Eliza is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin studying liberatory education policy and law-based threats to free expression and inclusion. She is drawn to inquiry projects that ask questions about educational purpose and ground themselves in deep praxis. One recent study tracked the stewardship of four secondary Ethnic Studies courses from local, district-level design along their journey to inclusion within Texas’s state-level Social Studies course offerings. Guided by interviews with policymakers, scholars, activists, and district staff, as well as document analysis and observations of public hearings, this critical qualitative case study observed the viability of state-level policy institutionalization for radically rooted Ethnic Studies projects. She found that Ethnic Studies policy design requires a relational praxis and that the theories, epistemologies, and disciplinary knowledge of study participants inform their strategic engagement with the state and the coloniality of schooling. A current project also looks at the relationship between public education and the state, observing the ways that threats to free expression impact public higher education faculty whose work is focused on racial equity and inclusion. This project aims to inform university actors and external allies about strategies to resist attacks on academic freedom and to foster authentically inclusive campus climates.

Before entering academia, Eliza spent a decade as a film editor in Los Angeles, crafting commercials, documentary films, trailers, and other visual content. She continues this work today, recently serving as a consulting producer on the critically acclaimed 2022 documentary The Business of Birth Control. Eliza carried her creative career knowledge into her role as a high school English teacher and track and field coach at a Southern California high school where she engaged in relational learning–working in the classroom and running alongside her students.

For the last seven years, she has rooted herself in the Austin, TX while completing her doctoral studies, volunteering for Academia Cuauhtli, a culturally revitalizing Saturday school/third space; co- founding and serving as a core organizer for the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, a grassroots community working in solidarity to expand Ethnic Studies courses; spending hundreds of hours in the Capitol, Austin City Council, school board meetings, and at the State Board of Education advocating for humanizing and liberatory public education and public spaces; and planting the seeds for a community run Equity Collective at her children’s school. Her work has been published in top tier journals, but she is most happy when her 9-year-old reads it and asks questions (though frequently it’s more of a comment...)

Eliza holds an MA in Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA; a Secondary Teaching Credential from Cal State Northridge; and a BA in Spanish and History from Rutgers University, as well as enrolling in a number of community college courses. While she spent 9th-12th grade at a private boarding school, she is dedicated to protecting and cultivating public education. While she truly wants the best for her own kids, she strives to live in ways that build the best future for all children.