Our mission.
Baltimore Transformative Learning Collective, also known as Bmore Transform, is a professionally-trained cooperative of abolitionist educators that is deeply committed to decolonizing Baltimore’s educational ecosystem. Our innovative and comprehensive school-based services are strategically designed to engage, support, and empower all stakeholders. We also facilitate community programming that builds meaningful connections, and promotes opportunities for growth and learning throughout Baltimore City.
Our Team
Victoria Lebrón
Founding Partner | she/her
Victoria is an abolitionist educator, academic tutor and grant writer. She has ten years of experience in the elementary classroom, has been tutoring elementary and middle school students for almost twenty years and started writing grants for educational and health programs in 2006.
In 2018 Victoria attended the National Diversity Practitioners Institute. This was the catalyst that prompted her devotion to fight for antiracism and abolition in education. The experience gave her an opportunity to understand her privilege as a white Latiné and set her on the path to using her voice to create change. It also helped her to understand herself through her various identities and communities. As a proud neurodivergent person, Victoria enjoys celebrating her community of creative, sensitive, and resourceful people.
Victoria is an ardent supporter of labor and people power. In 2020, she worked with a trusted group to organize independent school teachers and staff in a push to unionize their school. It was a compelling reminder of how a community can help us to realize our interests and use our voices to create change.
Victoria holds a Master of Arts in Elementary Inclusive Education from Teachers College. Along with her spouse, two kids, and one mini dachshund named Blueberry, she lives in Mount Washington. She loves challenges, like learning new skills, working through a 1,000 piece puzzle. Victoria takes pride in her Puerto Rican culture and heritage and is learning to speak Spanish with her children. While not collaborating with Gab, she can be found cooking up something in the kitchen, listening to podcasts, or spending time with her family.
Gab Sussman
Founding Partner | they/she
Gab is an abolitionist educator and restorative justice practitioner. They were a classroom teacher for ten years, having taught early childhood, elementary, and middle school students.
Gab considers one of the most pivotal experiences in their professional career was in 2015 when they were trained by The National SEED Project to be a SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) leader. It was there that they gained a deeper understanding of how their identity and lived experiences as a multi-faceted person shape and impact how they move through the world. And, with the positionality and responsibility of being an educator, how critical it is to leverage their power in pursuit of equity in schools. With this training, she has facilitated over fifty meetings, workshops, and seminars with attendees of all ages and walks of life that center and explore the intersections of education, identity, and equity. This work has also allowed them to partner with many other constituents and groups of folx who are working to expand their leadership capacity and bring greater accountability to their school communities.
The Baltimore community is very important to Gab. They currently serve as a Commissioner on Baltimore City’s Women’s Commission, which serves through the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights. It gives them joy to work alongside this passionate and diverse group of people who care so deeply about their community, and to actively take part in making this city a more equitable and just place to live and thrive.
Gab holds a BA in Elementary Education from Loyola University Maryland, and an MSEd in Administration and Supervision from Fordham University. She lives joyfully near Patterson Park in Baltimore with their spouse, rabbit, and dog. While not collaborating with Victoria and working at Bmore Transform, Gab is also the Membership and Space Manager at Impact Hub Baltimore and the Community Outreach and Events Coordinator for Beer and Ballet. During their downtime, they are most likely binge-watching a show, running errands at Costco, or volunteering at BARCS.