About Joyce
The Fund honors the legacy of Joyce M. Grant: an educator, administrator, community organizer, global activist, lifelong learner, and disruptor who believed that education is the key to opportunity. Raised in Boston, Joyce began her career as a teacher in an Episcopal school in Ohio because the Boston Public Schools did not hire Black teachers. Three years later, when the policy finally changed, she returned to Boston as a teacher and eventually became deeply involved in civil rights efforts. She helped organize Liberation Schools, community-led alternatives to white-dominated schools during the desegregation movement. When enacting change at the systems level, she never lost sight of the individual learner.
In the early 1990s, Joyce was recruited to Michigan State University to help lead the Michigan Partnership for Public Education. There, she worked toward institutional change through public education reform. Her teacher training support with schools near Lagos, Nigeria confirmed her belief that ambition paired with support can ignite lasting change for entire communities.
Joyce often said that witnessing inequality or lack of opportunity “sets you on fire.” She realized that, unlike her own story, many women did not have the chance to follow their dreams due to long-standing systemic barriers, and instead were forced to postpone or forgo education that aligned with their gifts or talents. With this in mind, she developed the concept of the Joyce Grant Fund to support these women’s aspirations. Through the Fund, we honor Joyce’s legacy by carrying forward her conviction that learning is lifelong, justice is personal, and educational opportunity should never expire. With every award granted, we reflect a life well-lived and a mind always open.
