Keri Orange-Jones

Dr. Keri Orange-Jones is a middle school assistant principal at Edison Middle School in West Orange, New Jersey, and an adjunct professor at Montclair University and William Paterson University. She has been an educator for 27 years and is actively involved with the Drew Writing Project and the National Writing Project, frequently contributing as a guest speaker for podcasts and virtual professional learning communities and publishing blogs, journal articles, and other educational writings. Born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Seton Hall University and completed an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at Rutgers Graduate School of Education, where her dissertation focused on teacher evaluation and self-efficacy.

Orange-Jones is co-author, with Denise Furlong, of Learners First: Purpose and Practicality in Your Early Years of Teaching, published by Corwin in 2025, a guide aimed at aspiring and novice educators that emphasizes equity, culturally responsive teaching, and student-centered practice. In this work she authored the first five chapters and frames the book as a “love letter” to educators, drawing on her research and professional interests in teacher education and evaluation, student assessment, positive school culture and climate, and representation