colleagues & mentors

Get to know some of the people I quote, reference, thank, and collaborate with!

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is an American sociologist who examines the culture of schools, the patterns and structures of classroom life, socialization within families and communities, and the relationships between culture and learning styles. In 1984, she was the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Prize. She is currently the Emily Hargroves Fisher Endowed Chair at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Lawrence-Lightfoot has pioneered portraiture, an approach to social science methodology that bridges the realms of aesthetics and empiricism, which she continues to use in her own work. 

Pedro Noguera

Pedro Noguera is the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education. A sociologist, Noguera’s research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions. He is the author, co-author and editor of 13 books. Noguera has received awards from the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford University), from the National Association of Secondary School Principals and from the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research (NYU) for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at fighting poverty.

Hodari B. Davis

Hodari B. Davis is the Artistic Director of Young Gifted and Black and a Partner at Edutainment for Equity. Hodari served as the National Program Director for Youth Speaks for over 12 years, including as the visionary and key organizer of the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Network. He is also a founder of the Life is Living Festival and Campaign. His extensive experience as an educator, activist, arts administrator, and community organizer have made him a leader in the field and a sought after speaker and pedagogue. He has presented his work and pedagogy in countries around the world including Iran, Malta, Spain, Ghana, and London. 

Mark Warren

Mark Warren is a sociologist and professor of public policy and public affairs in the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Mark studies and works with community and youth organizing groups seeking to promote equity and justice in education, community development and American democratic life. He is committed to developing a new approach to scholarly work that is engaged and collaborative with community organizers and education activists. Mark is the author of several books that highlight organizing against systemic racism and creating models of public education that are empowering for young people and families. 

Christopher Chatmon

Christopher Chatmon is the CEO and Founder of Kingmakers of Oakland (KOO), an award winning nonprofit that supports school districts around the country to improve the educational and life outcomes of Black Boys. For 10 years Chatmon served as the first Executive Director of the office of African American Male Achievement (“AAMA”) for the Oakland Unified School District (“OUSD”). Chatmon is passionate about uplifting the African-American community and has dedicated his career and life’s work to creating pathways of success for Black Youth within Oakland and beyond.

Leigh Patel

Leigh Patel is a transdisciplinary scholar who studies the narratives that create material realities in society. Her research focuses on both the ways schooling delivers inequities and how education can be a tool for liberation. She is a highly sought-after speaker and well-regarded scholar across the fields of education, ethnic studies, critical higher education studies, and literacy. Her work is based in the knowledge that as long as oppression has existed so have freedom struggles, including the black radical tradition, decolonization, and fugitive study groups. 

Patrice Hill

Patrice Hill is a poet, public speaker, youth advocate, host, curator and community-based educator who has over two decades of experience teaching in urban, suburban and exurban classrooms, and writing and performing spoken word poetry. She currently serves as the Director for Sacramento Area Youth Speaks (SAYS). Patrice specializes in providing direct service to students, developing culturally relevant curriculum, as well as curating and facilitating teacher/youth practitioner professional development trainings.

Rudy Corpuz

As the founder of the nonprofit organization United Playaz, Rudy Corpuz has dedicated himself to helping at-risk youth and ex-convicts find better life paths. Since 1994, he has been leading violence prevention education and job placement programs. His approach to building trust starts by sharing his own transformative journey of growing up in San Francisco’s SoMa District, having run-ins with the law and serving time in prison. Corpuz has helped countless people throughout California turn away from violence and crime and embrace a brighter future.

Donna Justice

Donna Justice combines her formal training as a coach with 30 years of leadership in marketing and communications for nonprofits and higher education. She received her coach training from the University of California, Davis, and holds a Professional Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation. She also holds a Master’s degree in English and has spent a great deal of her career directing strategic communications; mentoring and teaching college students and young adults; and coaching professionals.

Marcus Green

Marcus Green has been teaching in higher education since 1997. He has taught at U.C. Berkeley as a Graduate Student Instructor for courses including Urban Education and Current Issues in Education, Introduction to African American Studies at Santa Clara University, Race & Class in Education at University of San Francisco, and others. Professor Green has been teaching as an Associate Adjunct Professor of Sociology at San Joaquin Delta College since 2006. Beyond teaching at the university level, he works in K-12 schools as a teacher, case manager, and counselor.

Denisha Coco Blossom

Denisha “Coco Blossom” Bland, is a Poet-Mentor Educator, Author, Host, Social Influencer and Scholar Activist. She is currently the Associate Director of SAYS (Sacramento Area Youth Speaks) where she dedicates herself to uplifting voices, social justice, and empowering her community. She specializes in Hip-Hop education by providing culturally relevant and thought provoking workshops that allow people to plug into their power, dive into their personal experiences, and use those experiences as a tool to become change agents of their own lives.

Sheeva Sabati

Sheeva Sabati is an educator, scholar, and activist. Her work brings together critical race, anti-colonial, and abolitionist feminisms to reimagine educational spaces and practices, with an emphasis on higher education. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she has also written about research ethics, community-engaged research, and the roots of California's water crisis (forthcoming). With the Latin American Philosophy of Education Society, she is a member of the Conference Planning Committee and also serves on the Editorial Collective for the organization's journal, LAPÍZ.