Demontea Thompson is a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies, Urban Schooling Division. His research explores how educational institutions can facilitate success for marginalized students, particularly those who have had interactions with the child welfare and justice system. Demontea is a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and aims to counter the master narrative about students with foster care experience and center their voices in education literature. He is a Compton, CA native and the co-founder and Executive Director of Twinspire, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that works for and with youth in need of life skill services. A slam poet and author of the inspirational autobiography, Raised From Scratch, Demontea received his M.Ed. from the University of Southern California and his B.S. in Business Management from California State University, Northridge.
