VALERIE SIMPSON

Site Director

Valerie is a retired educator from Sunflower County with 30 years of classroom and administrative experience. Her first experience with SCFP was as a parent of a former Fellow. Today, Valerie serves as Site Director for the SCFP and leads the Leadership workshop, where she supports Fellows in developing their skills as leaders and organizers, and College Cohort, where she helps Fellows plan for the transition out of high school. Valerie has always believed that education is the means by which individuals can shape their existence and develop the necessary knowledge and skills to survive and to thrive in their current and future environments. Her most recent educational focus is to ensure that students are provided with the skills to get them to and through college. She is especially proud of the work she does with Fellows to develop their capacity to become leaders. The Freedom Fighter who inspires her the most is Shirley Chisholm who stated: "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts." Valerie’s goal is to develop in SCFP fellows “the guts” to stand up for that in which they believe and to not always submit to popular opinions.

Sarah Riback

Director of Literacy Programming

Originally from Baltimore, Sarah is a graduate of University of Maryland, College Park, where she received degrees in English and Sociology, as well as helped to organize and win a campaign for 24-hour emergency contraceptive access for students. Sarah was deeply impacted by her experiences as a young student in Baltimore, where she first encountered the idea of education as liberation through young folks in her school organizing with the Algebra Project. She was organized around that idea by her peers, and is grateful for her first encounters with Mississippi and the Freedom Projects that stemmed from those relationships – first as a visiting student, and then as a summer reading teacher with the FPN. She taught 8th grade English at W.A. Higgins in Clarksdale prior to transitioning into her role as program director with the SCFP in 2021. During her time with the Freedom Project, Sarah has facilitated a number of literacy & arts workshops, piloted the screen printing program, designed liberatory reading curricula for 3-12 graders, and supported summer teachers in the classroom. She is passionate about the unlocking power of liberatory education and youth leadership. A freedom fighter that inspires her is Septima Clark.