Center X Leadership Team

Center X has a distributed Leadership team chaired by Faculty Director John Rogers. The team meets weekly and includes directors who represent the Center’s major work areas.

John Rogers
Faculty Director, Center X

John Rogers is the Faculty Co-Director of the Principal Leadership Institute and Professor in the Urban Schooling division at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education. He studies strategies for engaging urban youth, community members, and educators in equity-focused school reform. Dr. Rogers earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University and draws extensively on the work of John Dewey to explore the meaning of and possibilities for democratic education today.

Emma Hipolito
Director, Teacher Education Program

Emma Hipolito has many years of experience as a history-social science educator, serving as a high school teacher in Santa Monica USD, a middle school teacher in Alhambra USD, a professional development leader, and a teacher educator for the UCLA Teacher Education Program. She has developed and coordinated several professional development programs with funding from both state and federal agencies.

Kristine Ho
Director, UCLA Mathematics Project

Carrie Usui Johnson
Director, UCLA Center X Coaching Partnerships Project

Tonikiaa Orange
Director, UCLA Principal Leadership Institute and Director, Culture & Equity Project

Tonikiaa Orange is a former teacher and principal of a K-8 school in Los Angeles that was specifically designed to serve Standard English Learners (SEL) and English Language Learners (ELL) through Culturally Linguistic and Responsive Pedagogy. Her commitment to education spans over 20 years, and her experience and interest lie in culturally linguistic and sustaining pedagogy and evaluation.

Erin Powers
Director, UCLA National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Project

Erin Powers served for more than 20 years as a secondary classroom teacher and instructional coach throughout southern California before becoming the Director of the UCLA NBPTS Project. An experienced professional development provider, she is passionate about supporting educators in respectful, meaningful, and empowering ways. Erin has an MEd in teaching and has held National Board Certification since 2003.