With 17 years in education, Alejandra has served in various roles, including teaching science and other content areas from 6th grade through adult students in an alternative setting, working as a curriculum coach and associate principal, and leading service learning for the third largest district in the U.S. Her research examines transformative collective learning in K12 science education, teacher collectives, and interdisciplinary teams with school leaders. Within these contexts, she hopes to continue to contribute to how we understand intergenerational & community-based co-constructions, imaginations, and praxis, as well as learning and pedagogies towards expansive and agentic present-futures.

Alternatives Inc. is a Chicago organization that supports and empowers Chicago youth to build safer and more vibrant communities through an asset-based model that focuses on enriching young people’s lives by building upon their individual strengths within the context of their family and community.

Amanda Lewis is a UIC Sociology & African American Studies Professor, Director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, and Co-Organizer of Summer Education Workshop. Her research focuses on how race shapes educational opportunities and how our ideas about race get negotiated in everyday life.

Crystal Laura is a Professor, a certified yoga teacher, and author of Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School-to-prison Pipeline. Her work explores teacher development and wellness in the context of social justice with the goal of empowering educators to recognize, understand, and to address the school-to-prison pipeline.

Daniel Morales-Doyle is an associate professor of science education and coordinator of the licensure strand of the MEd Science Education program. His research examines the potential for science education to act as a catalyst for alternative futures. Specifically, Morales-Doyle’s work focuses on the sociopolitical dimensions of science curriculum, teaching, and teacher education. He was a high school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools for more than a decade before coming to UIC.

David Stovall is a UIC African American Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice Professor and author of Born Out Of Struggle. His research interests include critical race theory, school-community relationships, youth culture and the relationship between housing and K-12 school systems.

Matthew Rodriguez is an educator and former teacher and high school principal. He works to develop transformational school leaders and became interested in education because of the blatant inequality of a system that is supposedly dedicated to helping people break out of inequality but is instead perpetuating it.

Nakisha Hobbs is the Associate Director of the Office of Early Childhood at the Illinois Department of Human Services, Co-Founder of Village Leadership Academy (VLA), and Co-Organizer of the Summer Education Workshop. VLA emphasizes high academic standards, exposure to world history and geography, appreciation for cultural differences, the development of critical thinking and perspective taking skills, and socially just decision making.

Stacey Gibson is a strategist, consultant, educator, and writer whose facilitation and consultation focuses on 1) how private and public identities shape the professional work experience, 2) supporting women identified people in leadership roles, and 3) co-designing sustainable change strategies to create efficient and equitable work and educational environments. She has taught in both the public and private sectors and her writing has appeared in numerous venues. Find out more about Stacey’s vision at www.transformthecollective.com