Icela Pelayo, Phd Email & Phone Number

I’m a Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation working on the foundation’s racial equity and community engagement efforts to support thriving children, working families and equitable communities. As a thought partner, I support local community leaders of multi-sector collaborations implementing the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) framework. I have also led strategy and cross-functional teaming efforts to execute on top organizational priorities (e.g. National Day of Racial Healing). I’m excited about growing a portfolio of organizations led by and serving Black, Indigenous, Latinx, AANHPI, MENA and other communities focused on racial healing, narrative change, and building power in community.Before joining WKKF, I led in various roles at the New Mexico Public Education Department, including Acting Deputy Secretary of Teaching and Learning. For five years, I also served as Director of Bilingual Multicultural Education, where I led comprehensive state policy and program development, implementation, and evaluation to strengthen culturally and linguistically responsive instructional programming and support multilingual learners. Currently, I serve as a board member of Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) and am a proud alum of HIP’s Líderes (Leaders) Fellowship Program. I’m also a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. I earned my PhD from the University of Southern California in K-12 Education Policy where I focused my research on the teaching, learning and policy of multilingual children. While working as a public school teacher in South Los Angeles, I earned an MA in elementary education at Loyola Marymount University. I’m a first-generation college graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, bilingual (Spanish and English), and a daughter of Mexican immigrants. +++++Let's connect about racial equity, healing & justice; systemic narrative change; building community power; immigrants; building cross-racial solidarity; leading racial affinity spacesI like to geek out about education systems and policy, culturally & linguistically responsive education, and culturally responsive & equitable evaluation and research (knowledge, learning & impact)

Listed skills include Educational Leadership, Public Speaking, Higher Education, Grant Writing, and 15 others.