Zac Crain-Davis Email & Phone Number

Growing up I was taught the importance of a healthy community and our impact as individuals. Through this learning, I grew up assisting in the caregiving of family members impacted by developmental delays and later serving as a Big Brother in the BBBS Program; though my mentorship was cut short when I was outed as a queer person, which further negatively impacted the young person I was serving. These experiences illuminated many inequities in education and how people with disabilities, in particular those of the global majority and underrepresented cultures, are disproportionately impacted.Due to these experiences, my undergraduate learning was targeted toward global inequities which I applied to my field experiences. As an out educator, I have continued my commitment to creating classrooms rooted in safety, inclusivity, and individually designed curriculum.As an individual with disabilities myself, I have committed to serving students with disabilities and emerging bilinguals emphasizing growth metrics over deficit models from grades K-12 for the last 20 years. Through intensive training and certification in programs like Wilson Reading and a M.Ed., I have engaged with hundreds of beginning readers guiding them to functional literacy in the classroom and to meet their independent life goals via mentorship of graduates.My expertise has created spaces for me to mentor, coach, and consult with pre-service teachers and colleagues alike. This work led to becoming a SEED (DEI) Facilitator broadening my impact with hundreds of preservice teachers delving into issues that impact our classrooms from gender identity to racial inequities regrounding me in my initial passion to do this work.My effectiveness is rooted in the community; cultivating teams who navigate, dissect, and then plan for unique needs is a personal strength. Notably, I build community relationships to create safe spaces outside of school for young people to gather and engage. These relationships organically support my mutual aid offerings of food to clothing for students and families in need. Within the school, I challenge teams to meet students where they are which results in changes in student performance like the 20% increase in juniors' graduation on-track rate, and the highest growth in the building, moving from 75.2% to 95.2% within a semester. Through these experiences, I have been charged with developing network and district-wide materials that serve as a model and educational tool for my colleagues.Deconstructing oppressive systems through education is my commitment.