The California Educator Diversity Project

The California Coalition for Educator Diversity was established by UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools to support the work of the California Educator Diversity Project. The Coalition is a collaborative effort brought forth by researchers, practitioners, and advocates committed to advancing teacher diversity, humanizing practices, and equity in schools. Our collective mission is to diversify the California educator workforce by amplifying and elevating evidence-based and equity-centered policy, practice, and research.

Angelica Salazar

Senior Policy Advocate, Public Advocates

Angelica Salazar (she/her), Senior Policy Advocate, joined Public Advocates’ Education Equity Team in June 2023. She splits her time between her home base in Los Angeles and Public Advocates’ Sacramento office. Angie focuses on statewide advocacy to improve learning conditions and outcomes for multilingual learners and to grow a diverse, well-prepared educator workforce, especially for low-income Black, Indigenous, Latine, and most impacted students of color and multilingual learners.

Prior to joining Public Advocates, Angie was the Director of Education Equity at Children’s Defense Fund-California, where she led the organization’s education team toward advancing youth and parent power and equitable school funding. Angie’s research, advocacy, and coalition-building to transform systems started at the Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) national office in Washington DC, when she joined the movements to end mass incarceration and dismantle the school-to-prison-pipeline. As a former teacher, Angie understood how exclusionary and racist school discipline policies were systematically embedded in classrooms, and that it was critical to support the movement of students, parents, teachers, community organizers, policy makers, and allies to heal and transform schools. When Angie moved back to California, she worked in partnership with youth and parent leaders in Long Beach and across Los Angeles County on campaigns to invest more resources in restorative justice programming, and in greater educational support services for high need students of color.

Prior to serving at CDF for 11 years, Angie was a middle school teacher at the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she taught math, science, English, and history. Angie graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California in 2005 with a B.A. in International Relations and a minor in Urban Planning and Development. During Angie’s teacher preparation, she earned an M.A. in Elementary Education from Loyola Marymount University. Angie later earned an M.A. in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2010, where she focused on the intersections of the education and juvenile justice systems. Angie currently lives in Los Angeles with her wife, two toddlers, and four dogs.

Benito Aranda Comer

K-12 Policy Analyst, The Education Trust-West

Benito Aranda-Comer (he/him) joins The Education Trust–West as a K-12 Policy Analyst. Before joining the Education Trust–West, Benito was an 8th grade English Language Arts teacher in Houston, Texas, where he is from. As a classroom teacher, Benito had the distinct opportunity to serve students by facilitating rigorous coursework that reflected the lived experiences of his students and pushed them to constantly grow their own capabilities. Benito’s experience in a public-charter school system further highlighted the existing inequities for students of color and was a wake-up call to the realities at play for students and educators alike. Benito saw first-hand, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, how the nation’s most vulnerable students could be affected and how communities still demonstrated their values of resilience and commitment to students. Though chronic issues of the profession were constantly emphasized throughout daily work, the dedication of educators and their belief that all children could succeed remains as a key motivating factor in supporting their work with policy advocacy.In response to the global pandemic, and to confront the systemic issues plaguing our education system, Benito chose to pursue his Master of Public Policy at Georgetown University to equip himself with the tools needed to advocate for his community. During his graduate studies, Benito also worked as a research associate at FutureEd, an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. There he authored several explainer pieces on various topics which included trauma-informed teaching practices and compiled information from various legislative bills on teacher pay. Benito was also the Co-President of the McCourt Education Policy Initiative and leveraged every opportunity to engage in education related instruction and skill acquisition.Benito holds a B.A. in both History and Latin American Studies and a minor in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities from Rice University. He also has an MPP from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and a Certificate in Education Finance from their Edumonics Lab.

Betina Hsieh, Ph.D.

Boeing Endowed Professor, Teacher Education, University of Washington

Dr. Hsieh is a true believer in the importance of connecting theory and practice. Her teacher education work is informed by her 10 years of urban middle school classroom teaching experience (in the English, Mathematics, and Social Studies classrooms), her several years of literacy coaching (K-12), and her work as co-director of the Bay Area Writing Project. Dr. Hsieh anchors her practice in a strong theoretical framework as well that is particularly influenced by such scholars as hooks, Freire, Dewey, Heath, Freedman, Schon, and the New London Group, among others. Because of her personal and professional background, she is strongly committed to equity in urban schooling. Current research interests include the emergence and development of a teacher professional identity, the development of cross-content literacy practices (particularly in the age of the common core standards) and the development and uses of 21st century literacy practices in schools and universities.

Cathy Balfe

Graduate Student Researcher, CA Educator Diversity Project, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Cathy is a Graduate Student Researcher at the Center for the Transformation of Schools (CTS) and is pursuing a JD at UCLA School of Law. Prior to starting law school, she worked as a Research Analyst at CTS, working primarily on the California Educator Diversity Project. Cathy is passionate about generating accessible and useful research that focuses on addressing systemic barriers to equity in education. Before joining CTS, Cathy worked at Tulane University’s Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, where she conducted quantitative and qualitative research seeking to understand how education policy changes impact historically marginalized students both in New Orleans and nationally. Her work has covered a variety of topics, including identifying barriers to racial equity in the teaching profession, early childhood application patterns, schools’ responses to the COVID-19 school closures, and the equity implications of admissions policy changes in the New Orleans public school system. Cathy holds a BA in Economics from Tulane University.

Charlotte Achieng Evensen, Ph.D.

Center Director, Center Director for the California Educator Preparation Innovation Collaborative (CalEPIC), Thompson Policy Institute at Chapman University

Charlotte Achieng Evensen is the Center Director for the California Educator Preparation Innovation Collaborative (CalEPIC) for Thompson Policy Institute at Chapman University. Her scholarship focuses on the intersections of critical teaching practice, African Indigenous Philosophies and decolonization. In addition to teaching university courses in educator preparation programs, Dr. Achieng Evensen has been a practitioner within Tk-12. Over the past 23 years, she has served school districts in a variety of roles including secondary humanities and language arts teacher, district program coordinator, professional development and equity specialist.

Christa Koppuzha

Research & Data Analyst, The Education Trust-West

Christa Koppuzha (she/her/hers) was raised by Indian immigrants who instilled the value and power of education in her from a young age. Throughout her academic career, she became aware of the potential of literature as a tool for social justice. She later sought to create spaces for her students to explore their identities and challenge dominant structures as an English and English Language Development Teacher in Richmond, California. While she was a teacher, Christa saw the glaring inequities present in the education system and worked with a local education policy non-profit to explore the disparities in a-g achievement among English Language Learners and propose a policy change to the West Contra Costa School Board. Her interest in the intersection between education and policy led her to the Education Trust–West, where she served as the School District Engagement Intern under the Educator Engagement Team. Christa continued to explore systemic practices that further education equity while pursuing her Master’s in Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. During graduate school, Christa worked as a graduate student instructor and served as a policy consultant for the Alameda County Office of Early Childhood Education, the Oakland Mayor’s Office of Education, and the UC Berkeley Center for Cities and Schools. She is excited to return to The Education Trust–West as a Research and Data Analyst. She earned her B.A. in English and International Development from the University of Florida.

Christine Ong, Ph.D.

Research Scientist, UCLA CRESST

Christine Ong is a Research Scientist at CRESST. Having worked in the field of educational research and evaluation for over 10 years, she currently co-directs an evaluation of the STEM Teacher in Advanced Residency (STAR) program at California State University Dominguez Hills, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. She also leads CRESST evaluation efforts on the Mobilize project, an innovative computer science initiative for high school students, which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and serves as an advisor to the Exploring Computer Science project at the local and national level. Prior to her work at CRESST, Dr. Ong worked as a research analyst at First 5 LA and participated in the planning and dissemination of several large-scale evaluation studies, including the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Child Outcome Study (UPCOS) and the LA County Healthy Kids Insurance evaluation. She began her career in education as an early childhood teacher and museum educator.

Erika Yagi

Graduate Student Researcher, CA Educator Diversity Project, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Erika Yagi is a PhD student in Social Science & Comparative Education at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her research field focuses on Third Culture Kids’ (TCK) home-language retention in the context of learning barriers. TCKs are often defined as persons who grow up outside of their parents’ cultural environment(s) whose intention is to return to their passport nations. Erika identifies as a TCK herself, as she spent most of her formative school years in Egypt and Kenya. She also received her master’s degree in Education from UCLA. Prior to attending UCLA, Erika obtained her B.A. in Elementary Education and German, and worked as an elementary school teacher at an international school in Cameroon. She currently works as a classroom teacher and as an assistant administrator at a community based, non-profit weekend Japanese language school in LA. She is passionate about teaching in both of her home languages; English and Japanese.

Heather Michel, Ph.D.

Residency Coordinator, CalState TEACH

Dr. Heather Michel is an Education Consultant, Master Educator, and founder of the organization Teachers of Color Matter. She has worked in the Education field for over 22 years in various capacities. She is currently the Residency Coordinator for CalStateTeach where she manages three residency programs across the state of California. Before moving to higher education, she was a curriculum coach at a Spanish language 50/50 dual-immersion school and taught first and second grade at a charter school for 13 years. Dr. Michel is passionate about teachers of color, their retention and social justice in schools. She founded Teachers of Color Matter to amplify and address the needs of teachers of color in our public education spaces. Dr. Michel is committed to fighting for educational justice for all students and believes in the power of centering the voices of our most marginalized groups.

Hui Huang

Graduate Student Researcher, CA Educator Diversity Project, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Hui Huang is a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies, Social Science and Comparative Education division. She works as a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) for the Educator Diversity Project at the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Hui’s research is centered around investigating the intricate connections among individuals’ formal, non-formal, and informal learning experiences, and their subsequent impacts on a range of outcomes, including identity development, well-being, and skill formation. Her approach encompasses the utilization of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, aimed at attaining a comprehensive understanding of the complex social dynamics that shape these learning outcomes. In her GSR work, She explores the economic, political, and sociocultural factors that influence teachers’ well-being, retention, and the overall sustainability of the teaching profession.

Kai Mathews, Ph.D.

Project Director, California Educator Diversity Project, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Dr. Mathews is the CA Educator Diversity Project Director at the Center for the Transformation of Schools at UCLA. She is an educator, researcher, and creative strategist who is passionate about innovative reforms and practices in K-12 education. She has over 10 years of practical work and research experience with students, teachers, and administrators in various school districts around the country. Most notably she has worked as a Coordinator for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), was a researcher for the Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education, and worked as an 8th grade Humanities teacher at High Tech High in San Diego. Her areas of expertise and passion include educational equity, culturally responsive teaching and learning, Project Based Learning (PBL), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Blended Learning (BL) and design thinking. Dr. Mathews has a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies with a specialization in K-12 education from the University of San Diego, an M.A. in Communication from Ellis University, and a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing from Spelman College.

Karen Escalante, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, College of Education, California State University, San Bernardino

Dr. Karen Escalante is an Assistant Professor, Co-Director of the Ed.D. Educational Leadership Program, and Holmes Program Coordinator in the Watson College of Education at California State University San Bernardino. She teaches courses grounded in social justice and humanizing pedagogy. Karen is an executive board member and President-Elect of the California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE) and serves as part of the research team and advisory board for UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of School’s California Educator Diversity Project. Her line of research focuses on the through line between Culturally Responsive Teaching and teaching performance assessments, teacher candidate / in-service teacher belonging, and operating within the third space (boundary spanning) to support P-12 and teacher preparation programs.

Kevin Nguyen-Stockbridge, Ph.D.

Director, LGBTQ Pride & Achievement, Chapman University

Dr. Kevin Nguyen-Stockbridge is the inaugural Director of LGBTQ Pride and Achievement at Chapman University in Orange California. His research and professional work have focused on the advancement of justice in education, with a particular emphasis on queer teacher identity and thriving. Dr. Nguyen-Stockbridge served as program director for CalEPIC, a teacher education transformation initiative of the Thompson Policy Institute on Disability and has served as faculty in teacher education. His passion is the advancement of belonging and inclusion.

Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Ed.D.

Associate Professor, Teachers College, Arizona State University

Margarita Jimenez-Silva is an associate professor at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on preparing teachers to work with English learners, especially as it relates to teacher education pedagogy and curriculum. Her other research strands include Latino parent engagement and narrative studies. Her research has been published by journals such as Harvard Educational Review, Childhood Education, and the Journal of Research on Childhood Education.

Professor Jimenez-Silva has traveled to and coordinated curriculum and programs addressing the needs of English language learners in the U.S., as well as in Mexico, Panama, and Hungary. She is active in her community serving on various school boards and speaking on behalf of English learners and their families. Prior to entering higher education, Professor Jimenez-Silva worked with Newcomer students as a middle-school teacher in Oakland, California. She began her work with pre-service teachers at Concordia University in Irvine, CA. She is herself a former ELL from the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.

Melissa Eiler White, Ph.D.

Project Director, Innovation Studies, WestEd

Melissa Eiler White is Director at WestEd, where she leads research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects focused on teachers and teaching.  Over the last several years, her work has focused on supporting improvement of teacher preparation systems through formative evaluation and continuous improvement-focused technical assistance projects.

She is currently co-leading both the California Collaborative for the Teacher Workforce–a cross-agency effort designed to address critical barriers in the state’s approach to supporting a diverse, well-prepared teacher workforce–and an evaluation of the California Teacher Residency Grant Program, which has produced critical insights and recommendations that have shaped improvements to the program design and delivery.

Prior to that she led a large scale, multi-year year evaluation of the New Generation of Educators Initiative at the California State University as well as a concurrent technical assistance program that resulted in significant improvements in the systemwide technical infrastructure and lasting shifts throughout the system toward continuous improvement approach to the work of preparing teachers. White has also led numerous research efforts for the Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West) at WestEd. White received a BA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in policy analysis and evaluation and a PhD in administration and policy analysis from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

Reino Makkonen, Ph.D.

Senior Policy Associate, WestEd

WestEd Senior Policy Associate Reino Makkonen is a senior researcher with two decades of experience studying teacher workforce issues and school and district leadership across Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. His work involves developing and validating interview, survey, and observation instruments and evaluating educator development programs via mixed methods.

His recent technical assistance efforts with state and district leaders have focused on developing theories of change for new educator support initiatives, designing implementation and formative evaluation plans to monitor early indicators, and expanding the use and application of research evidence. Prior to joining WestEd, Makkonen spent several years developing, implementing, and studying early literacy curricula with Houghton Mifflin. He holds a masters degree in educational policy analysis from Harvard University and a doctorate in educational measurement and evaluation from University of California Berkeley.

Sarah Lillis

Executive Director, Teach Plus California

Sarah Lillis (she/her/hers) is the Executive Director of Teach Plus California. Teach Plus works to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success. In this role, she partners with champion teachers across the state to lead change in policy and practice. Prior to joining Teach Plus in 2017, Sarah worked in state education policy advocacy for more than a decade, serving as the COO and Institute Director at EdVoice, a non-profit advocacy organization working to ensure that every child in California has an equitable opportunity to learn. As the Institute Director, in addition to direct advocacy, Sarah oversaw educational programming for legislators. Sarah has also worked in philanthropy as a program officer at Tides Foundation, a social justice foundation in San Francisco, and at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Sarah received a bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard University and a master’s degree in policy analysis and evaluation from Stanford University’s School of Education.

Vincent Stewart

Vice President for Policy and Programs for Children Now

Vincent Stewart serves as the Vice President for Policy and Programs and in this role oversees Children Now’s policy and research work and leads the organizational assessment of our programmatic efforts as measured by progress on key indicators aligned to our project goals. In addition, Mr. Stewart provides leadership for Children Now’s Education Team and for our education policy agenda, TK-12 through higher education. For nearly two decades, Mr. Stewart has been an advocate for public education, K-12 through post-secondary, and was appointed by both Governors Brown and Schwarzenegger to senior education policy positions.

Prior to joining Children Now, Mr. Stewart was the Vice Chancellor for External Relations for the California Community Colleges, the nation’s largest system of higher education. He managed both state and federal governmental relations, as well as strategic partnerships with philanthropic organizations. Mr. Stewart came to the Chancellor’s Office from The James Irvine Foundation, where he served as a Senior Program Officer with the Youth Program and managed a grant portfolio in excess of $13 million that was focused on the alignment of secondary and postsecondary education and preparing all students for both college and careers. Mr. Stewart is a graduate of UC Davis, where he earned a baccalaureate degree with a double major in economics and political science.

Prioritizing Educator Diversity with New State and Federal Funding

This brief highlights opportunities for recruiting, preparing, and retaining more educators of color in California, including increased support for teacher residencies, fee waivers, teacher grants, and early childhood education funding.

A Funding Guide for More Diverse California Schools 2023-24

This funding guide is a public resource for educators and districts committed to diversifying the educator workforce and meeting the needs of diverse students.

Voices from the Classroom: Developing a Strategy for Teacher Retention and Recruitment

Details results from a survey of 4,632 TK-12th grade teachers in California, revealing alarming findings related to job satisfaction and future outlook, teacher retention, and diversity & inclusion within the school work environment.

Six Barriers to Racial Equity in Teacher Education Programs

This paper aims to uncover the challenges and struggles teacher candidates of color experience in their teacher education programs (TEPs), and highlight the systematic and persistent racial inequities within California’s educator pipeline. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this paper aims to answer the following research questions: What factors impact the racial climate within TEPs in California? What are the experiences of people of color in TEPs in California?

Teacher Education Deserts

This brief will provide an analysis of enrollment trends in California teacher education programs (TEPs) over the past six years and how TEPs are geographically distributed throughout the state. Additionally, it will assess how the distribution of TEPs may impact the teacher shortages experienced by districts and counties around the state.

Humanizing the Teaching Profession

This paper will examine the responses from from teachers of color within our 2022 survey on their experiences of racial discrimination at school sites.

Get Real!: Designing Teacher Preparation Programs for the Realities of Teaching

Project Director Dr. Kai Mathews presented “Get Real!: Designing Teacher Preparation Programs for the Realities of Teaching” and led residency teachers and administrators in a brainstorming session at the 2023 CA Teacher Residency Lab Annual Symposium.

Making Teaching Possible for BIPOC Candidates

Dr. Kai Mathews presented as part of The California Coalition for Educator Diversity at California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE)’s Spring 2023 SPAN Conference.

Six Barriers to Racial Equity in Teacher Education Programs

CTS California Educator Diversity Project research team presented at AERA 2023.