Cooper Sealy

Canadian born of Caribbean Heritage, Dr. Cooper Sealy (they/them) comes to North Seattle College having lived and worked in Seattle since 2008, and before that in New York City since 1999. Most recently, they served as the Outreach Manager for the Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) Business Programs in Workforce Instruction at North Seattle College.

“Dr. Coop” has been a leader in higher education and in the non-profit sector as an educator, organizer, coach, and trainer for over 20 years. In New York, they were among those pioneering early healing centered, and trauma informed pedagogies through the lenses of urban ministries and multicultural education. Along with a cadre of educators from Hunter College, Columbia, and NYU they created unique arts based educational center, which fostered healing of children and families from racial and inter-generational traumas.  

At NYU, UW, and North Seattle College, Dr. Coop taught and provided leadership around Queer Theory, Black Diasporic Studies, French West-African Cinemas, and Trauma Informed/Healing Centered Pedagogies engaging contemporary research-based healing centered methods, among other subjects. They began their career at UW as a lecturer and advisor, teaching the first Black Cinema and Queer Theory courses ever taught in the Cinema and Media studies Department. Using healing centered methods, they created holding environments where students could explore ideas of subjectivities sitting at the intersections of plural identities. As a result, more than simply learning about cultural theory or film and television, students had the opportunity to explore their own identities and what it means to become change agents in the world they want to see. 

At North Seattle College, not only did Dr. Coop co-teach the first TIC/Healing Centered Pedagogies Course in Washington State Colleges for ECE, but they also they developed TIC/Healing Centered Pedagogy Trainings for the TLC, and are continuing to collaborate with partners across all three campuses through DDLC to create trainings tailored to staff, faculty and leadership. As a result, to this date, North Seattle College is the only college in Washington State that teaches TIC/Healing Centered methods for ECE. They are also part of the BAS District Wide Collaboration Site Group, aimed at eliminating barriers for students interested forging pathways to further education and in obtaining bachelors’ degrees.  

At their core, Dr. Coop is passionate about servant leadership, relational collaboration, anti-colonial trauma informed/healing centered EDI work and the ways both communities and individuals engage in liberatory practices. Currently, they serve as the Board President of the Lavender Rights Project, and are honored to bring their expertise to their role as Interim Director of EDIC at North Seattle College.