Anita Crawley

Anita Crawley began her anti-racist activism in the 60’s protesting as a sociology major at the University of Oregon. Her early career as a social worker deepened her commitment to dismantling the wealth, education, housing, health care, etc disparities that still define society today.  Of particular interest was the promise that increased educational attainment would result in improved outcomes for BIPOC.  To that end, Anita has spent the last 30 plus years working in community colleges in three states. 

She became a counselor doing Academic and Career advising at a community college in Illinois.  She created a variety of programs eventually focusing on Multicultural Education and using technology to support the work of student services.  

In the mid 90’s she and a Black colleague created and co-taught a Diversity 101 course. It was one of the fastest courses to fill then and continues to be to this day. In the late ’90s, as one of the first online teachers at the college, Anita was asked to become interim Director of the Distance Learning Program.  Anita was hooked on how technology could be used to enhance teaching, learning, and online student services and completed a second Master’s degree in Educational Technology Leadership.  She created a statewide online student services center and taught faculty how to teach online. 

Anita moved to Maryland where she was hired as a Distance Learning Counselor and then had a second stint as an interim Director of Online Learning.  In 2009, she was asked to write a book, Supporting Online Students: a Guide to Planning Implementing, and Evaluating Services and has written book chapters, articles, and reviewed articles in this field. 

Finally, Anita had the opportunity to come home to California and for a third time, she failed retirement.  She was asked to be the Chief Student Services Officer for the Online Education Initiative (OEI)  launch team.  The team got the program started and hired permanent employees. Anita worked on the Student Services team for the next five years.  Anita is currently an Educational Consultant, managing an OEI grant with the intent of increasing and improving online education at Monterey Peninsula College. 

Five years ago, Anita attended an initial meeting of Whites for Racial Equity (WRE), a community group, an affiliate of Showing Up for Racial Justice.  She became a member of the Steering Committee and the WebMaster.  She also contributes web development services to the local NAACP, National Coalition Building Institute, and Communities for Sustainable Monterey County.  The work with WRE has solidified Anita’s belief that racism is White people’s problem.  The area where she believes she can make a contribution is in guiding White folks to dismantle White Supremacy. To that end, she is working with her Diversity 101 partner and another colleague to create and deliver online equity courses.