Adeyemi Stembridge, PhD

Adeyemi (Yemi) Stembridge, PhD is an educator, author, and consultant whose work explores what it takes to create rigorous, engaging, and culturally responsive learning experiences for students. He works with teachers, instructional coaches, school leaders, and districts as a thought partner in the design of professional  development that strengthens educators’ capacity for presenting meaningful opportunities for all students to learn.

 

Dr. Stembridge has worked with schools and districts across the country, including as a technical assistance provider at applied research centers at New York University, Teachers College at Columbia University, and American University in Washington, DC. His current professional learning work includes Brilliant Teaching Residencies and Design Studios, courses, and book studies where educators bring together instructional design and practice, collaborative inquiry, and reflection around the learning in diverse classroom spaces.

 

He is the author of Culturally Responsive Education in the Classroom: An Equity Framework for Pedagogy (2020) and Brilliant Teaching: Using Culture and Artful Thinking to Close Equity Gaps (2023). Across both books, Dr. Stembridge draws from cultural psychology, cognitive science, learning theory, philosophy, and the arts to examine how educators can design learning that is intellectually rigorous while remaining deeply responsive to students’ identities, relationships, emotions, and ways of making meaning.

 

His latest book, Culturally Responsive Teaming: Composing Cultures of Collaboration in Schools (2026) with Lindsey Stevens, extends this work from the individual classroom into the collaborative spaces where educators learn with and from one another. It examines how teams can use inquiry, listening, reflection, evidence, and collaborative design to develop the professional judgment necessary for culturally responsive practice.

 

Dr. Stembridge is also the creator of the Brilliant Teaching app, an AI-supported tool designed to help educators think more deeply about instructional planning rather than outsource that thinking. The app brings the principles of his work into a practical planning process educators can use individually and collaboratively.