Meet Some Recent Alumni
Julie Rems-Smario
Dr. Julie Rems-Smario is the Early Language and Education Programs Consultant at CORE, California School for the Deaf, a school of the California Department of Education. In this capacity, she serves as co-coordinator of the California Early Hearing Intervention and Detection program known as LEAD-K Family Services. www.LEADKFamilyServices.org.
Michael Gebreslassie
Dr. Michael Gebreslassie is an Assistant Principal at Fremont High School in Oakland Unified School District, where he nurtures excellent teaching and learning and builds a safe and supportive student culture. He oversees school improvement strategic plans, and uses data to inform decisions about instruction.
Mia Settles-Tidwell
Dr. Mia Settles-Tidwell is the Vice President for Inclusive Excellence and University Diversity Officer at Sacramento State.She is charged with implementing the Antiracism and Inclusive Campus Plan (AICP) for the university and quickly made her mark by transforming the AICP into an action plan and made it operational. In addition, she introduced to the campus the Believing, Becoming, and Being framework for transforming the campus into a campus where all belong and launched the first Office for Disability Justice at Sac State, among other projects.
Gregoria Cahill
Dr. Gregoria Cahill is the Dean of the Mission Center, School of ESL and Transitional Studies, City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Her role involves overseeing credit and noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and Transitional Studies, including a high school credit recovery program. She serves as a leader, connecting with community groups, businesses, and non-profits, and collaborates with senior administration, faculty, and staff to ensure the smooth operation of the Mission Center, including managing budgets, enrollment, and fostering a positive environment.
Sabrina “Bri” Moore
Dr. Sabrina “Bri” Moore’s current role is Network Superintendent at Oakland Unified School District. She is also the Executive Director and Founder of 3Ls The Academy, a nonprofit organization focused on literacy, leadership, and liberation. She supervises and builds the instructional leadership capacity of principals at 16 schools within Oakland Unified School District.
Tessa Henderson-Brown
Dr. Tessa Henderson-Brown is the Associate Dean of Equity, City College of San Francisco, overseeing seven grants, over 7+ million dollars of funding. She also oversees a variety of equity-focused programs and centers and leads the college’s 3-yr Equity Plan.
Chaunise “Chaun” Powell
Dr. Chaunise “Chaun” Powell, LCSW, PPS, CWA serves as the Sr. Chief of Student Services at the Alameda County Office of Education. She is responsible for the planning, implementation and oversight of a wide array of prevention and intervention services in service of students throughout Alameda County; including, school health and behavioral health services, school Medicaid, foster, homeless support, and adjudicated youth support services, school attendance, school safety and leading the implementation of the California Community Schools Partnership Program in Alameda County and throughout California.
Sonal Patel
Dr. Sonal Patel serves in the San Leandro Unified School District as the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Division, which includes the Teaching, Learning & Educational Equity Department, Assessment & Accountability, Special Education, Prevention & Intervention, while also serving as lead staff on the Board Policy Committee, Board Curriculum Committee and leading LCAP and other state/federal plan development and community engagement.
Kim-Dung Nguyen
Dr. Nguyen serves as a school principal at Crocker Highlands Elementary School in the Oakland Unified School District. As a school principal, she is entrusted with the crucial role of establishing and upholding a shared vision of school-wide instructional excellence for equity and building team capacity to carry out the vision. She focuses on implementing and maintaining school-wide systems and structures for leading and managing high-quality instruction that drives excellent and equitable outcomes. She desires to provide students with an exceptional education. To do so, she focuses on developing systems for monitoring progress and promoting accountability on student outcomes with additional consideration for historically marginalized students. She also focuses on fostering a school culture that supports wellness and social-emotional learning by providing structures and systems for creating a positive school/classroom climate as well as explicit and integrated instruction of social-emotional skills. Family engagement is an important aspect. She partners with families, in both informal and formal settings, and provides an opportunity to encourage their voice. Engaging families as an important partner in their child’s learning helps to foster their trust, and better informs problem-solving. She loves being a part of creating positive early childhood schooling experiences.
Lisa Davies
In her Assistant Superintendent position at Hayward Unified School District, Dr. Lisa Davies provides leadership to the Educational Services Department in the development and delivery of equitable and joyful teaching, learning, and acceleration for a diverse group of students in HUSD schools. Her position spans Early Learning through Adult School, including providing oversight for Equity and Anti-Bias and Anti-Racism, Multilingual Learners, College and Career, and fiscal budgets through LCAP and multiple academic integrated grants. Her focused improvement work is currently in the areas of literacy and mathematics with integration of STEAM and VAPA. Supporting these focus areas, her position allows her to network and partner with local institutions of higher learning, CSUEB and Chabot, and school improvement networks to continue to bring new innovations to Hayward Unified.
Rosanna Mucetti
Dr. Rosanna Mucetti serves as Superintendent of Napa Valley Unified School District in Napa, California. Dr. Mucetti has engaged in numerous facets of public education including international and national work with K-12 school districts, charter management organizations, and ministries of education. In addition, Mucetti worked for the Buck Institute of Education. Her career in public education spans over 25 years.
B'eleje' Kan
Dr. B'eleje' Kan | Felipe Can coordinates the first Diplomado offered by the Initiative Maya Mam University (UMAM) for young Mayan students living in the United States.
Julie Rems-Smario and Maha Jacobs
Dr. Julie Rems-Smario and Dr. Maha Jacobs co-founded the CoFusion Group to do abolition work addressing inequities in the educational system.