Last summer, Adama Sallu, M.S.W. ’93, Ph.D., was honored for being an alum “who embodies the spirit of transformation in the profession, driving positive change through groundbreaking approaches.”
“The sheer idea of being nominated”—by her peers, no less—“is humbling,” Sallu said. As someone whose life is very full, she doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on her achievements. “I don’t think about my impact,” she said.
In part her modesty stems from her childhood in Sierra Leone, where she was born. “I was raised to serve, to be of service,” she said. And at that time in that country, the message to girls and women especially was “be humble, don’t elevate yourself; put your head down.”
When Sallu’s mother was a child, girls in some parts of Sierra Leone were not permitted to go to school. The reason was, as Sallu has understood it, “Girls ask too many questions.” Her mother was determined that her daughters be educated, as Sallu explains, to “change their trajectory.” Sallu dedicated her doctoral thesis to her mother, Amie Kamara, whose “simple wish for her three daughters was ‘to learn how to read and write.’”
Sallu has done a little bit more than that. From her days as a top student at an academically-rigorous boarding school in Sierra Leone, Sallu has pursued excellence. A dedicated educator, she has educated herself throughout her life while building a career, and raising two children. In addition to her M.S.W. from Smith, she earned another master’s degree from Northern Arizona University in educational leadership, and a doctorate from the Mary Lou Fulton School of Education of Arizona State University.
Her trajectory has been upward, and she has demonstrated both a commitment to positive social change and an ability to lead, an ability tempered by that early-ingrained sense of humility.
At age 17, she immigrated to the United States to go to college. When she was at SSW, she was president of the student org and voted by her fellow students to deliver the commencement Class “A” address. (Receiving the Change Agent Award is not the first time she has been honored by her peers.) She looks back on the speech she gave then and marvels at her younger self. But the values she espoused then—to service and to the interruption and disruption of systems of inequity at the macro level—still guide her.
Since moving to the Phoenix metro area 21 years ago, she has held several education-related leadership positions, including assistant principal, and assistant director of equity and inclusion. Since 2018, she has been director of equity and inclusion in the Chandler Unified School District (CUSD), one of the fastest growing school districts in Arizona, with more than 40,000 students. She frequently speaks at conferences about closing the achievement gap through cultural pedagogical practices, and in 2021 she contributed a chapter to the book The Gift of the Universe Through Women That Lead.
Sallu has created change in many other ways, like serving on the Arizona Department of Education Equitable and Inclusive Practices Advisory Council as well as on the advisory board of the Arizona Teacher Residency. The latter is an organization whose mission is to recruit, educate, and support a more diverse range of teachers. According to its website, “over 75 percent of teachers in Arizona are white—while more than half the students are people of color.”
In recognition of her efforts, she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Education Award from the City of Tempe, Arizona, in 2016, and in 2022, a Martin Luther King, Jr.: Keeping the Dream Alive Award from the city of Chandler as well as the 2022 United States Congressional Award for Service.
Fighting for change has not always been easy. MSNBC once described Arizona’s state superintendent of public instruction, Tom Horne, as “America’s worst state education official.” He has sued school districts to eliminate dual-language programs; his 2022 campaign literature featured his opposition to critical race theory and “ethnic studies.” A 2021 Education Week article, “Suburban Public Schools Becoming Majority-Nonwhite. The Backlash Has Already Begun,” described some of the tensions that the CUSD in particular has experienced. There, as in many school districts around the U.S., debates about what should be taught have become more heated—and more politicized—in recent years. Sallu was hired after several disturbing events in Chandler, including some junior high students posting on Snapchat a racist video they made at home. Her charge, according to a local news article about her appointment, was to ensure that “all children coming to Chandler schools have access to an equitable and inclusive learning environment where they’re valued and excellence is demanded.”
That seems a praiseworthy goal, even a given for a school district, but since taking the job, Sallu has seen more than her share of contentious school board meetings, angry emails, and parents accusing her of wanting to make their children gay or to give children of color resources at the expense of white children. Some parents objected to teaching kids about the Harlem Renaissance. “I fear sometimes,” she said, “that in 30 years we will have a generation of adults who know nothing about American history.”
Sallu is not about to let that happen if she can help it. In confrontational moments, Sallu draws on her empathy, courage, and belief in basic humanity—and her SSW training. “I let them talk, I don’t react, I try to hold a space, to honor their story. It comes automatically to me.” She credits SSW for giving her those skills. “SSW gave me a vocabulary and theoretical framework to explore and unpack social systems.”
Since 2017, Sallu has been teaching Arizona State University social work courses. “I enjoy promoting our profession to young people. It brings me joy,” she said. She sees herself on a continuum, bringing along the next generation of social workers by sharing what she has learned.
Travel also brings her joy. Sallu can reel off a list as long as your arm of countries she has visited, including Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Argentina, Poland, Vienna, Estonia, Finland, Portugal and Mexico. She’s looking forward to spending Christmas in Uganda. Besides enjoying meeting new people and learning about new places, she also likes to travel for a more unusual reason: “Because you have to be humble, vulnerable, and rely on others.”
