About Dr. Bunch

Dr. Bunch is an interdisciplinary educator, researcher, collector of stories, advocate for students, seeker of social justice and equity, and lifelong learner. With over seventeen years of teaching experience at the secondary and post-secondary level, she has continuously worked in diverse classrooms and sought to ensure that students receive equitable and rigorous instruction and mentorship.

 

She graduated with a B.A. (2001) from National-Louis University which included a major in literature and a minor in psychology, receiving department honors for her academics. Bunch graduated with her M.Ed. in secondary education (2003) from DePaul University in Chicago Illinois. She later obtained an M.S. in Gifted Education (2012) from Emporia State University. Bunch also holds an ESL certification, gifted certification, English literature content teaching certification, and a social studies content teaching certification. She obtained her Ed.D. from the University of Illinois in Education, Policy, Organization, and Leadership with an emphasis in diversity and equity (2022).

 

She has two forthcoming publications: Unhushing Us: Celebrating the Oral Histories of Black Female Educators (University of Illinois Press, 2025), and a co-authored book with Brittany R Collins, titled Leveraging AI for Culturally Responsive Teaching & Social-Emotional Learning: A Classroom Practitioner's Guide (Routledge, 2025).

 

Dr. Bunch is an advocate for students, and uses writing, poetry, art, and history as a means to encourage dialogue and self-reflection. Her research focuses on Black female educators in Mississippi who taught between 1954-1971. In her free time, she enjoys collecting art, researching, reading, spending time with family and friends, and attempting to beat her five-year-old at Hi Ho Cherry O. 

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