At Education Justice Academy (EJA), we believe in equipping California school districts with leaders who reflect the diversity of their community, and who want to make a profound difference in the quality and culture of school districts to improve student outcomes.
We’re a community hub for leaders who want to learn, grow, and represent the diversity and experiences of the communities served by public schools. We work to foster an inclusive democracy by ensuring that leaders from underrepresented communities have the resources and learning communities to create sustainable change in school districts.
We are building an equitable and inclusive democracy and school system. We believe in a future where:
- Our democracy truly represents our communities. School boards are the largest piece of our democracy. They were formed in the belief that education should be a local project that reflects the needs and aspirations of each individual community. Our democracy relies on representative and capable local school boards to ensure that our next generation is prepared to be happy, healthy, and courageous citizens.
- We dismantle historical injustice and inequitable practices that prevent schools from providing high quality experiences and outcomes for all students. We envision schools that create inclusive, culturally-relevant, and anti-racist environments for everyone. Each community has their own narrative, story and history - we teach local leaders to explore theirs to better understand what change their community needs.
- We invest in creating more just and resilient schools. School boards are a crucial under-invested piece of improving education systems and capable boards can create more just and resilient schools. This includes addressing equity issues, advocating for evidence-based policy making, building strong school governance, and providing resources and support for school board members.
- We ensure leaders know how to make an impact. Through 100 hours of training, we train leaders to leverage the specific powers of the school board to move schools forward towards educational justice. We don’t choose sides, we choose children.
- We build a community of support and care. Through EJA, participants build a community of peers who are making an impact in their own districts across the state. EJA’s unique recruitment model helps us find leaders who are already deeply rooted in the community and know how to leverage its unique strengths and where improvement is needed.
- We train leaders at the beginning of their leadership journey. Education Justice Academy is the only organization training leaders before they take on their role, ensuring they have the time and resources to take a leadership role in their communities.
- We are there every step of the process. Our community includes leaders from every step of the process, from those joining a local school committee, runnings campaigns, to new and incumbent leaders.
- We focus on key locations in California districts where there is pressing educational justice issues.
- EJA is built around the EJA Leadership Model, which includes 35 learning outcomes that teach four key competencies and five dimensions of strong school governance.
- Our leadership team and advisory board has deep expertise in CA education policy from the last five decades, creating key partnerships in the California education ecosystem to scale.
1. We train leaders at the beginning of their leadership journey. Education Justice Academy is the only organization training leaders before they take on their role, ensuring they have the time and resources to take a leadership role in their communities.
2. We are there every step of the process. Our community includes leaders from every step of the process, from those joining a local school committee, runnings campaigns, to new and incumbent leaders.
3. We focus on key locations in California districts where there is pressing educational justice issues.
4. EJA is built around the EJA Leadership Model, which includes 35 learning outcomes that teach four key competencies and five dimensions of strong school governance.
5. Our leadership team and advisory board has deep expertise in CA education policy from the last five decades, creating key partnerships in the California education ecosystem to scale.
We cannot do this work alone. We are proud to partner with organizations who are working towards education justice.
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Briana has worked as a state policymaker, community organizer, and educational advocate for the past 15 years to ensure the most vulnerable children have access to a liberatory education and healthy communities.
Raised in the Bay Area, she is a first-generation college student and has master’s degrees in policy, organization, and leadership studies at Stanford Graduate School of Education and in public policy from the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. She is a 2020 Knight-Hennessy Scholar and was selected as the first ever Stanford Global Impact Award winner in 2023. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley where she studied in History, Education and City Planning.
She has served as a board member for the Sacramento Children’s Commission, Torlakson Whole Child Institute, and Associated Students of the University of California.
Sally is the Policy Director with the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC).
Prior to joining the ABMoC, she served as a Legislative Advocate with the ACLU California Action, where she led the organization’s state-level advocacy on key legislation in the areas of education and immigration.
Driven by a commitment to advancing equity and people-powered policy, Sally has 10 years experience serving in a range of roles that allowed her to advocate for and uplift historically marginalized communities with SEARAC, Generation Citizen, and The Education Trust-West. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the USC Price School of Public Policy and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
As EJA's Policy Director and a committed education justice advocate, Chris’ experiences in Miami-Dade County Public Schools instilled him with a passion for ensuring all communities—especially working communities and communities of color like his—are afforded the high quality, public education they deserve.
Originally from Miami, he first began organizing as a sophomore in high school following the Parkland shooting, focusing on bringing the voices of young people to the policy-making table. From there, he became deeply involved and invested in school board governance, being elected as Miami-Dade’s Student Advisor to the School Board.
He then went on to serve as a Policy and Outreach Lead for the Luisa Santos for School Board, District 9 campaign, working to expand equity-oriented leadership on the board. Following the election, he served as Administrative Assistant to School Board Member Luisa Santos, working on policies and programs to better support Miami’s various communities. In his time in the office, he supported the creation of a student fellowship within the office to expose young people to the school board and worked on items focusing on postsecondary access for undocumented students and renewable energy.
Chris served as the Program Director for EJA’s first two cohorts and now focuses on expanding EJA’s reach and community and creating a community of practice on education justice issues. In his free time, Chris enjoys constantly consuming coffee, cooking Nicaraguan food, and being with his two dogs.
Antonio is EJA’s Program Director and the President of the Antioch Unified School District Board of Education. He was first elected to the school board in 2020. Antonio is a third-year medical student at the UC Davis School of Medicine, currently he is on educational leave from his medical studies to pursue a Joint Masters in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a Masters in Public Policy.
From an early age, Antonio has demonstrated a passion for the community and was named the Youth of the Year for the City of Antioch. After earning a degree in Economics from Stanford University, Antonio began his career at UCSF as a clinical researcher and quality improvement analyst at the San Francisco General Hospital department of pediatrics.
Antonio knows that getting a good education means addressing all of the challenges that students face, including access to housing, food, and healthcare.
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