Black Girls Education Justice Initiative with Guest Paige Joki

This episode features Paige Joki, a staff attorney at the Pennsylvania Education Law Center. After graduating from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, Joki was selected as an NAACP LDF Earl Warren Fellow and a Temple University Beasley School of Law Rubin-Presser Social Justice Fellow. In recognition for her notable contributions to public service at Temple University and for pursuing a legal career in social justice, Joki received the Beth Cross Award. 

Since joining the Education Law Center in 2017, Joki has focused on eliminating individual and systemic barriers to quality education for students experiencing homelessness in the Philadelphia region as well as providing “Know Your Rights” training for students, parents, providers and organizations serving students experiencing homelessness. Most recently, she has led the Law Center’s Black Girls Education Justice Initiative. In collaboration with a number of groups advocating for more just social conditions for Black girls, the Law Centered conducted five focus groups with students attending school in the Philadelphia area. Emerging from these group discussions were eight principles for ameliorating the individual and systemic racism faced by Black girls. A copy of the report generated through this initiative can be accessed from the Education Law Center’s website:  

https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FINAL-Supportive-Spaces-for-web.pdf