About the Author

I grew up in New York City's public schools, where I learned early that the quality of your education depends a lot on where you happen to live.

I've spent my career trying to change that.

I'm a Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at Boston University's Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, where I research and teach about inequity in education and where I also earned my doctorate. My students are future teachers, principals, and policymakers who will one day make the decisions we argue about in class. I teach them with that in mind. I'm also a proud union member of SEIU 509 and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), because I believe the people who do the work of education deserve a real voice in how it's done.

Several of the courses I teach are ones I built from scratch because students needed them and nothing like them existed: School Segregation; Diversity & Justice in Education; and Power & Policy in Education. Each one asks the same question in a different way. Who decides what kind of education a child gets, and how do we change those decisions when they're unjust?

But I've never believed this work belongs only in the classroom.

As chair of the state's Racial Imbalance Advisory Council, I co-authored Racial Segregation in Massachusetts Schools. It was the first report in a generation to document how widespread segregation is in the Commonwealth's schools and how deeply unequal the outcomes are. Using the state's own data, we found that 63% of Massachusetts schools are segregated or intensely segregated. Getting that report to the public took persistence. At one point, I was urged not to share it at all. Two years later, it's cited in a lawsuit asking the courts to make the state act.

I've also held elected office. I was the first Latino elected to the Brookline Select Board. There I learned how policy actually gets made: slowly, under pressure, and usually only after someone refuses to let an issue drop. Today I'm the Executive Director of Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity, a grassroots organization that brings my neighbors together to work for racial and economic justice. I also serve on the boards of Amplify Latinx and Commonwealth Kitchen and on the

I've been named a Public Impact Scholar by BU's Initiative on Cities and a Massachusetts Education Policy Fellow by the Rennie Center. I also serve on the advisory board of the National Partnership for Educational Access. My writing on school segregation, legacy admissions, and academic freedom has appeared in CommonWealth Beacon and The Boston Globe.

And this fall, the work got more personal. My daughter started kindergarten in public school. Every decision I write about in this newsletter is one that someone, somewhere, is making on her behalf and on behalf of millions of other children.

That's why I write All Deliberate Speed. I'm a scholar who organizes and an advocate who reads the data. I'll give you the evidence, the arguments on every side, and my honest view of what should happen next. I hope that's useful, but it isn't the point. The point is to take action.

Welcome. I'm glad you're here.