Eric Hagarty is the Acting Secretary of Education for Pennsylvania. A passionate advocate for education in the commonwealth, Eric has championed some of the most critical initiatives benefitting our commonwealth’s teachers and learners over the past decade.

He led the team that secured more than $2 billion in education funding increases to date, including the largest single-year increase in Pennsylvania history for the 2021-22 fiscal year; helped to enact the “Level Up” program, which directs $100 million in funding to the poorest and most historically underfunded districts in Pennsylvania; and developed the framework for schools to safely resume instruction following the onset of COVID-19 and continued to guide schools through the pandemic.

Previously, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Tom Wolf, where he was deeply involved in issues and advocacy for the commonwealth and state agencies; and prior to that as Chief of Staff at the Department of Community and Economic Development, where he administered a department with over 300 employees and nearly $5 billion in state and federal grant, loan, tax credit, and bond financing programs.

Eric received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from the University of Washington – Seattle.

Gabby Rodriguez is a rising senior at the High School of Creative and Performing Arts who is majoring in visual art. Being a proud Puerto Rican, they use their voice and media abilities to support other members of the latinx community, along with participating in various spaces regarding Diversity Equity and Inclusion. In addition to serving as a student representative and media producer for WHYY for the last five years, Gabby is currently president of The Bullhorn News, a newspaper operated by and for students in the Philadelphia District. Besides that, they spend their free time participating in numerous clubs, volunteer work, and watching anything related to True Crime or Dungeons & Dragons.

Gabby can be contacted at rodriguezkaitlyn016@gmail.com

Carmen Dickerson holds a BA in Psychology from Rutgers College at Rutgers University, a Masters of Education in Special Education from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, and an Instructional Coach endorsement from Penn State University. Carmen was the runner-up for WGAL Teacher of the Year Award and the former Educators of Lower Dauphin president.

Carmen has taught Learning Support for 28 years at Lower Dauphin School District and is the current middle school Special Education Department Chair. She has also served as an Induction Coordinator for 27 years. She provides additional support to the school community in a variety of ways including keeping the books for the middle school field hockey team, providing home-bound instruction, private tutoring, and serving as a Coordinator for Camp/Club Ophelia.

David Lapp serves as RFA’s Director of Policy Research where he oversees a range of projects at the nexus of education research and policy. He leads RFA’s Pennsylvania Clearinghouse for Education Research (PACER) project to inform state education policy discussions through objective research and analysis. He also provides oversight direction to RFA’s ACER project (Allegheny County Education Research), a local education policy research project. Lapp recently oversaw creation of RFA’s Educational Opportunity Dashboard, a tool to examine disparities in access to 14 indicators by race and income from the Civil Rights Data Collection.

Before joining RFA in 2016, Lapp was a staff attorney at the Education Law Center – PA, where he litigated cases and conducted policy research on a wide variety of legal issues related to public education, including school funding, student discipline, race and disability discrimination, student enrollment, and charter school law. At ELC, David also helped districts and charter schools revise their Student Codes of Conduct to minimize reliance on exclusionary discipline. He also helped create, train, and advise the Student Discipline Advocacy Service, a law student collaborative that provides assistance to students facing expulsion and disciplinary transfers in Philadelphia public schools. Lapp recently taught education law at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. He received his JD from Temple Law School, which awarded him the post-graduate Conwell Community Corps Fellowship. Prior to practicing law, Lapp taught high school social studies for nine years in two Philadelphia charter schools.

Leana Cabral joins RFA’s qualitative research team as a Research Associate. She serves on the Out-of-School Time (OST) Coordination: Infrastructure for Supporting Healthy OST Ecosystems project which explores how city level OST coordination can contribute to community, family, and youth resilience moving forward from the COVID-19 pandemic into the future. She is also leading the Educator Diversity study, examining the root causes of Black teacher attrition in Philadelphia and promising practices in teacher diversification efforts.

Cabral has extensive experience working in out-of-school settings as an educator and administrator as well as in school settings as a researcher. Additionally, Cabral leverages her mixed methods training as a PhD candidate at Teachers College in Sociology and Education in support of her projects at RFA. Her research interests include the racial politics of public education, K-12 educational inequality and educational program evaluation and she is broadly committed to educational and racial justice and equity for all students.

Farima Pour-Khorshid is a proud Bay Area educator-organizer-scholar. She taught at the elementary grade levels in her community for over a decade, and supported educators locally, nationally, and internationally through her roles as a university professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant, and community organizer. She is deeply committed to bridging abolition- and healing-centered engagement in education. Much of her work is rooted in grassroots organizing as she serves in leadership roles within the Teachers 4 Social Justice organization, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and the National Education for Liberation Network, which organizes the Free Minds Free People conference.

Professor Pour-Khorshid is one of the editors, authors, and organizers collaborating on the upcoming book Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for K-12 Educators, which will be published through AK Press and released in the summer of 2021. This toolkit is a collaboration between the Education for Liberation, Critical Resistance, and several other grassroots abolitionist and justice centered collectives. Research interests of Professor Pour-Khorshid include: critical and healing-centered racial affinity approaches, grassroots teacher organizing, critical professional development, abolitionist teaching, and healing-centered approaches to supporting educators within and outside of the field.

Tanya I. Garcia, Ph.D. is Deputy Secretary and Commissioner for Postsecondary and Higher Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). In this role, she oversees long-range planning for higher education in Pennsylvania, the implementation of statutory and regulatory responsibilities governing postsecondary education, and educator certification. Before joining PDE, Dr. Garcia held various roles in state government, national nonprofits, and philanthropy where she dedicated her work to improving policies and practices for all students from high school to postsecondary to the workforce. A first-generation student, Dr. Garcia earned a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Biology at Florida International University. Her M.A. in Higher Education Administration is from The George Washington University. She earned a Ph.D. in Public Administration at American University.

Dr. Marc Brasof is an Associate Professor of Education, the Rosemary and Walter Blankley Endowed Chair, and the Faculty Senate President. Dr. Brasof's has taught for over 20 years and was a founding faculty member and history/social studies teacher at Constitution High School, Pennsylvania's only history- and civic-themed public school. Dr. Brasof has published scholarship examining secondary school improvement from the perspectives of student voice, distributed and democratic leadership, and civic and history education. Dr. Brasof authored the book Student Voice and School Governance: Distributing Leadership to Youth and Adults (2015) and an upcoming co-edited volume Student Voice Research: Theory, Methods, and Innovations from the Field (2022) Dr. Brasof is the co-director and co-founder of Arcadia's Social Action and Justice Education Fellowship, an initiative to recruit, train, and employ the next generation of social justice educators.

Priscilla Jeter-Iles is the Director of Field Experiences and Outreach at a local university. Prior to her current position, Dr. Jeter-Iles served as an adjunct professor at Arcadia University for over 19 years while teaching in the Philadelphia School District. The last three years of her public school tenure, she was the School Based Teacher Leader (SBTL). Dr. Jeter-Iles received her B.A. and secondary certification in Social Science from Wheaton College in 1986. She received her M.Ed. from Arcadia University, formerly Beaver College, in 1999. In 2009, Dr. Priscilla Jeter-Iles received her doctorate in Education from Arcadia University. In addition to her degrees she holds certifications in Early Childhood Education, Secondary Education, and Leadership. She has over thirty years of experience in the combined fields of Social Work, Education, and Behavioral Health. Dr. Jeter-Iles maintains several memberships in a variety of professional organizations.

Tobi Tella is a recent graduate from Arcadia University's School of Education. During his time at the university, he was honored with the Horace C. Woodland for promoting understanding amongst fellow education students. He was a founding member of Arcadia's Social Action and Justice in Education fellowship which promotes diversity in education, along with the university's English honor society.

Noel Gonzalez Jr. is a second year student at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa. He grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs. Noel plans to become a secondary education social studies teacher in the Philadelphia area. At Arcadia, he is also apart of our Social Action and Justice in Education (SAJE) fellowship which highlights the lack of minor representation in curriculum and the education field. He wishes to be an advocate and inspiration for change for generations to come.

Currently, Tiffany is a Partner in the Northeast Region. Prior to the Partner role, Tiffany was a Leadership Coach. As a Leadership Coach with TNTP since 2017, Tiffany has been responsible for coaching and evaluating principals across a range of charter, public, and parochial schools. Tiffany is a trained Facilitator for Equity and has received continuous professional learning in cultural proficiency, Conscious Inclusion, and Culturally Responsive Teaching. Prior to joining TNTP, Tiffany was the Executive Director of Specialized Services for an urban school district.

Tiffany previously served the Philadelphia and Camden communities as the Director of Alternative Education for Mastery Charter Schools. While Director, she oversaw the partnership with disciplinary and special education placement partners. Tiffany also served as the principal of an elementary school in Washington, D.C. that provided community school services to students in pre-school through grade five. Tiffany won the Capital One Bank-Heart of America Principal of the Year Award after her second year of turnaround and was also awarded the Proving What’s Possible district grant for two consecutive years. In addition to her leadership roles, she was a Special Education teacher, Data Specialist, and teacher mentor.

She holds a BA from Morgan State University, MS in Special Education from The College of Staten Island- CUNY, and a MS in Education Administration from the College of Saint Rose. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California with a research focus of “The Role of Racial Equity in the Curriculum of School Leader Preparation Programs and Professional Development”. Tiffany also is a founding board member of The Social Justice School in Washington, DC.

Naomi Fortis-Gebreselassie is a bilingual Salvadorian-American educator, serving as a Northeast Leadership Coach on the initiative Supporting the Development of School Leaders of Color. Prior to TNTP, Naomi was the founding Principal of the Calle Ocho Campus for Mundo Verde Public Charter School in Washington, DC. She cultivated a strong school culture with a team comprised of over 90% staff of color, leading to a 95% staff retention rate. Naomi facilitated systems and structures for data, professional development, and virtual learning that strengthened teacher practice leading to continued student growth.

Prior to principalship, Naomi served as principal in resident, instructional coach, classroom teacher in public, charter, and private schools in Washington D.C. and El Salvador, as well as a university instructor in Mexico. Her work has focused predominantly on access to bilingual education in public schools and educational equity for people of color and those most marginalized.

Dr. Amber Jean-Marie Pabon is an associate professor of urban education in the Secondary Education department at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. She serves as chair of the Diversity and Equity Committee in the College of Education and is the incoming director of the campus Frederick Douglass Institute. Her scholarship focusing on the literate lives and life histories of Black teachers and Black youth addresses themes including colorblind racism, social suffering, disenfranchised grief, and Black cultural literacies. Dr. Pabon’s research has been published in Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Equity, Excellence and Education, Urban Education, Education Studies, and Urban Review.

Dr. Pabon is also committed to the recruitment BIPOC educators to teach in urban schools and has presented on her innovative program at the National Council on Black Studies, the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Educational Research Association, and the World Education Research Association.

Rochelle R. Peterson-Ansari, CEO of Perceptions Unlimited, is a master trainer, coach and consultant committed to deep transformation in educators and organizational culture in schools, colleges and non-profit agencies. With degrees in Sociology and Educational Studies, 30 + years in higher education and 10 + years leading pre-college initiatives, she brings unique expertise in anti-oppressive, equitable and inclusive leadership, mentoring and teacher education to the PEDC circle of leaders and as co-author of the Pennsylvania Culturally Relevant-Sustaining Education Competencies. Rochelle served in both administrative and academic roles in Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Enrollment Management across private, catholic, state, community and junior colleges. She has also led initiatives engaging youth, youth workers, families, educators, grant makers, and philanthropic volunteers. Wherever you find her, she is helping people, especially the most vulnerable among us, thrive.

Dr. Christopher Allen Varlack is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Arcadia University where he teaches courses in African diasporic literature and world literature at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Recipient of the University's 2021 Cultural Ally Award, he is the Associate Director of the Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action (CASAA) and president of the Langston Hughes Society. Beginning in Fall 2022, he will assume the position of Executive Director of CASAA and Program Coordinator of the Pan African Studies Program.

Dr. Doreen Loury, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of Pan-African Studies, leads the Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action’s scholarly and administrative efforts and develop initiatives and partnerships to encourage and support faculty and staff research on issues of race, ethnicity, power, and inequity. Some of Dr. Loury’s accomplishments during her 30-year tenure at Arcadia include the development of the University’s first African American Studies curriculum and the minor in Pan African Studies in addition to serving on the University's JEDI Commission, ABRI, and Faculty Senate’s Work and Welfare Committee. Dr. Loury also is the Founder/Executive Director of the nationally recognized Black Male Development Symposium, an inter-generational symposium that was hosted annually on Arcadia’s campus and offered workshops to over 7,500 students, parents, educators, community leaders, and practitioners in the Tri-State area and beyond.

Dr. Donna-Marie Cole-Malott is Assistant Professor of Professional and Secondary Education at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cole-Malott also serves as Co-Director of the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium (PEDC)—an organization dedicated to educator diversity, equity, and culturally relevant education and systems, serving the needs of BIPOC learners throughout the Commonwealth.

Monique Alexander is an Associate Professor of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Slippery Rock University. Dr Alexander has dedicated her research agenda to studying clinical field experiences, the experiences of students of color within teacher education programs at predominantly white institutions, and advocating for large-scale curricular changes in teacher education that focus on anti-racist and culturally relevant sustaining pedagogies for future teachers. Dr Alexander is the loving wife of Richard Alexander, Jr., and a mom of two beautiful children Richard, III, 11 Ruby, 7.

Tanya I. Garcia, Ph.D. is Deputy Secretary and Commissioner for Postsecondary and Higher Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). In this role, she oversees long-range planning for higher education in Pennsylvania, the implementation of statutory and regulatory responsibilities governing postsecondary education, and educator certification. Before joining PDE, Dr. Garcia held various roles in state government, national nonprofits, and philanthropy where she dedicated her work to improving policies and practices for all students from high school to postsecondary to the workforce. A first-generation student, Dr. Garcia earned a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Biology at Florida International University. Her M.A. in Higher Education Administration is from The George Washington University. She earned a Ph.D. in Public Administration at American University.

Leigh Forbes is an Associate Professor in Gannon University’s School of Education and Associate Dean for the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. She has over 30 years of experience spanning K12 through higher education. Her experience includes classroom teaching as well as designing professional development, induction, residency, and mentoring programs. She specializes in the integration of technology and library resources throughout the curriculum. She has taught undergraduate as well as graduate courses and serves as Gannon’s Program Coordinator for Middle Level and Secondary Certification and is currently engaged in supporting faculty across the college in adopting the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education competencies.

Laura A. Roy (Ph.D., University of Texas at San Antonio) is Associate Professor and Chair of Education at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA. Laura’s program of research is interdisciplinary, drawing primarily from critical and sociocultural theories to examine the places where new and existing communities meet and intersect. Her record of publication includes her book, Teaching While White: Addressing the Intersections of Race and Immigration in the Classroom. This book supports all educators in developing anti-racist practices. Each chapter contains curricular examples, strategies, and real-life examples from Laura’s more than 20 years of teaching experience. Laura’s research also includes the classroom and community experiences of refugee and immigrant populations in the US, examining the intersections of race, culture, language, and other markers of identity. She is particularly interested in the discursive practices in the classroom that cultivate or marginalize students’ unique cultural and literate histories. This work has appeared in journals such as the Harvard Educational Review, Urban Review, and the TESOL Journal. At the core of her work is a concern for and commitment to equity, social justice, and ant-racist teacher activism.

Michelle Sobolak is an Associate Professor of Practice in literacy education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. She also serves as the Director of Teacher and Professional Education. She is a former first grade teacher, reading specialist and literacy coach. Sobolak serves on the Reimagining Teacher Education committee that was instrumental in the developing a new BS in teacher education at Pitt that centers freedom and equity in education.

Dr. Ronald W. Whitaker, II is the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Assistant Professor of Education at Cabrini University. In this role, he is intentional about incorporating culturally responsive tenets into Cabrini’s undergraduate and graduate educational programs. At Cabrini, he also serves as the Assistant Dean in the School of Education, Director of District and School Relations, and the Director for the Center for Urban Education, Equity, and Improvement (CUEEI). Dr. Whitaker also holds the distinction of being a Schouver Fellow at Duquesne University. As a Schouver Fellow, Dr. Whitaker engages in improvement projects that seeks to establish, nurture, and sustain the Duquesne Collective Action Network. The Duquesne Collective Action Network is a cross-sector, research and development collective focused on building system capacity in local schools and their communities.

Educationally, Dr. Whitaker completed his Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership with a 4.0 GPA at Duquesne University where he was also inducted into Phi Kappa Phi. At Duquesne, his dissertation work explored the intersection of Black male identity, racism, and institutional inequalities through the lens of social justice. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Education (M.S. Ed) from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Eastern University, and undergraduate degrees in Urban Leadership from Geneva College where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Kizzy Morris has over 24 years of progressive higher education leadership experience in academic programming, admissions, financial aid, student billing, registrar, placement testing, institutional research, and IT systems coordination. Provost Morris’s student-centered philosophy is the driver for her work with different colleges and universities on academic administration, enrollment services, student success pathways, and employee and faculty professional development.

Throughout her career, she has been a member and officer of several professional organizations, often presenting at conferences throughout the US on topics such as student services, enrollment management, financial aid, student information systems, career development, trauma informed healing practices and cultural competencies. She serves on AACRAO’s Black Caucus Executive Council, is a member of the statewide HEAL PA Committee and is a part of the leadership circle for the Pennsylvania Educators’ Diversity Consortium. Her current research emphasis is on mentorship towards the acquisition of cultural capital for Black female educators. Her academic teaching background has revolved around instruction in courses in Business Administration, Communications, Database Management, Management Information Systems and Project Management.