Prior to working at Smith, Nancy worked at NASA, Union Pacific Railroad, the EPA, and research labs across the country. Currently, Juan serves his community as a Director of Schools in the Bay Area where his twin loves of teaching and learning are only eclipsed by his infatuation with futbol, Oxnard, and Valentina hot sauce. She was previously a Senior Research Associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Before working in an elementary school she was a tutor, a youth worker, youth program coordinator, a mentor, and founder of the 3D Boys. There, Ms. Cruz led a number of progressive initiatives, most pointedly those directly impacting improvement with instruction and school culture. My grandmother was a teacher in Cuba and my mother was a social worker in East Boston. I was born and raised in San Francisco, CA in the Mission District, el corazn de San Francisco, home to many Mexican and Central American immigrants. I am the grandson and son of Mexican immigrants. Leaving an opportunity dessert was made possible because of the love and encouragement of her parents, una comunidad de apoyo that she found in educators at The University of Texas at Austin, and appetite for growth, opportunity, and search for equity. My desire to learn and participate in discussions that impact our community drives my interests in Latinos for Education. Joshua then went on to receive his Masterss Degree in International Affairs from the New School in 2017. Her family originated from Costa Rica and Jamaica. Rosa has a passion for social justice, policy, advocacy, diversity, equity, and inclusion. According to her LinkedIn, Myrla is a leadership coach at TNTP and has been a principal and teacher in the past. Cecilia is a Chicana Los Angeles native and Oakland lover, with over twenty years experience in the field of education, youth development, community organizing and advocacy efforts aimed at creating anti racist schools and developing and supporting teachers and students in increasing Black and Brown excellence in our schools. Soon, Sergio hopes to continue his education, connect with other leaders, and run for local office to do his part to close the achievement gap. There she was tasked to create a college going culture by collaborating with counselors, teachers, and students. Before joining Schusterman, Angelica served as a Capital Commitment Fellow in DC Public Schools and middle school ELA teacher, grade-level chair, and assistant principal at YES Prep Public Schools in Houston. She is the first person in her family to attend college and graduate from college. Our Leadership Meet TNTP's leadership team: 15 people who shape the organization's goals, services, and strategy. Mathematics curriculum and instruction with cultural relevance is my strongest interest. Ms. Feria comes from South Texas and works as a leadership coach. She earned her Master of Education in Bilingual and Dual Language Education, from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. Following her involvement with LEE, Kelly beat a Chelsea School Committee incumbent of 10 years, by being elected by her beloved community to serve as the youngest School Committee official ever elected in her district, while also attending graduate classes at Boston University. Liliana serves as Program Manager in Research & Innovation at SHPE. Luzdivina grew up in the small town of Rio Grande City. As a dedicated advocate of equity and employment change, Gabriela has worked for various organizations, providing support in human resource management and development, workforce development, recruitment, data analysis, and operations management. Justin has led as a Registrar, Director of Campus Operations, Director of School Operations and mostly recently as the Managing Director of School Operations. He also servesasa board member foroneTILT. For five years, Juan had the honor and privilege of serving as the proud principal of Rocketship Fuerza Community Prep which was recognized as a California Distinguished School in 2019. She uses the excitement of human spaceflight to inspire learners to be curious and pursue their passions. She benefited from Houston ISDs minority to majority transfer program and attended area Gifted and Talented (Vanguard) educational programs. I enjoyed my work with the students outside of the classroom, but I wanted to teach, so I volunteered in their classrooms. Michael decided to devote himself to educational equity work and seeking to expand his impact, he joined Achievement First as the Science Achievement Director and worked across schools to develop a science program curriculum used not only at Achievement First middle and high schools, but in many other classrooms and schools across the country. Alexis holds a masters degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy and a double bachelors degree in History and Sociology from California State University, Chico. He earned a BA with Honors in Political Science from the University of Central Florida and is a graduate of the ICN Business School in France. In 2019, she was selected as a Faculty Fellow for the Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, and in 2021, she earned the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award. Judy has a passion for increasing equity, furthering student achievement, building an inclusive and culturally responsive school culture, and honoring the cultural wealth of students, families, and the community. The foundation of college preparation from Upward Bound, Communication and Culture from Clark University and Transforming communities from American University and volunteering for Lawrence Communityworks led to an overall passion for social change with a focus of empowering families, promoting values based HR practices in the workforce and connecting neighbors in under-resourced communities. She is the founder of the Montserrat Coalition at Boston College, a program that supports and serves first-generation and low-income students. While working in a variety of clinical mental health positions in outpatient and school-based settings, she has dedicated much of her career to working with at-promise youth and their families. Johana Muriel Grajalesserves as the Director ofNational Strategy and Innovationat Latinos for Education. My goals for joining this fellowship are to model for my children strong advocacy and activism, and ultimately to have a positive impact on the educational outcomes for the Latinx community. Her desire to make sure the most underserved are treated with dignity and respect has pushed her to focus on self-improvement to be able to be the influencing voice for transparent action and meaningful change. Prior to joining Rocketship, Janine served as Regional Director for the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), advocating for high quality public schools in an increasingly hostile environment. is a graduate of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Leaders Program and an inauguralPahara-Aspen NextGen Fellow. This commitment led him to UC Santa Barbara where he graduated with majors in Spanish and Latin American Studies. The story surrounding how Myrla Feria's father died was unveiled on Married At First Sight on August 11, which led to an uproar from fans. Before joining Latinos for Education, Mara was a secondary school teacher in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Lety serves on the Board of the Fort Worth Chapter for the Hispanic Womens Network of Texas and is also on their Education Committee. She earned a PhD in Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) in 2015. Pasadena ISD is one of the largest school districts in Texas with over 80% Latino students. After graduating from University of Houston-Downtown, she served as a bilingual classroom teacher for the first ten years of her career. Americas Alumni of Color Association. Dr. Quirz is the Chief Operations Officer at Felton Institute in the San Francisco Bay Area. After college, I began to work at Mothers for Justice and Equality as a Bilingual Family Advocate where I worked closely with various Latino communities in Boston by advocating and supporting their needs through mentoring services and group support sessions. She is excited to learn more about and lend her expertise in thinking about ways to support the schooling of Latinx immigrant youths in Massachusetts. Karen also served as an Executive Director forthe New York City Department of Education; her most memorable experience was serving as founding principal of the first bilingual secondary school (English/Spanish for grades 6-12) in The Bronx, New York. TheAspiring Latino Leaders Fellowshipis the first of its kindin Houstonto support leadership pathways forlocalLatinos within the education sector. After graduation, Juan joined Teach for America and taught at a traditional district school in San Jose for three years. Cynthia is the daughter of Puerto Rican and Dominican parents. Maria Estrada was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts to Puerto Rican parents. Were also ensuring Latino education professionals have access to job and professional development opportunities across the country through our members-only Talent Hub. Leyvaserves as theChief of Staffat Latinos for Education. Natalia lives in Houston with her partner Luis and two children Camila and Lucas who inspire her to continue her work to ensure equity and access for all Latinx children across our city. Myrla loves to travel, enjoys the finer things in life, and doesn't plan on changing or modifying her lifestyle in . adjunct faculty member at Gordon College. Leydi Cottrill was born in Guatemala and came to the United States at the age of seven. Based in Houston, Liliana is currently leading the nationwide Equipando Padres program, designed to support parents of first generation to college engineering students. Vicky is proud to be a part of the Talent Recruitment team for Rocketship Public Schools. Shortly after her two years of service, she transitioned to working with Breakthrough Central Texas, where a twelve-year commitment is made to students and families (6th grade to college graduation). SandraRodrguez is the Advocacy Director at Latinos for Education where she leads the organizations efforts to elevate Latino voices in decision making to increase educational outcomes. Recently, Jose attended the annual conference of the University Council in Educational Administration, UCEA-2021, at Columbus, Ohio, where he presented the findings of his research on the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in secondary Latino newcomers language and content learning. I focus on teaching the whole child through community support, parent workshops, and student involvement throughout the school. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Houston Downtown. After earning her degree, in 2006, Sandra could not begin her teaching career due to her undocumented status. She was also an Adjunct Instructor for the Johns Hopkins University School of Education Master of Science in Education program. She is currently the District Instructional World Language Coach at Cambridge Public Schools, where she supports teachers and students across the district to engage in positive and productive learning environments. As the Director of School Communities, Sara developed and oversees implementation of Rocketships parent engagement vision and has led the organization to incredible success in various metrics such as increase in Parent Partnership Hours, Home Visits, Enrollment retention, to name a few. Martha was born and raised in Veracruz, Mexico. In cooperation with school leadership, she is currently responsible for driving and enhancing continuous academic achievement as the literacy multi-classroom leader at Buffalo Creek Elementary. Natalie understood the personal responsibility she had to represent her students and their families in every room/ decision she could. Since then she taught for 10 years in the classroom and moved to a central office position in 2005. began his professional career as a middle school math teacher in West Philadelphia while earning his teaching certification at The University of Pennsylvania. At Smith, she also teaches as a university lecturer, and runs several skill-building social-justice oriented fellowships. Additionally, she created the colleges THRIVE Center (Together Harnessing the Resources that Inspire a Valuable Education), a one-stop-shop for student success. According to Myrla's LinkedIn profile, she attended the University of Texas Pan-American where she earned a bachelor's degree in bilingual-early. Her success while at The Umana played a role in her acceptance to the highly regarded Lynch Leadership Academy for the 2020-21 school year. Myrla Feria Nationality Myrla Feria holds an American Nationality. She holds a MBA from Fitchburg State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Relations from San Martin University in Colombia. She believes that her family narrative is a huge contribution to who she is and what she brings to the space she takes up. Natalia prides herself with having strong classroom management and believes that rapport and communication are the key to successfully transforming the lives of those who she serves. Ana firmly believes in the power of community to transform lives and is looking forward to leveraging the skills, knowledge and perspectives from this fellowship to drive her work. He, was previously Chief Growth & Impact Officer and originally joined as, VP of Strategy and Programs in 2017 after five years at Johns Hopkins as Boston Executive Director and later Regional Director overseeing 14 schools across the northeast in the largest randomized control trial of school reform in American history (Diplomas Now i3 Study). As the son of Salvadoran immigrants, the first one in his family to graduate from college, and former educator, Andy is passionate about expanding educational equity. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Bilingual and ESL Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Houston. He has global experience enabling universities across the globe to meet the needs of marginalized learners. As one of seven children, Rosa is the first in her family to receive a Bachelors degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She continues being an advocate for the Emergent Bilingual students and the Hispanic community. This has also led her to continue her own education, as she is currently pursuing her M.A. Having worked in customer service roles for most of her life, she knew her passion was teaching and making a difference. Her role was to ensure the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) worked to implement system-wide best practices across every public school on the island. As a first-generation college student at Tufts University, she relied heavily on the continued support of her high school teachers. Born of Puerto Rican and Guatemalan descent, she was the first in her family to get accepted and attend a four-year university. Shortly after moving back home to Worcester, she earned her Masters Degree in Organizational Management from Endicott College; while simultaneously working on her Administrators licence through the Urban Principals Development Program with Teachers 21. In this role, she manages thedesign and implementation of national strategy tied to growth and innovation imperatives to ensure more Latino leaders and entrepreneurs are at the front of closing the education gaps facing the Latino community. However, he also became acutely aware of the lack of access and opportunity that he experienced in his K-12 schooling as a first-generation college student of color. Education has always been important to Myrla. Sylvia was born and raised in the Bronx to proud Colombian parents and is passionate about learning, adult education, and educational equity for all. My parents migrated from Michoacan Mx. in Interpersonal Communications from The University of Texas at Austin. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas-Permian Basin and a Bachelor of History- Mexican-American Studies from the University of Houston. 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