Executive Leadership
Lidia Reguerin – Founder
Lidia Reguerin is the founder of Escuela Popular and an educator of 50 years. When you talk to students she is described as a woman of a great heart; and besides teaching with inexhaustible patience, she helps them solve personal problems, including buying them books or giving them money out of her own pocket for transportation. Lidia was born in a rural town of Bolivia. She is proud to be of her indigenous roots and native tongue of Quechua, which is transparent through the sincerity in the eyes; and through her soft, warm, and deeply meaningful words. After graduating as a Teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) from Escuela Normal de Profesores in Bolivia, she obtained a Masters at the University of Stanford, which is what brought her to the Bay Area. She admires Che Guevara, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Martin Luther King Jr.
Patricia Reguerin – Executive Director
Born in Bolivia, Patricia migrated with her family to the United States when she was 5 years old. Her experience as an immigrant student gave birth to her passion for equity in education. Patricia began her career as a childcare provider at Escuela Popular in 1986. It was then that she realized she wanted to become a teacher.
In 1991, Patricia graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s in Sociology and decided to continue for an additional year to obtain her Multiple Subject Bilingual Credential. Her first teaching assignment was as a bilingual kindergarten teacher, and she has taught bilingual and dual immersion grades K-2, served as a migrant education resource teacher, and a Title VII coordinator. Patricia has a Master’s in Bilingual/Bicultural Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Alba Lucia Diaz – High School Academy Principal
Alba Lucia, has a Doctoral degree (E.d. D.) in International Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco, a Ph.D in Tropical Medicine from Stanford University, a Master’s degree in Public Health and a B.A in Sociology with a minor in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.
Before joining Escuela Popular, Dr. Diaz taught courses on Curriculum design, Instructional assessment and Critical pedagogy at the University of San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley. She has received Waldorf teachers’ training and has worked as a teacher at several private and public K-12 schools in Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
For over ten years, Dr. Diaz was the Director of Education programs and a Consultant at the United Nations (UNICEF/ UNESCO) in Asia, (Myanmar, Thailand), Africa (Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, South Africa) and Latin American (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela). She is an accomplished writer in various topics, including popular education and participatory action research.
Margaret Dominguez – High School Academy Vice Principal (AM)
Margaret is a native of San Jose. She graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice and a Masters in Sociology. After graduation, she worked as a Paralegal for a small law firm and then moved on to work with attorneys representing indigent parents on dependency issues in Santa Clara County.
In her Master’s program, she researched and wrote many papers on the increasing drop out rates among Latino students. From there, she felt that she needed to make a difference and felt she could reach students as a teacher. She began working as a Social Science teacher at Escuela Popular in 2002. In her current capacity as Vice Principal, Margaret works diligently to retain students and to support their efforts to graduate from high school and to pursue higher education.
Sierra Thai-Binh – High School Academy Vice Principal (PM)
Sierra graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s in Latin American/Latino Studies and Politics. She holds a clear teaching credential in Social Studies. She began at Escuela Popular as a Social Studies teacher. She admires the commitment of the adult students to engage in high levels of social and political debate despite coming to school exhausted from full-time jobs and caring for their families.
Currently, Sierra is the Vice Principal in the evening program. As Vice Principal, Sierra ensures that students are learning and succeeding in a safe, family-friendly, academically rigorous environment, and that staff is inspired every day to provide that environment for all students.
Jamie Sandoval – HR / Business Manager
Jamie earned a Bachelor’s in Management from Menlo College. Jamie has more than six years of administrative experience in both the private and public sectors. Prior to Escuela Popular, Jamie worked at the University of California at San Francisco as a Program Assistant for the Pew Programs in Biomedical Sciences. His responsibilities consisted of coordinating annual meetings in Latin America and providing administrative support to the program director.
Jamie’s responsibility is to support teachers and school administrators in creating and maintaining a learning environment that is friendly, efficient, and professional. Specifically, as Human Resource / Business Manager, Jamie handles payroll for over 120 employees, maintains personael files, processes new employees, and processes the school’s AP/AR.
Academic Counselor Teresa Robinson brings eight years of experience as a High School counselor to Escuela Popular. She has been most impressed with the students at Escuela Popular and is learning all about Spanish, determination and hard work from them. Her formal education comes in the form of a Masters Degree in Educational Counseling, a PPS credential from San Jose State University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of San Diego. Before becoming a counselor, she was a journalist for United Press International in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C.
Teresa especially enjoys helping people get through challenging situations. Before coming to Escuela Popular, she worked primarily with at-risk youth. She also leads the outdoor program at Escuela Popular, and she herself is an avid backpacker and long-distance runner. A native of San Diego, she lives with her two teenage sons in the Santa Cruz Mountains.