Meet the Organizers

Free Minds, Free People is organized by a large team of volunteers from across the country–teachers, students, activists, academics and parents.

Indigenous land map with markers to show where 2021 organizing committee members are located.

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Aldrich Limpin Sabac

High School Ethnic Studies & English teacher at Edison High, Stockton Unified School District

I am excited to see how we build community, art, and resistance despite the ongoing pandemic.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Alyssa La'Dawn

University of Michigan, Lands of the Meškwahki·aša·hina (Romulus, Michigan)

I'm excited to attend to my very first FMFP conference! I'm looking forward to connecting, learning, healing, and giving and receiving love to this amazing community!

Adriana Herrera

New York, NY

I'm excited to learn about work happening across the country and build relationships with people from all over, thanks to the virtual format!

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Jennifer Etienne

University of Minnesota Twin Cities via Bronx, NY

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales

San Francisco State University, College of Ethnic Studies

Excited for Ethnic Studies panels and assembly.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Ana Claudia Sao Bernardo

Transformative Educator - Arlington, VA via Brazil

I am very excited about a possible conversation with comrads from other countries. I look forward to form solidarity.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bree Picower

Montclair State University

Excited to make it happen!

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Elisa Lee

Teacher Coach for the Newark Board of Education - Unceded Lenape Land - NJ

I'm hyped to meet youth activists and learning more about what our students and communities need. Also excited for RadPD!

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Emily Bautista

People's Education Movement Los Angeles founding member, scholar activist, school leader - Los Angeles, CA

I am excited for this new format of being engaged with different intersections of different themes that have emerged in different organizing and school spaces. There are so many new possibilities! But mostly, I am excited to be in connection with all the heart-work and wisdom that will be shared amongst the organizers, panelists, presenters, and participants.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Gema Ortega

Post-colonial student, scholar, and educator, dedicated to teaching voices of resistance against colonialism, cultural hegemony, and Western ethnocentrism - Chicago, IL

I'm excited to be in community, creating, organizing, and raising awareness with an amazing group of people committed to cultural, social, and economic transformation.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Marika Pfefferkorn

Twin Cities Innovation Alliance / MidwestCenter for School Transformation

FMFP presents a great opportunity to lift up the national movement of education liberation and energize our local education liberation work here at home.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Jody Sokolower

co-coordinator, Teach Palestine Project, Middle East Children's Alliance - Berkeley, CA

I'm excited about the themed weekends. And we hope that the Ethnic Studies/Transnational Solidarity people's assembly will lead to a national organization to promote and defend decolonial, liberatory Ethnic Studies in the face of attacks on anti-racist teaching and including Palestine.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Mariana Ramírez

East Los Angeles, California, Tongva Land

Being part of the process is what my spirit needs.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Njeri Parker

Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla (Portland, OR)

I am excited about the Youth Committee developing the framework for youth to be intentionally a part of the planning process and creating content that highlights work of youth organizers and speaks to issues that all organizers need to be centering and focusing.

Pronouns: She/They

Nyla Bell

Philadelphia Student Union

Asif Wilson

Teachers for Social Justice - Chicago, IL

I'm excited to engage and build in this new virtual format. I'm hopeful that this year's FMFP will bring new folks into this beautiful space.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Rahsaan Mahadeo

Piscataway, Nacotchtank land (Arlington, VA)

Why I organize with FMFP: Because when the hand (education system) that feeds you is feeding you ish, you have no other choice to bite it!

Pronouns: he/him, welcomes they/them

Rebecca Irby

PEAC Institute Founder and Executive Director - Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Land - Detroit, MI

I'm excited more people will be able to join because we're virtual this year! I hope this helps people who otherwise wouldn't know about or be able to attend the conference find this amazing community and share their work for liberation!

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Kayla Kelsey

World Language Educator, Teacher Trainer - Minneapolis, MN

I am excited to be able to attend even more sessions! Everything about FMFP gives me life.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Ro Lin

Minnesota Transitions School, Social Justice Education Movement - Minneapolis, MN

Pronouns: they or he

Monét Cooper

Doctoral student, University of Michigan; poet and writer; Dancing on Desks Podcast; oldest daughter, my grandmama's girl

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Ruby Schlaker

Rising senior at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania studying Education, History, and Dance, and working towards secondary teacher certification; Swarthmore chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine

As a future/pre-service teacher, I'm excited to learn from other young people and K-12 teachers in the context of the conference's themes. Also excited for the Friday evening cultural events!

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Susan Wilcox

SEW Consulting, FireBeads Media - Lenape Land (NYC)

I will miss being physically together - that first whiff of "we created a conference" - but am excited to see what gathering in a virtual space affords.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Leigh Patel

University Pittsburgh, Healing centered life coach - ancestral lands of the Omaha peoples

Excited for our flow of programming to allow people to connect and be in community as they are able.

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Tarilyn

ExpandED Schools/NYC Educators for Black Lives - Brooklyn, NY

Excited to cultivate space for radical love and healing, transformative learning, and intergenerational community-building with family from across the country.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Thomas Nikundiwe

Education for Liberation Network

No matter where FMFP is held, it always feels like home.

Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price

MapSO Freedom School/EduColor/National Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action - New Jersey

I am excited for the FMFP virtual geography that we have co-constructed and the possibilities that come with being in this virtual geography.

Pronouns: she/her

Tracy Pham

Neighborhood House - St. Paul, MN

Brian Ford

8:46 Project, Center For Social Justice, Teachers Undoing Racism Now - Montclair, NJ, Lenape land

I'm excited that each theme gets its own week and we can stretch out the conference for about a month. There will be so much to absorb.

8:46 Project, Teachers Undoing Racism Now (TURN), DSA, Center for Social Justice (CSJ)

Pronouns: he/him/his

Denisha Jones

Trinity Washington University

Brian Lozenski

The Education for Liberation Network - St. Paul, MN (Dakota Land) via Philadelphia

I'm excited that each theme gets its own week and we can stretch out the conference for about a month. There will be so much to absorb.

Pronouns: he/they

Christina "V" Villarreal

Brown University - Providence, RI

Working to organizing FMFP is truly a labor of radical love. The healing space that FMFP offers for educators, organizers and young people is unlike any other and I deeply love and appreciate the opportunity to work and build alongside such amazing gamechangers.

Hana Dinku

Solidarity Twin Cities, In Black Ink & Augsburg University - Minneapolis, MN

I'm helping to organize FMFP because I'm excited to connect with my people in the Twin Cities and build community with folks doing incredible work all over the country. Free Minds Free People is like the critical consciousness cookout; come get some fat on your head!

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Heather H. Woodley

NYU Steinhardt

Jamilyn Salonga Bailey

Caylao - Orlando, FL

Excited to reconnect, to build and to imagine together.

Jay Gillen

Baltimore Algebra Project

FMFP is the most vibrant and action-oriented gathering of people committed to un-doing/re-doing how we raise children to be free.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Theresa Montaño

ARE-LA, CHS CSUN - Los Angeles, Ca

Pronouns: she/her/ella

Aja Reynolds

Detroit, Michigan

Pronouns: She/her/hers