Founding Partners

DANA BOWDEN

Dana Bowden has worked in education in Los Angeles since 1995.  She taught elementary school for seven years before helping to design and open the Los Angeles Leadership Academy, a charter middle school dedicated to developing leaders for social justice.  There Dana spent five years refining and teaching a workshop-based English/Language Arts curriculum.  She team-taught with two colleagues in a multi-age classroom serving students whose average reading level as incoming sixth graders was early second grade.  In their first year in the program, these students gained an average of two-and-a-half grade levels.

Dana earned her BA in Psychology and African-American Studies at Yale University and her MA in education from Chapman University.  She holds a multiple-subject teaching credential as well as a single-subject credential in English.  Dana has participated in eight institutes with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, the Stanford University School Redesign Network’s Small Schools Study Tour, and the humanities and diversity institutes at Phillips Exeter Academy.  She has received training from Lucy Calkins, Ellin Keene, Nancie Atwell, and Steven Krashen.

Dana taught at the Pasadena Unified Professional Development Center and has worked since 2001 as a presenter and coach for UCLA’s Center X.  She has lectured at Charter Schools Development Center, Otis College of Art and Design, and UCLA.  She has served as an instructional coach for Partnerships to Uplift Communities Charter Schools, and as a master teacher for students from the University of Southern California and Pacific Oaks College. She leads Powerful Choices’ work with upper-elementary and secondary teachers.

KATE GARCÍA-BEAUDET

Teaching for justice has been Kate’s passion for more than twenty years. Working mostly in South LA and Boyle Heights, she has striven to bring best practices to high-needs populations, supplementing and supplanting mandated curricula with choice-based pedagogy including reading and writing workshop.

Kate has an MA in reading/language arts and holds a reading specialist credential. She is a UCLA Writing Project fellow and is National Board Certified. Kate is as dedicated to teacher development as she is to her work with children: she has served as a Cotsen mentor, a writing workshop staff developer, an intervention coordinator, a faculty advisor for UCLA's Department of Education, and an adjunct professor in reading methods at Antioch University. In an effort to bring her love of reading and writing to families, she has taught Spanish-language literacy workshops for parents and has co-led “Family Writing Night” sessions.

Kate leads Powerful Choices’ work with primary teachers and dual-immersion schools.

Staff Developers

CINDY PEÑA

Cindy Peña-Sperger has served southern California students, teachers, and families for two decades as a balanced literacy teacher, bilingual instructor, and school administrator.  She started her teaching career as a primary teacher, bringing reading and writing workshop to a multi-age classroom of children from diverse backgrounds.  Her commitment to serving high-needs communities later led her to the Pico Union District in Los Angeles, where she taught in a bilingual Spanish/English classroom. Powerful Choices especially values Cindy’s experience as a school leader, including her work as an intervention coordinator, a literacy coordinator, a director of bilingual education, and an assistant principal.

Cindy holds a BA from UC, Santa Barbara, and an MA and certificate in reading development from Claremont Graduate University.  She is passionate about building capacity in teachers and providing them the tools to grow students into true readers and writers.

As the child of immigrant parents, Cindy sees education as a path to freedom.  She is dedicated to ensuring every child receives a powerful education, and continues to hone her teaching craft through private tutoring.

Barbara Brown

Barbara is dedicated to working in the intersections between education, liberation, and justice. She began her journey as an educator in 1999 as an after school supervisor where she discovered that personal connections and authenticity were the key to reaching students and families. Believing that education is essential to social justice, Barbara earned her Bachelor’s degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College with a specialization in social change. She then moved to Claremont Graduate University to earn her Master’s in Education with a focus on community outreach.

Working predominantly with middle school students as a classroom teacher, Barbara observed the specific needs and strengths in growing adolescents. No longer children, but not yet adults, middle school students are ready to question the world that they have been given and to take action to improve it. Designing classes that build students’ critical thinking skills while creating opportunities for activism became the heart of Barbara’s practice. She piloted a program combining English and social science in a humanities workshop block. Barbara connected literacy skills with critical pedagogy, blending workshop methodology and praxis. The success of this program inspired her to advocate for workshop methodology across the curriculum. Over the years, Barbara continued to create opportunities for the democratization of education, indirect contrast to the traditional styles of banking education prevalent in districts.

Barbara evolved from a classroom teacher to an educational leader and took on the role of department lead for both English and social studies at her school. Through the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), she became a mentor for new teachers earning their credentials. In this role, she provided support in planning, teaching, and professional reflection. Seeking to expand on her facilitation skills, Barbara participated in The National SEED (Seeking Education Equity and Diversity) Project through Wellesley College, becoming a seminar leader. Barbara facilitated SEED seminars for colleagues, administrators, and families and was able to see firsthand the impact of storytelling in building community, affirming diverse identities, and deconstructing false narratives and histories. Looking to dig deeper into equity and education, Barbara earned a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.

Angelina Sáenz

Angelina Sáenz (she/her) is an alumna of the Los Angeles Unified School District who went on to spend 23 years as an LAUSD classroom teacher. She devotes her life to liberatory and life-affirming educational practices.

In 2008, Angelina founded the Aldama Elementary Dual Language Program, the first of its kind in Northeast Los Angeles.  As founding teacher, Angelina  was awarded the La Opinion Newspaper Exceptional Woman Award in the category of education.  She was also a Nominee/Finalist for the White House Commitment to Excellence Award as a Champion of Change with President Obama's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.  As lead teacher of the program, she designed and led staff development in the areas of Reading and Writing Workshop, Cognitive Guided Instruction in Math, and the Project GLAD approach to language learning and culturally relevant teaching practices.

Angelina earned her BA from Occidental College in Theater and Anthropology.  She completed her M. Ed. with Claremont Graduate University where she learned student-centered, constructivist and anti-racist pedagogy. Most recently, she received an MFA in Writing from Otis School of Art and Design.  She holds a multiple-subject teaching credential and a bilingual teaching credential.  Angelina has participated in three summer institutes at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University.

Understanding the high demands on adults working with children, Angelina is committed to delivering professional development that is mindful, respectful of their expertise, and relevant to their practice. Since 2012 she has worked as a presenter and coach for The Writing Project at UCLA’s Center X.  She has also taught as an adjunct professor in the Antioch University Teacher Education department and served for two years on Bill and Melinda Gates’ Teacher Advisory Council.  In this role she traveled to Finland with a teacher delegation to study how Finland’s success could inform education in the United States.  Angelina has written several educational articles on bilingualism, writing and dual language education.  She is the author of the children’s book Waiting for Luna and of her debut book of poetry, Edgecliff. 

The daughter of a Mexican mother and father born on the borderlands of the Rio Grande Valley, Angelina’s complicated childhood continues to inform her practice and passion for meeting the needs of children, their families, and the adults who serve and support them.

Jade Aposhian

Jade Aposhian has worked in education in Los Angeles for the past decade as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and instructional specialist. She has served in early education, primary, and upper-elementary classrooms. She holds a B.A. from UC Davis and received her teaching credential and an M.A. in education through UCLA’s IMPACT: Urban Teacher Residency Program.

Jade’s passion for educational equity began during her work with Davis Bridge, a non-profit organization addressing educational disparities faced by Latina/o students. As a college student providing academic mentoring, she learned about the opportunity gap and changed her career path in order to dedicate herself to addressing it.

Working mostly in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles communities, Jade has spent a decade honing her skills in balanced literacy and reading and writing workshop instruction. She believes that the workshop model provides students with the time, space, and tools to actively explore their interests, identities, and creativity.

In workshop sessions, Jade’s students took ownership over their own learning by creating goals, self-assessing, and providing feedback to one another. As a third-grade teacher, her students’ ELA Smarter Balanced assessment proficiency levels were higher than all grade levels at her school, compared to the previous four years of data.

Jade is committed to supporting other educators to work towards equity by empowering students to become active learners with the agency, confidence, and skills to openly express themselves and advocate for what matters to them.