Louie F. Rodríguez is currently the Interim Dean, Professor, and holds the Bank of America Chair in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Practice in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California Riverside. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for Educational Transformation at UCR. His research examines issues in Latina/o/x education, Participatory Action Research, and educational equity. Rodríguez earned an A.A. from San Bernardino Valley College, a B.A. from CSU, San Bernardino, and two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Harvard. Rodriguez is the author of nearly 50 publications including 4 books, several articles and book chapters, and has received numerous honors including the American Education Research Association (AERA) Hispanic Research Issues SIG Award for Research in Elementary, Secondary, and Postsecondary Education in 2019, recognition by the Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance in 2019, Outstanding Latino Faculty by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) in 2015, and was designated as an “Emerging Leader” in 2014 by Phi Delta Kappa International in 2014. 

Rita Kohli (she/hers) is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and is a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice (ITOC). Her research examines the professional experiences and wellbeing of teachers of Color as it is impacted by racism and racial justice work, and she is the co-editor of the book, Confronting Racism in Teacher Education: Narratives from Teacher Educators, and author of the forthcoming book, Teachers of Color: Resisting Racism and Reclaiming Education. Kohli was the recipient the UCR Innovator for Social Change Award (2016), the Scholar Activist and Community Advocacy Award from the Critical Educators for Social Justice Special Interest Group of AERA (2017), the Early Career Award from the Division G: Social Context of Education of AERA (2018), and the Mid-career Award from the Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education of AERA (2021). 

Raquel M. Rall is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on equity and leadership and governance within higher education. Within these two areas, she strives to identify best practices to increase access to and success in higher education for traditionally marginalized communities and to bridge research and practice. Rall intentionally illuminates this work through her teaching of courses like Black Brilliance Matters, her scholarship in research pieces like Toward Culturally Sustaining Governance, and service on committees like the UC Black Administrators Council. Her work has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the University of California, and the University of Southern California. She received the 2019 Jerome L. Neuner Award for Excellence in Professional Publication from the Journal of Higher Education Management. Rall received the Award of Merit from Stanford University and was recognized as faculty member of the year in African Student Programs at UCR in 2020. 

Arturo Nevárez (he/him) is a PhD Candidate in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California Riverside. An emerging scholar of race and racism in K-12 educational contexts, his research focuses on the racial literacy development (RLD) of Latinx students and teachers in K-12 Ethnic Studies classrooms. Recognition of his work has come in several forms. He has been awarded the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (2019), the Cultivating New Voices (CNV) National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Fellowship (2018-2020), and the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity Emerging Research Fellowship (2021). 

Danielle Mireles (she/they) is an emerging scholar of disability critical race studies and a research associate at Cal State University, Fresno. She received her PhD in Education from the University of California, Riverside with a concentration on Education, Society, and Culture, a program focused on an interdisciplinary and structural analysis of educational inequity. Their doctoral research examined the racialized educational experiences of Black students and Students of Color with disabilities attending five four- year college campuses in California. Her research interests include dis/ability critical race theory, critical race theory, and higher education policy and practice.