Motivated by passion and driven by integrity, Dr. Courtney Bell-Duncan is a multi-award-winning emancipatory educator and transformative servant leader with over a decade of experience helping K-12 institutions achieve new levels of systemic educational equity.

As the Founder and CEO of Courtney S. Bell Consulting LLC, Dr. Bell-Duncan brings with her an extensive background involving educational leadership, multi-level coaching, eradicating educational inequity through intentional mindfulness, and instilling healthy/inclusive mindset shifts across institutional pipelines.

Even more, Dr. Bell-Duncan enjoys leveraging this lived and academic-rich dynamicity to not only propel educational justice initiatives forward, but also to create equal opportune learning environments that allow every student to excel. 

Raised in North Minneapolis as one of the four children of matriarch Tosha Bell-Wooten, Dr. Bell-Duncan learned early on the innate value of perseverance, community connection, and possessing a strong work ethic to get ahead. Part of this stems from her natural progressive nature and part from her experiences as a K-12 student subjected to overcrowded classrooms, inadequate curriculum materials, and under-motivated staff.

With this as her base, it quickly became the catalyst for Dr. Bell-Duncan to transform those hardships to purpose and devote her life to creating solutions that don’t just mask educational inequity for underserved learners, but sustainably eradicate them.

Leading with that vision and being driven by her God-given purpose and calling to be a Steward and Shepard of educational equity, Dr. Bell-Duncan became a first-gen college graduate, attaining a BA in Sociology of Law, Criminology, and Deviance (2012), an M.Ed. in Social Studies Education (2014), and a Ph.D. in Organizational Policy and Leadership (2020) collectively from the University of Minnesota-Twin-Cities.

In concurrence with her education, Dr. Bell-Duncan began her career in the education sector, initially as a North High School Senior Academy-Associate Educator in 2012. In fact, seeing just how influential caring relationships and high expectations on children were in these environments inspired Dr. Bell-Duncan to pursue her M.Ed. and social studies teacher licensure.

Since then, Dr. Bell-Duncan has scaled through various teaching, education leadership to now coaching roles with specialties in curriculum, instruction, policy, and leadership for equity. Notably, this includes being a Social Studies Teacher at North High School, a Program Manager of Culturally Responsive Instruction in Saint Paul Public Schools, an Assistant Principal, an Assistant Professor of Education Leadership, to now an Education Leadership Consultant. 

That said, Dr. Bell-Duncan’s measurable impacts certainly haven’t gone unnoticed over the last two decades. To date, Dr. Bell-Duncan earned the University of Minnesota TRIO Achiever Award in 2016, the Minneapolis Public Schools Excellent Teacher Award in 2017, was a 2018 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Finalist and was the recipient of the University of Minnesota Excellence in Teaching Award in 2019, among several others. 

As a professional fueled by an unprecedented desire to eradicate educational inequity, nothing makes Dr. Bell-Duncan happier than translating underserved institutional objectives into tangible, equitable realities that educators and students alike can mutually benefit from.

Overall, Dr. Bell-Duncan designed Courtney S. Bell Consulting LLC to bridge prominent gaps and become the unapologetic support system that she wished she had during her own experiences of racial and socioeconomic discrimination in the classroom.

This, in conjunction with her life’s mission to rectify the atrocities of ill-prepared and resource-deprived educational institutions, is what shaped Dr. Bell-Duncan into the educational change agent she is today: one who is uncompromisingly committed to creating a future where high potential is strived for, educational equity and social good is prioritized, and giving every child the foundation they deserve to excel is the core motivation. 

When Dr. Bell-Duncan is not pursuing her life’s purpose for positive granular and educational reform, you can often find her enjoying time with her large and loving family. This includes her husband Charles, her parents and in-laws, her siblings, and her six nieces and nephews.