The REF Experience

The Educational Leadership Racial Equity Fellow program exists to serve as a base to add an extra layer of lived experience and intentional focus on institutional racial justice. The Fellows advise the department on how to move forward and to create leaders in education to change the system.

The REFs can serve up to two years, with renewal after the first year. The fellows for the 22-23 school year were Basti Lopez de la Luz, Johnathon Davis, Leslie Saito, Dr. Noemi Villegas, and Dr. Vanessa Monterosa. Each of them led an action session tailored to their unique specializations as part of the “Equity Leadership Series”. Each session featured lived experiences, scenarios, and various media formats to discuss systemic issues and implementation for communities. The sessions were all pieces of the puzzle, from identity, leadership and community, leadership and learning, and healing and restorative spaces.

Johnathon Davis is part of Ed.D. Cohort 16, and his main workshop was Allyship in Action in the Identity section. As a Black man whose identity spans multiple margins, he led robust conversations between community leaders and stakeholders. He connected with people from all walks of life and furthered everyone’s knowledge on articulating on their behalf in education, whether it be correcting the wrongs of the past for future generations or reconstructing higher ed.

“The goal was not necessarily to have individuals agree with everything, but to understand and look at it through a different lens and to take those perspectives into account as they are navigating daily activities, work activities and family activities,” Davis said.

Davis’s largest takeaway was not only bettering his leadership skills, but learning when to step back and allow yourself to know when to step forward and benefit the systemic issue at hand. While Davis’s concentration was on higher ed, the REFs also wanted to widen the conversations for the new generations currently in the beginnings of their educations.

Leslie Saito is also currently an Ed.D student part of Cohort 15. She received her credential for bilingual teaching at la Universidad Iberoamericana in México City, influencing her passion for helping new teachers of color as they enter the education field. Her session was a student forum featuring six 13–14-year-olds who began an anti-racism club on their campus.

“I was blown away at the depth of their knowledge, and listening to students is extremely valuable and often overlooked,” Saito said. “Too often, students are spoken for and about, but seldom are they given a platform to share their voices.”

Saito used her opportunity to dive deep into racism and how it effects both teachers and students, as her session entangled with the identity facet of the themes. She especially enjoyed working with people she normally would not cross paths with and seeing niches play out.

Dr. Noemi Villegas conducted three sessions, parts 1 and 2 of Leadership & Learning and Healing and Growing Together. Part 1 focused on justice centered systems in schools and part 2 leaned towards practice, initiatives and people. Her third session spotlighted the power of restorative communities in schools. She graduated in Ed.D. Cohort 5, and has since worked in PK-12 educational settings to transform educational systems in service of students, communities, and colleagues at the margins.

“Decolonizing the idea of leadership is now more important than ever, as every single individual working in schools throughout our country CAN make a difference in the systems they navigate and most importantly in the lives of every young person that attends our campuses,” Dr. Villegas said.

Basti Lopez de la Luz is an Ed.D. Cohort 16 student along with Davis and Student Services Coordinator for the dual enrollment program at Santa Ana College. She worked closely with Dr. Villegas on Restorative Justice workshops, bringing in her expertise on migrant and undocumented justice. Through this collaboration, she learned and discussed how to unpack with others but also show up authentically and vulnerably to students and coworkers.

“When we were sharing our debrief, it was us realizing there’s still so much more to learn and grow because we never really stop doing that type of work,” de la Luz said.

Dr. Vanessa Monterosa is also a veteran of the Ed.D. program, graduating with Ed.D. Cohort 8. Monterosa’s skills are in the field of education tech, which leans into how education will develop in modern times– including AI and internet and its implementations for equity usage. Her two sessions fell under the Leadership and Community umbrella, and were Philanthropy as a Pathway to Change and Am I an Entrepreneur? Her current job as a Senior Associate Partner at New Schools Venture Fund gave her the skillset to teach others about philanthropy, an underrepresented topic in equity discussions.

“What I’m finding is that it’s really hard to find the Indigenous and Latino leaders who have these big ideas,” Dr. Monterosa said. “I know that they’re out there. I’m trying to find the best way to reach them. Through this fellowship program, I thought this a step in that direction to start building the capacity of leaders around philanthropy and a pathway for them to enact change they want to see.”

A common motif throughout all the REFs was the understanding between them and the audience regarding the topics presented. Everyone was in a space to learn and grow and open to helping make the world better for all, while presenting completely authentically.

“At the end of the day, it is all about love and that is what I saw through this whole year,” Davis said. “Love is the center of humanity, and we are bringing love back into spaces.”

Although the 2022-23 school year is clearing for the next, their work left an imprint on the fabric of the educational leadership program. The 2023-24 theme is Race, Racism and.... All REFs from the prior year are returning for more, with the exception of de la Luz. The ellipses represent other justice issues, spanning from law and law enforcement, economics, gender, mental and physical health, education, politics and policy and more.