Our children need empowered advocates. PLI takes educators with a desire to serve the community and supercharges them with knowledge from dynamic professors, authentic social justice leadership examples, and a lifelong support system from both the University and like-minded colleagues. The program has deepened my ability to recognize and act in the face of inequities as both an educator and mother. I am forever grateful to PLI for transforming me into a wiser and more effective champion for all children.”

My time at PLI was foundational to my growth as a social justice educator. I found the readings and projects in PLI to be so relevant and grounded in real praxis. It gave me the language to name the types of inequities that I was seeing in schools, and the rationale to keep pushing for justice. Being a part of PLI’s cohort model was important because public schools can be such isolating spaces, especially for educational leaders. Having a cohort of like minded comrades pushed my practice and gave me shoulders to lean on when the work got tough. Here I am more than a decade later and really in awe with the fact that I am part of a family of hundreds of social justice educators emanating out of Moore Hall at UCLA!”