Strategist/ADVOCATE/SPEAKER
Ketia Stokes received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from James Madison University, and her Master’s Degree in Special Education from Coppin State University. She received her Administration and Supervision I Certification from Notre Dame of Maryland. She has been a special educator with Baltimore City Schools for the past thirteen years. As an educator, she has served in the self-contained, pull-out, and inclusion settings with a caseload comprised of students diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, intellectual disability, speech and language impairment, and specific learning disability.
Ketia often jokes that she did not choose education, education chose her. She deeply believes that education is a calling. Emanating from a family of five generations of teachers and a desire to trailblaze a new path, it was not a calling she readily submitted to…initially. She attributes her passion for teaching populations with neurodevelopmental disorders to her twin sister who survived three operations to remove an extremely rare, life-threatening brain tumor. While it was her sister who inspired her, it was the heart wrenching work as a Resource Coordinator to adjudicated youth in Southwest Baltimore that finally made her submit to her calling as a teacher.
For the past five years, Ketia has served as a Lead Teacher in the Program for Autistic Learners (PAL). As the instructor of middle school aged students diagnosed with moderate to severe autism, she has gained an in-depth understanding of the complexity of the disability and the differentiated, individualized approaches required to optimize learning. Throughout her career as a special educator, Ketia committed hours well beyond the school bell to develop a comprehensive program that includes a support group for parents, community-based training modules, a paid summer vocational program for students in her class focused on horticulture and an after-school professional learning community comprised of related service providers and para-educators. She developed and led an Autism Sensitivity Training for inclusion classes and community presentations. Committed to achieving excellence in education, she has dedicated her time to sharing her expertise as a workshop presenter for teachers in Baltimore City during district-wide professional developments and as a presenter at the Autism Society of Baltimore Chesapeake Chapter’s Honestly Autism Day. In 2013, Ketia’s commitment to student growth and individualized success was recognized through the honor of Teacher of the Year for Baltimore City and a finalist for Maryland State Teacher of the Year. For two years, her class was used as a model classroom in the district of Baltimore City for teachers to learn best practices for implementing the TEACCH model in a specialized program for students with Autism.
In her leisure time, Ketia enjoys playing dominoes with her 90-year-old grandfather, dancing, learning to play the saxophone, and remodeling her home. She also serves as a board member of the Autism Society of Baltimore Chesapeake Chapter, a substitute teacher for her church Sunday School and volunteers with the Baltimore Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
For Ketia, education is more than academics, it is a healing agent.
- Unapologetically committed to families, education reform and equitable access as well as practices for neurodiverse populations.
- Fearless challenger of unacceptable or outdated practices
- A seeker of the answer to the question “what’s possible” in pursuit of building responsive, community-centered school cultures that empower and restore families.
Specialize in innovative solutionS tailored to the individual resulting in life Transformation