Ali Michael is a filmmaker and educator with a PhD in Teacher Education from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College.  During her doctoral work, she studied the common questions, dilemmas and successes of White teachers who were learning to address racial inequity in their classrooms and schools.  As an adjunct instructor at Penn, she teaches a course that she designed, entitled "Whiteness: Counseling and Educational Perspectives."
Her current research focuses on supporting teachers to mitigate the unintentional, pervasive effects of institutional and individual racism in their classrooms.  She also studies how white families racially socialize their children.
Ali has made two films, both of which portray students discussing their experiences of race.  She is also the author of "My Scar, My Road," the biography of South African feminist activist Gertrude Nonzwakazi Sgwentu, which demonstrates the long term effects of racism and White supremacy on one woman growing up under Apartheid.
Ali is also a Friends Council on Education presenter and a guest blogger for the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Education.