Meet Our Founder

 

Doctora Alexandra Escobar is a social justice equity leader whose moral compass informs her thoughts and actions to positively influence and inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more.

Her mind, heart, and soul are in the right place, and she lives a life of integrity where what she values, believes, thinks, says, and does are aligned.

Doctora Escobar identifies as a Brown Latinx woman. She is the daughter of Colombian immigrants who grew up in a multicultural, multilingual, and multiracial family. At a very young age, she experienced the tensions among her intersecting identities, e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, language proficiency, etc. Her racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities were never welcomed at school. She was punished for speaking Spanish, and assumptions about her ability to learn as a Brown English Language Learner resulted in a special education evaluation referral in elementary school. In high school, her guidance counselor made it clear college wasn't for her.

Despite commonly held beliefs that Latinx do not value education, her mother instilled in her the value of education at a very young age. She credits the tenacious woman in her family for realizing her dream of becoming a Doctor in Education.

Dra. Escobar began her teaching career at St. Augustine College over fifteen years ago. At St. Augustine College, she helped students successfully obtain their General Educational Development (GED) and develop their English Language Proficiency. She then served as an elementary bilingual school teacher and Response to Intervention Coordinator in Chicago Public Schools for six years. Due to her desire to become an educator of educators, she transitioned into administration in 2012. Since then, she has served as an assistant principal, principal, and assistant superintendent of teaching.

Her legacy to the school communities she has served has been establishing professional learning communities focused on meeting the diverse needs of students and setting high expectations for all. Under her leadership, instructional leadership was continuously strengthened through self-reflection, collaboration, and evaluation practices, and as a result, student achievement and educator practices improved. Additionally, the climate and culture of the school communities transitioned from a culture of compliance to a culture of transparency and continuous growth.