He is an award-winning educator and consultant on issues of equity in education. He is the Principal at Filling the Gap Educational Consultants, LLC. and was appointed by Gov. Cooper to serve as a North Carolina State Board of Education member, representing the Southwest Region. He is the former Program Director at the Public School Forum of North Carolina, an education think-tank and policy advocacy organization.

A former museum educator, high school English teacher, and newspaper reporter who served as Director of the Writing Center at Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC. The Vice President of Education and Programs at Levine Museum of the New South from 2015-2017, she specializes in curriculum and program design, audience and community engagement, and is trained in dialogue facilitation. Her work centers on access, education, and empowerment.

Jerry J. Wilson is an educator, researcher, and advocate committed to making learning environments productive and welcoming for all students. After teaching social studies in Chicago Public Schools for three years, Jerry enrolled in graduate school to study education policy. His work centers on teacher diversity and representation, the politics of education, civic learning, and the educational experiences of marginalized students.

Beth Rowell earned her Bachelor's in Mass Communications and Journalism from the University of South Florida in Tampa. While attending USF, Beth completed two internships at WUSF Public Media, Tampa's NPR affiliate station.

After graduating, Beth worked at the Central Florida Development Council as a Marketing Associate, where she focused communications efforts on growing the economy of Florida's fastest-growing county. An advocate and organizer for social change, she focuses on lifting people and stories in the most marginalized communities. Beth is originally from the UK but grew up in Tampa, Florida, and now lives in New York City.

admin@creed-nc.org

Stephanie Talarek has a B.A. in History, Paralegal Certificate, and a M.S. in Conflict Resolution, specializing on facilitation, intractable conflicts, identity conflict, and the suppression of marginalized communities in Southeast Asia.

She currently is a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte working towards her PhD in Public Policy with a focus on the intersection of social, health and environmental policies.

An entrepreneur, educator, choreographer, and marketing professional. She has a Bachelor's degree in Communication Studies and a Masters in Business Administration. Melissa's strong background in education, event management, and choreography led her to combine all her talents and found Melissa McDaniel 360, LLC, a multi-faceted organization that serves to educate, engage and empower businesses, organizations, and individuals through the work of five subsidiary companies.

Corina De La Torre is a first-generation Chicana scholar-researcher, born and raised in East Salinas, CA, where she learned the importance of hard work and community through her family's and neighbors' resiliency. Corina is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on rural Latinx youth identity development and cultivating racially and culturally inclusive, community-oriented learning spaces. Outside of the classroom, Corina is a community organizer advocating for long-term policy changes that will result in safe, thriving neighborhoods and schools.

Khamiah Alderman is a Charlotte native and earned her bachelor's in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In undergrad, she interned for a few organizations, including CREED, the Aurora Institute, and North Carolina Center for Nonprofits. Khamiah served as a research assistant for professors at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she gained valuable research experience grounded in education equity, intersectionality, and African American history. She is passionate about educational equity and is working to improve the education system for all learners, regardless of race, gender, religion, and ability. She hopes to continue her work to transform the education system to be accessible for all.

Peyton Jones is a native North Carolinian and a student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she is pursuing a degree in Communications Studies, Screen & Stage Writing. She is a born storyteller who believes in the power of communication and creative storytelling to establish meaningful connections, convey potent messages, and bring the most pressing issues of our time into the limelight. She is also enthusiastic about racial justice and making all spaces more equitable and accessible for people of color and has worked to do so within her own community through various initiatives. Peyton aspires to combine her two greatest passions by using her storytelling skills to advocate and empower through marketing, communications, writing, and digital media.

Janeva Wilson is a master’s student in the Education Policy and Planning program at the University of Texas at Austin. She is an NC native, and an HBCU graduate, receiving her B.A. in Psychology from Winston-Salem State University. Janeva’s experiences with marginalization in education have informed her trajectory into education policy. Her education policy interests center around improving racial equity, access, and opportunity for Black students. She seeks to understand how policies, practices, and systems maintain racial inequality in education, and how people engage with and shape policy to improve the education system. In her free time, Janeva enjoys reading and trying new restaurants.

Mills Jordan is a junior at Davidson College majoring in Political Science. In previous internships, Mills has both researched state-level policy's impact on racial equity and promoted youth engagement with social justice initiatives. After college, Mills plans to continue working in education and eventually pursue a Master's in Public Policy. In his free time, he enjoys soccer, books, and conversations with his family and friends.

Haneul is a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pursuing a Public Health and Education double major with a minor in Data Science. Her devotion to promoting educational equity begins with the gratitude she holds for the educators and resources that were available for her growing up as an ESL learner in Charlotte, NC. Those years of her life prepared her to become aware of the unique challenges, struggles, and anxieties that students can face in and out of the classroom. As a former student at a Title I high school in Charlotte, she experienced educational opportunity gaps first-hand and felt compelled to make a difference and dismantle existing structural barriers. She hopes to become a resource for students in underserved communities in hopes of uplifting the future generation of students to meet on equal playing fields.

Liliahna Bedolla, originally from Reedley, California, is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte double majoring in Marketing and Management with a concentration in Human Resources. Through her non-profit internship with Freedom School Partners as a Servant Leader Intern, her role as a virtual tutor for The PIMOSH Network, and her membership with College Mentors for Kids, she has learned the power and influence education holds. Drawing on these experiences, Liliahna is dedicated to reshaping the education system through civic engagement and activism, aiming for positive change and equal opportunities for all.

John’s research interest lies in the domains of school finance, culturally responsive and equitable systems development research, and design-based community engagement.

Specifically, John's work focuses on supporting agencies through examining fiscal systems, elevating the experiences of students and families of color through qualitative research to understand how inequities are experienced by community members directly, and working with practitioners through design-based collaboration to form programmatic and fiscal policies that reflect the voices of the community. Prior to joining CREED, John served as a policy analyst for a number of organizations, including WestEd, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

John holds a BA in Psychology from Azusa Pacific University, an MA in Public Administration with an emphasis in public sector finance from The University of Southern California, and is a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego in the Education Studies department.

Kris Nordstrom is a Senior Policy Analyst with the North Carolina Justice Center’s Education & Law Project. Kris has been the lead researcher and author of numerous research reports, policy briefs, and commentaries focused on education policy and its impact on advancing economic and social justice. Prior to starting work with the Justice Center in April 2016, Kris spent nine years with the North Carolina General Assembly’s nonpartisan Fiscal Research Division, where he provided budget analysis and information to members of the General Assembly on public education issues. Kris holds a Master of Public Policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and BA in Economics from Wake Forest University.

Constance earned a doctorate in human development and social policy from Northwestern University, where she was an Institute of Education Sciences’ predoctoral fellow. Since leaving Northwestern, Lindsay has worked in education policy in various contexts, applying her research training in traditional studies and in creating and evaluating new systems and policies regarding teachers. Lindsay’s areas of expertise include teacher quality and diversity, analyzing and closing racial achievement gaps, and adolescent development. Her work has been published in such journals as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Social Science Research.

Executive Director, CREED

Superintendent, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools

Policy Fellow, Chapin Hall Center for Children

Executive Vice President, Foundation for the Carolinas in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Principal, Education Innovations Group