Our Team
Antonette Franceschi-Chavez
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Antonette has spent the last ten years working primarily in dual-language programs across underserved communities in Los Angeles. While teaching in dual-language classrooms, Antonette emphasized the importance of biliteracy and bilingualism as a means of valuing diversity and bridging intergroup relationships.
Her experience in project-based learning while collaborating with students, educators, and the community highlight her intense passion for educational equity. Antonette facilitated professional development sessions for educators and families around literacy, biliteracy and supporting students at home. Currently, she is part a non-profit organization promoting the importance of STEM education for students in under-represented communities. She has a multiple subject teaching credential and a Masters degree in Literacy Education from Loyola Marymount University.
Marysol Perez
Co-Founder, Chief Financial Officer
Marysol has dedicated her career and learning to supporting marginalized communities in various capacities. For the past ten years, her dedication to advocating and supporting under-represented communities has led her to work as an educator and curriculum & instructional specialist throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.
Her work revolves around the importance of empowering families through literacy, and most recently piloted a Bilingual Parent Book Club at a local elementary school. Marysol’s strong commitment to education advocacy and equity has led her to in-depth volunteer work in policy and advocacy issues revolving around Early Childhood Education and Bilingual Education programs through a national grassroots organization, MomsRising, where she has taken part of policy committees, helped organize advocacy days, and lobbied at our state's capitol. She holds a multiple subject teaching credential, a Masters Degree in Bilingual Education from Loyola Marymount University and Preliminary Administrative Services Credential and a Masters degree in Educational Leadership from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Jennifer Archila
Board of Directors, Secretary
Jennifer Archila has been a teacher for five years, and is currently serving as a First Grade, Dual Immersion Teacher in Whittier, Ca. Jennifer is passionate about bilingual education and works to support emerging bilinguals in learning and developing a second language through the strengthening of their first language, with the objective of students becoming bilingual and biliterate. During this time of Distance Learning,she has been working especially close with families in weekly one-on-one student-centered reading conferences in which she models for parents how to coach students in reading and shares specific strategies to support individual needs.
A life-long learner herself, Jennifer participates in professional book clubs, in which she can collaborate with colleagues in supporting students' variety of needs and share student success. She has a multiple subject teaching credential and a Masters degree in Bilingual Education from Loyola Marymount University.
WHY EQUITY THROUGH LITERACY?
Listen to our co-founders explain what led them to form Equity Through Literacy.