We are building a coalition of public and private community stakeholders to ensure teachers -- especially Black, Latine, and other teachers of color -- can afford to live in the cities they teach and our kids stop paying the price for our broken housing system. We believe a marketplace for discounted housing can institutionalize affordable housing not only for educators, but also other underpaid public employees. And not just in Oakland, but statewide and across the country. So we built it.The high cost of housing is pushing all teachers -- but especially teachers of color -- out of Oakland, worsening the student-teacher Representation Gap that is undermining OUSD student performance and contributing to major racial disparities. Our students need teachers who reflect their own diversity and life experiences; Research shows that students perform better when their teachers look like them and share life experiences. TRiO Plus aims to improve recruitment and retention of Black, Latine, and other teachers of color by addressing a major barrier-to-entry and the number one push-factor once employed, thereby working to improve outcomes for Oakland’s diverse student population.We've built an Affordable Housing Marketplace that can improve student performance by giving educators a chance to live in the communities where they teach. Our collaborating landlords offer exclusive, discounted apartments to pre-screened Oakland teachers to bridge the affordability gap.

Honored to have been appointed and to have served as School Board Director, representing District 6

American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU) Summer 2012Policy Advocacy / Field Intern- Independently organized summer outreach events, created public education brochures, wrote blog posts, translated and edited documents, coordinated and worked with cooperating organizations, and conducted social science research projects