LEADERSHIP TEAM
DIRECTORS AND FOUNDERS
Rita Kohli is a co-founder and co-director of ITOC, and serves as an Associate Professor in the Education, Society and Culture Department at the University of California, Riverside. As a former Oakland Unified School District teacher, teacher educator and education researcher, Kohli has spent almost 20 years in urban public schools across the country. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the international journal Race, Ethnicity and Education and the Journal of Teacher Education, and is co-editor of the book, Confronting Racism in Teacher Education: Counternarratives of Critical Practice. Her research interests include critical race theory, racial climate and racial hierarchies in K-12 schools, and she has studied the strengths, barriers and resiliency of teachers of color across the pipeline. Kohli was the recipient of the University of California, Riverside's Innovator for Social Change Award (2016), the Scholar Activist and Community Advocacy Award (2017) from the Critical Educators for Social Justice Special Interest Group, and the Early Career Scholar of the Social Context of Education Division of the American Educational Research Association (2018).
Marcos Pizarro is a co-founder and co-director of ITOC. He is a Professor in Mexican American Studies, and Associate Dean of the Connie L. Lurie College of Education at San José State University. He has worked for over twenty years to develop innovative approaches to schooling with Chicanx youth. His book Chicanas and Chicanos in School: Racial Profiling, Identity Battles, and Empowerment, explores the relationship between the identities of Chicanx students and their academic performance. He coordinates MAESTR@S, an Institute for Raza Liberation through Educación, a teacher support group that has developed a model for transforming the school experiences of Raza youth in disenfranchised communities. He engaged in a yearlong project integrating this model in the development of a 11th grade Latinx Literature class to replace the standard English course.
Program Assistants
Esmeralda Santos is an undergraduate student at the University of California-Riverside and is a double major in Education and Ethnic Studies. She is from the Inland Empire and one day hopes to make higher education more accessible to her community. She has previous experience teaching abroad in Thailand, researching police brutality in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, working for the Boys and Girls Club and her local Congresswoman. She is thankful to now have the opportunity to work for ITOC and continue her journey as a future educator.
Alexa López is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Riverside where she is majoring in Political Science with a concentration in International Affairs, along with a minor in Public Policy. Previously, Alexa has worked with Students Rising Above, a Bay Area nonprofit that supports first-generation, low-income youth to and through college. Alexa has also studied abroad in Mexico where she researched critical global human rights issues and most recently she has become involved in California local government at various levels. She aspires to be an advocate for her community and hopes to one day pursue a doctoral degree in a related field. She is excited to join the ITOC family and continue to build critical race consciousness.
Arts Director
Nicole "Novela" Martinez is a Chicana Indigena community artist, educator and activist representing her homeland of Abiqui Pueblo, Nuevo Mexico to her hometown of Sacramento, California. Growing up hip-hop and ranch, she strives to acknowledge our rich ethnic identities and cultures and works to build partnerships and encourage solidarity with diverse communities through music, poetry, photography and the sharing of our unique stories, traditions and spiritual beliefs. Currently Nicole is a fourth grade bilingual teacher at Cesar Chavez Intermediate School in South Sacramento, Meadowview. She also works with community arts organizations Sol Collective, Sacramento Area Youth Speaks, Mahogany Urban Poetry, and other activist organizations. She provides beats, rhythms and soul to ITOC both on the turntables and off.
ITOC COMMITTEES OF 2020-2022
Admissions Committee
Saraswati Noel
Nadine Loza
Michaela McCoy
Teacher Educators of Color Committee
Nallely Arteaga
Sharon Leathers
Femtorship Committee
Izamar Ortiz Gonzalez
Shakiyya Bland
Malayka Neith Cornejo
Saraswati Noel
Nadine Loza
Michaela McCoy
Teacher Educators of Color Committee
Nallely Arteaga
Sharon Leathers
Femtorship Committee
Izamar Ortiz Gonzalez
Shakiyya Bland
Malayka Neith Cornejo
We want to recognize and honor Dr. Rebeca Burciaga as a co-founder and former co-director of ITOC. She is the Faculty Executive Director of the Institute for Emancipatory Education at San José State University and a Professor of Educational Leadership and Chicana/o Studies, and helped to build and lead ITOC for its first 8 years.