When Chéla S. Wallace enrolled at TC, she wasn’t part of the Mathematics, Science & Technology Department. Yet her decision to step into Dr. Felicia Mensah’s STEM seminar proved transformative, expanding her understanding of equity in STEM education and sharpening her focus on the lived experiences of Black and brown girls. “Taking Dr. Mensah’s class with Ph.D. students exposed me to cutting-edge research and frameworks such as culturally relevant pedagogy,” Chéla recalls. Her experiences in that class solidified what would become the next phases of her work as an educator.
Chéla’s career as a STEM educator has spanned classroom teaching, curriculum design, and system-wide leadership. Prior to her time at Teachers College, Chéla's career began as a high school science teacher in San Antonio, Texas, where she also founded her first after-school STEM program for girls. After this, she held a District Science Leadership position in Philadelphia, developing teacher practice and system-wide science strategies. And, while earning her masters degree in Education Policy at TC, she was the Director of Science, Technology, and Engineering at KIPP NYC, where she scaled STEM impact across more than 18 schools, reaching over 8,000 students by developing teachers and leaders. There, Chéla secured more than $1.75 million in grants to expand equity-driven STEM programming. Building on these experiences, her time at TC gave her the intellectual tools to interrogate the systemic inequities she was already confronting as a practitioner. Dr. Mensah’s seminar, in particular, pushed her to consider how scholarship could not only diagnose inequities but also affirm brilliance.
Today, the insight Chéla gained as a student at TC continues to shape her practice, and now her research. A Ph.D. student in Applied Science and Technology at North Carolina A&T State University, Chéla currently researches how data science and AI can quantify systemic barriers that disproportionately affect Black girls in STEM. “My goal is to bridge the gap between qualitative narratives and quantitative data,” she explains. “Teachers College, and Dr. Mensah specifically, gave me the lens to pursue that.”
In addition to her Ph.D. research, Chéla is also bringing her vision for STEM equity to life. She is the Founder and CEO of Solace Rose Innovation Academy, a new K–8 public charter school for girls that will open in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2028. Solace Rose reimagines what school can be by focusing on wellness, joy, STEAM-rich academics, and cultural identity as essential to how girls learn and lead. Her research as a Ph.D. student directly informs the fabric of Solace Rose Innovation Academy; by combining cutting-edge scholarship with real-world application, she is designing a school model that is both academically rigorous and responsive to the lived realities of the students it serves. As of 2022, less than 10% of STEM positions are held by women of color, and Chéla’s diligent marriage of research and practice will help to fill this gap in new and creative ways.
To support her work developing Solace Rose Innovation Academy, Chéla was named the inaugural Founder’s Fellow with Great Schools North Carolina. At the same time, she leads her consulting firm, Seeds of Faith Educational Services, which partners with schools nationwide to embed equity and culturally responsive STEM practices into their learning environments. Chéla credits her TC experience for grounding both endeavors in critical scholarship.
For Chéla, the connection between her policy training and the influence of MST faculty is clear: Teachers College gave her a cross-disciplinary foundation to imagine and build new systems. “Dr. Mensah introduced me to the power of critical STEM research and challenged me to think expansively about how we document, quantify, and advocate for Black girls’ excellence in this field,” she says. “Her impact on my academic and professional journey is immeasurable.”
Chéla’s work is an example of how the reach of MST faculty extends well beyond the department. You can learn more about her journey on her website. Together, we are shaping the future of STEM education.