Implementing policy that impacts racially and economically isolated students of color as a policy influencer was an early career objective. As a first-generation college student and a young man of color whose own identity and generational trauma was and is directly influenced by Juan Crow laws, I was inspired to study the challenges de jure and de facto segregation wrought on our public schools, and what policies state and local schools boards could implement to reduce what we call the “education debt”.

After my time teaching high school English, I left the classroom to recruit teachers of color, spent time as an equity coach for teachers, and grew to be a vocal advocate for education reform at the local level. In 2019, I was the youngest candidate and first Latino to ever run for the Board of Education in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Following my run for school board, I entered into education policy and advocacy full time. I’ve worn many hats doing this work, while mostly collaborating with states and localities across the country identifying, aligning, and scaling equity-centric policies that impact students of color in re-segregating communities. In short, my work intersects social and racial justice, electoral politics and legislative policy within the domain of education reform.

My primary expertise includes analysis of school board election reform and de-facto segregated schools, spanning the subjects of Black public education pre-Brown, dissimilarity indices, school board politics, and youth engagement practices that include lower voting ages and the inclusion of YPAR in policy making.

I earned my MEd studying progressive policies for segregated schools at Harvard University, and my BA in Sociology, concentration in education equity at Wake Forest University.

Always onward,

-J