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.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Program Assistants
Andrea Carreno Cortez is the Community Liaison at an elementary school in the San Marcos Unified School District in San Diego, CA. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Education at the University of California, Riverside. Andrea hopes to pursue a doctoral degree to research the raciolinguistic experiences of K-12 students of Color and teachers. She has been involved in the facilitation of ITOC since 2018 and started the Future Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice organization at UCR in 2020.
Andrea Carreno Cortez is the Community Liaison at an elementary school in the San Marcos Unified School District in San Diego, CA. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Education at the University of California, Riverside. Andrea hopes to pursue a doctoral degree to research the raciolinguistic experiences of K-12 students of Color and teachers. She has been involved in the facilitation of ITOC since 2018 and started the Future Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice organization at UCR in 2020.
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.
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.
Program Committee
Genaro Ulloa; Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
Leah Thomas; Sequoia Union High School District, CA
Dara Nix Stevenson; North Carolina
Saili Kulkarni; San Jose State University, CA
Admissions Committee
Stephanie Gallardo; Tukwila School District, WA
Saraswati Noel; Seattle Public Schools, WA
Ramona Meza; University of Illinois at Chicago
Arturo Nevárez; University of California, Riverside
Teacher Educators Committee
Sharon Leathers; William Paterson University , NJ
Nallely Arteaga; California State University, Dominguez Hills
Betina Hsieh; California State University, Long Beach
Working Groups Committee
Lisa Kelly; Oakland Unified School District, CA
Gloria Muñoz-Hughes; Berkeley Unified School District, CA
Ray'Von Jones; Oakland Unified School District, CA
Martha Torres; Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
Health and Wellness Committee
Candice Valenzuela; Oakland, CA
Pam Segura; New York City Public Schools, NY
Shaina Patel; San Jose Unified School District, CA
Jeremy Greene; Natomas Unified School District, CA
Sameena Eidoo; University of Toronto
Community Building Committee
Tamasha Emedi; Highline Public Schools, WA
Danica Moore; Lawrence Public Schools, KS
Izamar Ortiz-Gonzalez; St. Hope Public Schools, CA
Davenar Johnson; Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
Social Committee
Nadine Loza; Corona Norco Unified School District, CA
Genaro Ulloa; Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
Femtor (Mentor) Committee
Nhung Ha; Los Angeles Unified School District, CA
Malayka Neith Cornejo; University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Shakiyya Bland; Lawrence Public Schools, KS
We want to recognize and honor Dr. Rebeca Burciaga as a co-founder and former co-director of ITOC. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Chicana/o Studies, and a Core Faculty Member for the Ed.D. Leadership Program in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education, and helped to build and lead ITOC for its first 8 years.