SanJuana Ochoa is currently a Vice Principal of Escuela Popular. She began at EP as a student in 1986 and soon after she was recruited by EP’s founder, Lidia Reguerin, to become an ESL teacher.

San Juana Ochoa

San Juana Ochoa

Dolores Huerta – Member. Dolores Huerta has worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers and to fight discrimination. To further her cause, she created the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) in 1960 and co-founded what would become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta stepped down from the UFW in 1999, but she continues to her work to improve the lives of workers, immigrants and women. She has received many honors for her activism, including the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award (1993) and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award (1998). Huerta, mother of 11 children, was inducted to the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

Ezequiel Olvera founded and runs the Gumball Foundation, a social entrepreneurial venture that teaches the values of creativity and entrepreneurship while helping students earn money for college. Using a hands-on approach, Olvera partners the students with local small businesses and corporate offices to manage their micro-venture. He founded the organization in 2009 and it has already garnered prestigious awards including the California Community Foundation’s 2013 Unsung Heroes of Los Angeles Award, the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2012 Social Enterprise of the Year and was nominated for an L.A. Emmy Award in 2013. In 2005, Olvera joined Antonio Villaraigosa¹s mayoral campaign serving on special projects. He also co-managed the campaign office andserved as an aide to the future mayor. Working on the campaign afforded Ezequiel the opportunity to meet labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta. Olvera graduated from UCSC in the spring of 2007 with a bachelor of arts in business management and economics and a minor in Latin American Latino studies. Mr. Olvera is also a lifetime member of the UCSC alumni association and part of UC Santa Cruz 50th Anniversary Leadership Committee, UC Santa Cruz Social Science Board and was the Keynote Speaker for the Multi Cultural Career Conference and Scholarship Benefit Dinner.

Rebeca Burciaga is an Associate Professor at San José State University in the Department of Educational Leadership in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education. Dr. Burciaga has worked and conducted research with students, schools, and families for over twenty years, focusing on understanding and challenging educational practices and structures that produce and reproduce racial, ethnic, gender, and class inequalities, specifically with respect to Latina/o communities. She specializes the study of qualitative research methodologies including testimonio and ethnography. Her current research and teaching is focused on cultivating asset-based mindsets in teachers and administrators that work with youth of color.  Dr. Burciaga is a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz, a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California at Los Angeles.  Her research has been supported and recognized by the Spencer Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the American Association of University Women. Her most recent scholarship can be found in Equity & Excellence in Education, the Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, and the Educational Administration Quarterly. Rebeca’s work is strongly influenced by a dual understanding of education – one that recognizes the importance of education (schooling) and educación (values).Educación is a word in Spanish that extends the definition of education beyond schooling to include a way of acting with values such as respect, integrity, and community responsibility. The Mexican proverb, “la educación nace en la cuna” (education begins in the cradle), celebrates and legitimizes the important roles community and culture play in developing una persona educada and a well-educated person. I embrace both understandings of education and educación, thereby honoring what all students bring to educational settings.

Rebeca Burciaga

Rebeca Burciaga

Dr. Bernard Gifford is a professor at UC Berkley whose research interests include theories of computer-mediated, collaborative learning; the impact of networking and communications technologies on student learning activities and teacher pedagogical practices; the behavior of organizations during periods of rapid technological change; and the changing political economy of U.S. higher education.

Current research focuses on how standards-based, computer-mediated learning materials can reduce the achievement gap between mainstream students and students who traditionally have not been well served by conventional classrooms. His numerous books include Policy Perspectives on Educational Testing (1993) and Employment Testing: Linking Policy and Practice(with L. Wing, 1993). He is completing his latest book, on bureaucratic, policy, and technological barriers to effective use of technology-mediated instruction in universities.

Dr. Gifford holds a Ph.D in Biophysics from the University of Rochester. He currently heads the Distributed Learning Workshop, a nonprofit educational software collaborative that is developing standards-based, computer-mediated instructional materials in math.

Bernard Gifford

Bernard Gifford

Lori Ramos Ehrlich currently Vice President/COO of Center for Training & Careers Inc (CTC).  CTC has been providing education and training services to the community since 1977.  Ms. Ramos Ehrlich is active in the local community and serves on many boards including Escuela Popular Accelerated Family Learning Center, San Jose Job Corps Advisory Council, the NCLR California Regional Board, and a member of the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force.

Lori Ramos Ehrlich

Lori Ramos Ehrlich

Pablo Guillermo Reguerín currently serves as the Executive Director for Retention Services and Educational Opportunity Programs at the University of California, Santa Cruz, providing leadership and oversight to a cluster of student services offices charged with retaining and graduating students with a focus on educational equity.

Since September 2009, Mr. Reguerín has led to integrate student services to develop student care teams, increased case-management of vulnerable student populations and data-driven intervention programs. These efforts have resulted in Individual Success Plans for cohorts of EOP students, intensive advising services for immigrant and undocumented/AB540 students, a newly launched Textbook Lending Library for students facing financial hardship and a Laptop pilot program for students that arrive to campus without a laptop or computer. In collaboration with faculty partners and the Office of Institutional Research, Pablo has launched an evidence-based evaluation process of the retention services units through the use of logic models to further deepen the utilization of research based practices and continuous improvement.

Mr. Reguerín has worked at UCSC for over 15 years, previously serving as the Deputy Director of the Educational Partnership Center and as a Senior Admissions Counselor with the Office of Admissions. Mr. Reguerín received his Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Santa Cruz in Latino and Latin American Studies and his Master of Arts degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in Educational Leadership and Administration.

Mr. Reguerín serves on the board of directors for the Escuela Popular Family Learning Center Charter School in San José and as the Co-Chair of the UC Santa Cruz Latino Alumni Network.

Pablo Reguerin

Pablo Reguerin