Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Guillen.
Hi Danielle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I learned the power of community and education growing up in the Inland Empire. My parents worked tremendously hard to transfer me to an elementary school outside of my neighborhood school. It was this small act of attending a better elementary school that affected the entire trajectory of my life. I did not realize how impactful my parents’ decision was until I was 1 of 4 people from San Bernardino County, the biggest county in the United States, accepted into Yale University.
As a first-generation college student at Yale University, I realized my family was not alone in their struggle to access equitable educational opportunities. My desire to extend equitable education opportunities to families led me to become a secondary math teacher on the Navajo Nation where I experienced firsthand the barriers low-income rural families face to accessing high-quality education.
I later found myself moving to Los Angeles to attend grad school at USC and after I became the Director of Organizing and Policy for a Los Angeles Unified Board District. It was in this role where I intimately understood the state of education in the second-largest school system in the United States and the urgency to make sure that half a million children have access to equitable education. I currently work Director at a national education nonprofit where I work with senior advocacy and organizing leaders and organizing alliances across the nation to ensure that students have access to equitable education.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Teaching in New Mexico at a school that serviced the eastern side of the Navajo Nation catalyzed my mission to build equitable systems for women and children of color. I was asked to do extraordinary things as a teacher on top of my teaching responsibilities. I often relied on the kindness of strangers to fundraise for basic supplies like paper and markers and would share these items with my whole teaching team. I really began to question why our school systems did not serve families or students.
Trying to maintain basic items for my classroom and educate my students really put a significant strain on my mental health. After I left my classroom, I spent time under-employed tutoring for $15/hr back home and living with my grandma (bless this woman). It was really hard to find a job in the county I grew up in and not be able to see a mental health provider because I didn’t have health insurance at that time. I ended up applying to graduate school as a backup plan. It took a long time for me to bounce back from both of these experiences.
Reflecting on this time of my life, especially after graduating from a university like Yale, crystalized my life’s purpose- to help dismantle systems of oppression for women and children.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in using community organizing principles to design new governmental systems. When I was the Director of Organizing and Policy for an LAUSD Board District, I ran our Family Problem Solving Groups where we worked with families and students to design solutions to problems they were directly experiencing. This resulted in activating the leaderships and voice of families that were marginalized by our bigger school system.
I learned community organizing from being a part of leadership team of the organizing group, Angelenos Organizing for Education. We similarly worked with community members and students to push for safe routes to school and bring the issues being experienced by children to key decision-makers within LAUSD.
In my current role, I support community organizers and senior advocacy leaders across the nation to push for equitable policies in their school systems. I coach these members through issue cuts, research actions, and policy research and analysis so that they can design equitable solutions for the people most impacted by a problem.
In my spare time, I also founded STEM in the Park, an organization that closes the STEM access gap in low-income areas. During the pandemic, we activated high schoolers in LAUSD to understand what was happening in STEM education at their school site. I took them through similar organizing and policy design programs as I mentioned above. It resulted in the students delivering public comment advocating for an increase in school site budgets so that schools could buy more of the costly supplies teachers needed to do hands on science activities in schools.
I am so proud of each of the work I do as I feel they align to my purpose- to build a world where everyone gets to live their best life.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I spent years relying on the advice and kindness of others to help me navigate many spaces my family had never had access to such as applying to college or getting a job within government. I spent much of my life trying to figure out the political world and how to navigate more bureaucratic spaces. This year, I had my first ever job evaluation and salary negotiation which was a huge deal for me. I remember when I was younger, I would dream about what it would be like to work in an office- an opportunity no one in my family had ever had at that time- and could not find models of women who looked like me and shared my values in any spaces in my community.
I had really great mentors that invested in my leadership professionally and I intentionally do the same for other women of color. Finding and fostering relationships with people who inspire you is the most important lesson I learned along this journey. It is really important to find people that get where you are trying to go. You always need community with people that value and love your authentic self.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @danielle.guillen
- Twitter: @_daniguillen
