Truss Leadership is a for-profit critical race theory-aligned education consultancy run by Joe Truss, a California educator. It offers workshops for public schools and public school districts on “dismantling white supremacy” in schools.

Truss Leadership claims to have consulted for nearly 70 schools and 5,000 educators, mostly located in California. ¹

Founding and History

Truss Leadership was founded by Joe Truss, a California educator and former middle school principal, in March 2018. Given Truss’ decade of experience in teaching within the San Francisco metropolitan area, Truss Leadership’s first clients came from neighboring districts in California’s Bay Area, to include Alameda, Palo Alto, and Bayshore.

In 2021, Truss Leadership organized a weeklong virtual workshop on “Dismantling White Supremacy Workshop in Schools,” with noted far-left critical race theory activists Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, and Ibram X Kendi as keynote speakers. It claims that 700 participants attended. ²

Activities

Truss Leadership offers several critical race theory-backed workshops and services for interested schools. These include year-long “antiracist” courses—which can cost up to $1,500 for the year—and “1 on 1 Coaching” for $5,000. ³ The consultancy’s most popular offering appears to be its “Dismantling White Supremacy” workshop, and it claims to have presented it to over 5,000 educators. ⁴

Truss Leadership is featured on Parents Defending Education’s Consultant Report Card project, which tracks publicly-available public school expenditures on critical race theory-aligned consultants. It found that Truss Leadership has been paid at least $43,793.13 in taxpayer dollars by three California school districts (Bayshore, Palo Alto, and Alameda) on “Dismantling White Supremacy in Schools.” ⁵

Leadership

The owner of Truss Leadership is Joe Truss. Until 2021, in addition to running Truss Leadership, Truss was the principal of Visitacion Valley Middle School in the San Francisco Unified School District. Prior to that role, he taught and held administrative positions throughout the district. ⁶

Truss was also a founding member of the San Francisco Unified School District’s Superintendent’s Leadership Program and claims to have led several critical race theory initiatives within the district. These include hosting workshops on “Institutional Change, Culturally Relevant Curricula, and White Supremacy Culture,” as well as seminars on “microaggressions” and “systemic oppression.” ⁷

Aside from his consulting work, Truss contributes to educational news publications like Ed Week, writing such articles as “Advice for the Newly Woke White Teachers on Teaching Black Children.” In it, Truss criticizes so-called “white fragility” and asks all teachers to “apply a critical-race-theory lens to politics… and vote differently.” ⁸

1. “Services.” Truss Leadership – Racial Equity Consulting, November 26, 2021. https://culturallyresponsiveleadership.com/services/.
2. Truss, Joe. “Joe Truss Resume Leadership Coach and Racial Equity Consultant *.” Google Docs. Google. Accessed February 7, 2022. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EjSWP4n_HXZRnP5ATPH8ejcAu-u0gqLx6T0Y5sH1cL0/edit.
3. “Services.” Truss Leadership – Racial Equity Consulting, November 26, 2021. https://culturallyresponsiveleadership.com/services/.
4. Truss, Joe. “Joe Truss Resume Leadership Coach and Racial Equity Consultant *.” Google Docs. Google. Accessed February 7, 2022. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EjSWP4n_HXZRnP5ATPH8ejcAu-u0gqLx6T0Y5sH1cL0/edit.
5. “Truss Leadership.” Parents Defending Education, December 14, 2021. https://defendinged.org/report/truss-leadership/.
6. Truss, Joe. “Joe Truss Resume Leadership Coach and Racial Equity Consultant *.” Google Docs. Google. Accessed February 7, 2022. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EjSWP4n_HXZRnP5ATPH8ejcAu-u0gqLx6T0Y5sH1cL0/edit.
7. Truss, Joe. “Joe Truss Resume Leadership Coach and Racial Equity Consultant *.” Google Docs. Google. Accessed February 7, 2022. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EjSWP4n_HXZRnP5ATPH8ejcAu-u0gqLx6T0Y5sH1cL0/edit.
8. Ferlazzo, Larry. “’Advice for the Newly Woke White Teachers on Teaching Black Children’ (Opinion).” Education Week. Education Week, July 13, 2021. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-advice-for-the-newly-woke-white-teachers-on-teaching-black-children/2020/06.