Creating the Beloved Community

Seattle University's College of Education has received a three-year, $2.2 million grant to fund an initiative focused on transforming the relationship between eight Washington state K-12 schools and their respective communities.

The Public Education in Beloved Community Initiative (PEBCI) is a partnership between the College of Education, five publicly funded charter schools and three traditional public schools across Washington state, funded by the Gates Foundation.

College of Education Dean Cynthia B. Dillard, PhD, speaks to representatives from each partner school during an event to formally launch PEBCI. Dr. Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the keynote address via video link. 

“We are excited and honored to partner with the Gates Foundation on this initiative to cultivate and develop beloved community across these partner schools, in the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” says Dean Cynthia B. Dillard, PhD, who is also lead investigator of the PEBCI. “Centered on the notion of love and community as fundamental to education, PEBCI will highlight and support the unique connection between a school’s mission, the community they serve and the academic outcomes they deliver.”

Directed by the College of Education’s Jamie Cho, PhD, PEBCI will measure collective transformation in education through opportunities for teachers and leaders that center connection, community and healing.

“This initiative is grounded in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visionary work to create beloved community by embracing love as an active form of change,” says Dr. Cho, who is the director of Public Education in Beloved Community Initiative. “Beloved community is not an ideal to achieve but happens every day in the relationships cultivated by diverse educators.”

(l-r) Kelisha B. Graves, EdD, Chief Research, Education and Programs Officer at the King Center, Dean Cynthia B. Dillard, PhD, and Angela Jones, JD, the Washington State Director at the Gates Foundation.

Dr. Cho, who began her role in January 2025, works together with Dean Dillard and a team of outstanding faculty and staff who will guide the initiative through a multi-year process of strengthening the foundational mission of each school that includes building the relational capacity of teachers and leaders in the community and developing and sustaining the beloved community within the schools and communities.

Each school will have the opportunity to plan and implement their own beloved community projects within the context of their school and local communities. These projects will be captured through in-depth stories and creative arts.

With the outcome of PEBCI focused on telling a new story of public education in beloved community, a documentary film focused on the process of transforming education through PEBCI will be created and shared across Washington state and beyond.

“This project is very much aligned with Seattle University’s mission to ‘empower leaders for a just and humane world,’” says Dr. Cho. “I am so privileged to be able to walk alongside College of Education visionaries and our community leaders to enact the justice-driven change our youth deserve.”

PEBCI launched with a convening of representatives from each partner school on February 28 in Seattle. Dr. Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the keynote address via video link. 

Partner K-12 Schools 

• Bailey Gatzert Elementary, Seattle
• Cleveland High School, Seattle
• Foster High School, Tukwila
• Lumen High School, Spokane 
• Rainier Prep, Burien
• Rainier Valley Leadership Academy, Seattle 
• Rooted Vancouver, Vancouver
• Spokane International Academy, Spokane 

Learn more at www.seattleu.edu/pebci.