. She studies race, gender, and online education. Her previous research is about how Black girls are discussed in the media. Her current research project is on how students learn in online learning spaces. Ruby has learned a lot after living in Madison for two years and is excited to be working and learning alongside folks within the Madison community.
Jalessa Bryant
Jalessa Bryant
Jalessa Bryant is a fifth year doctoral student from San Diego, California. She uses any pronouns said respectfully. Her research focuses on teaching and learning in community-based educational spaces. She is interested in the ways Black media, photography, tv, film, and music serve as methods of storytelling. She is also interested in opportunities to learn about the ways Black people refuse harm and oppression in learning environments. She loves art, traveling, cooking, lifting weights, singing and dancing. She hopes that Black Madison Voices oral history project helps mend and create healthy relationships between Black researchers and Black residents of Madison.
Yanika Davis
Yanika Davis
Yanika Davis is a second year Master of Public Health student at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Her primary interests include epidemiology, community-based programming and environmental justice. After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from UW-Madison, and a dance certificate, she has continued to pursue public service opportunities to further understand how to facilitate systems change and normalize equitable health-promotion practices. As a future healthcare professional, and a part of the Black Madison Voices team, Yanika understands that learning about lived experiences is key to further understanding the social determinants of health and their impacts.
Virginia Downing
Virginia Downing
Virginia Downing is a Ph.D. student in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Growing up in the midwest (Kansas City, Ks) Virginia has remained excited to experience another part of the midwest in Wisconsin and the Black communities that are a part of it. Virginia is passionate about community voice and its impacts on educational change, and studies education-focused community engagement. Virginia is excited to connect with Black Madisonians and hear stories that will shape future education experiences for Black youth.
Dr. Ashley Gaskew
Dr. Ashley Gaskew
Ashley Gaskew is an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education Administration program at Baruch College. During her time in Madison, WI, she received her Master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the School of Education. She is an excited member of Black Madison Voices to work with the Madison community that helped her grow and develop. From participating in #BlackGirlMagic in Madison and Middleton, WI, being a member of the local Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc- Nu Iota Zeta Chapter, and a host of other community activities, she is excited to help strengthen the relationships between the university and the local Black communities.
Dr. Aireale J. Rodgers
Dr. Aireale J. Rodgers
Dr. Aireale J. Rodgers is a learning scientist of higher education whose research agenda explores how people and organizations learn and how educators can better facilitate learning that advances critical race consciousness for faculty and students in postsecondary institutions. She has studied learning in a variety of postsecondary contexts, including university classrooms and doctoral coursework, a faculty intergroup dialogue program, the implementation of new organizational processes via graduate student socialization, and the transition to Ph.D. candidacy. Dr. Rodgers holds a B.S. in Social Policy and an M.A. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy and a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy from the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. You can learn more about Dr. Rodgers and her work by visiting her website or following her on Twitter.
Dr. Maxine McKinney de Royston
Dr. Maxine McKinney de Royston
Dr. Maxine McKinney de Royston is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at UW-Madison. Dr. Maxine grew up in Minneapolis and has a special love for Black midwestern life and culture. Dr. Maxine’s research and teaching focuses on how educators and schools can support the intellectual thriving and holistic (e.g. racial, psychological, emotional, physical) well-being of Black children, especially in math and science classrooms. Dr. Maxine believes that quality education is a human right and that educational research should be used in the service of community and towards social change. Dr. Maxine enjoys good food, a good laugh, and spending time with her husband and three children.