Photo by Keith Schwalenberg
Interviewing a former student, Jazmin, about her life and career curiosities
The NoHo Home Alliance Street Outreach Team. Learn more & sign up to join us. We build relationships with folks experiencing homelessness and connect them to essential services including housing.
Keith and I take a break from recording audio and video with Caleigh Haber for Fight 2 Breathe, a documentary about Caleigh’s experience living with Cystic Fibrosis
Educator & advocate
“Without community, there is no liberation.”
Hi there, I’m Abra.
I’m a senior education leader partnering with communities to transform education for students, educators, and families. I have over a decade of experience at the classroom, network, regional, and national level, building team capacity, culture, and strategic partnerships. I’m an unabashed nerd for school in general but some of my more specific areas of focus have included community-centered design, leadership coaching, strategic planning, team- and community-building, and system design and implementation from academic to cultural to operational.
I spent the first stage of my professional life as a middle school teacher, then as a teacher coach, and next as a school director. All my former students will tell you that no book should ever go un-sniffed before reading.
I’m also a producer of documentary stories in audio and film through Laurelwood Productions, a homegrown production company created by me and my late husband, Keith Schwalenberg, in 2017.
You can navigate here to learn more about our projects including audio stories featuring my students and a documentary film in development. My work as a storyteller and producer is one of the ways in which I honor the beautiful and creative life my husband led. I also write and share openly about loss and grief. Like right now, for instance. It helps.
I keep a private page on this site that serves as an ongoing memorial to Keith and is filled with the treasures and stories of Keith’s life as told by our friends and family across the world. If you’d like access, just send me an email at abra.sussman@gmail.com.
It was Keith who introduced me to local activism and my volunteer work at NoHo Home Alliance, a drop-in center for people experiencing homelessness. I have served as a lead for our outreach team as well as for our community engagement & education committee. I’m also proud to be a board member for the first and only public all-girls school in the San Fernando Valley, GALS LA (Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles).
I was born and raised in LA, received my undergraduate degree in Media Studies from Vassar College, and returned home to be a founding 5th grade teacher at a public school in East Los Angeles as a Teach for America Corps Member. It was at this time that I completed my Master’s degree in Urban Education at Loyola Marymount University.
I currently serve as the Community Schools Chair at Bright Star Schools where I lead a team that is responsible for the transformation of nine schools across Los Angeles into Community Schools.
I live in Los Angeles with my partner, our baby, and our cats.