{"id":520,"date":"2023-06-01T16:49:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T16:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/?page_id=520"},"modified":"2025-07-28T21:28:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T21:28:46","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AV巴士 is a nonprofit made up of teams of math and science education and research experts dedicated to innovation and creative problem solving. At the frontier of theory and practice, AV巴士\u2019s work encompasses research, content and curriculum development, technology innovation, professional development, and program evaluation. AV巴士 has a passion for social justice and strives to create level playing fields for all learners, reaching millions of learners every year.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cesar Chavez Foundation is committed to serving the long-term needs of Latinos and working families. Our mission is to carry on Cesar\u2019s life\u2019s work of uplifting the lives of Latinos and working families by inspiring and transforming communities through social enterprises that address essential human, cultural and community needs. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Lead Staff<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Teresa Lara-Meloy, <\/strong>PI, Senior Math Education Designer, AV巴士. Teresa is bilingual, binational, bicultural education designer passionate about creating joyful opportunities for youth, teachers, afterschool facilitators and coaches to learn meaningful mathematics. In her math ed career, she has worked on uncovering the role that dynamic representational technologies play in math learning, the types of making that provide a rich math learning opportunities, and ways to support the teaching profession with disciplined improvisation and video analysis. She jumps at any chance at making and recently has acquired a taste for enameling. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jennifer Knudsen<\/strong>, co-PI, AV巴士, is an educator whose work sits at the intersection of design and research. Over the past 30 years, she has been a teacher, learning experience developer, and research project director. Her current work is on making for content learning and positive identity development as well as teaching to support students\u2019 mathematical argumentation, both with a focus on equity and social justice. As a maker, she is a mixed media artist, using watercolor, collage, and simple stitching. She also enjoys 3D modeling and printing with her adult daughter. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Nuria Jaumot-Pascual<\/strong>, Ph.D., Co-PI, Research Scientist, AV巴士. Nuria leads the research portion of the project. She studies the experiences of BIPOC people, especially women, in STEM education and careers. She also studies STEM learning in out-of-school environments with BIPOC children. She loves listening to the stories of learning that facilitators and children share as they show what they have made in the afterschool program. In her spare time, she hikes with her family and creates collages with upcycled materials on useful objects.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ken Rafanan<\/strong>\u00a0Co-PI, Senior STEM Education Researcher, AV巴士. Ken\u2019s work focuses on the design of learning activities supporting student engagement with mathematics, spatial reasoning, and computational thinking through integration of making, design, and 3d printing. He leads an NSF ITEST project investigating making and entrepreneurship to engage young women in STEM. In his spare time, Ken enjoys making in many disciplines at a local makerspace.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Celia Garcia Alvarado <\/strong>is the Executive Vice President for Education for the Cesar Chavez Foundation. She has been working in the field of education for over 18 years. She began her career as an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District and in 2003 was named Teacher of the Year for her district. She served as Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Development and as Vice President of Corps Member and Alumni Impact for Teach For America. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Western Region for Education Pioneers. She is an adjunct faculty member at Loyola Marymount University\u2019s Graduate School of Education and serves on the board of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. Celia received her B.A. from Stanford University, her Ed.M. from Harvard University and Ed.D. from UCLA. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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AV巴士 Project Staff  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Rachel Hayes<\/strong>, Project Manager, oversees pre- and post-award management for several projects at AV巴士. Before joining AV巴士 in 2007, Rachel was an academic advisor for the Advising and Counseling Center and the Student Success Program at Bunker Hill Community College. Rachel loves reading with her beautiful daughter and enjoys co-creating bedtime stories with her. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Elise<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Elise Levin-G\u00fcracar<\/strong>, works on math and making projects at AV巴士. She primarily does qualitative research and enjoys interviewing research participants and running focus groups. Elise loves to work with acrylic paint, sew, and knit.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cesar Chavez Foundation staff <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"angelica<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Angelica Cazares<\/strong> is the Director of Education for the Cesar Chavez Foundation. She has over 20 years of experience in the education field. For the last 15 years, as part of the Cesar Chavez Education Team, she has continued to dedicate herself to providing high-quality educational programs and services to underserved communities. Throughout her career, she has focused on providing educational programs, where she and her team have been able to make a significant impact on the lives of students and families in need. In her spare time, she loves to express herself through her love of food and cooking with her sons, as well as creating fresh flower arrangements. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah Grams<\/strong> is a former middle school teacher, PreK-12 teacher coach and high school administrator, with education roots in Baltimore, Milwaukee and Los Angeles public schools. Sarah\u2019s role on the Cesar Chavez Foundation\u2019s Education Fund is overseeing innovative and growing programs that educate students\u2019 hearts and minds, from afterschool programs to curricula and teacher trainings. Sarah lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three amazing children. She is a maker in the kitchen, in hand-making her kids\u2019 Halloween costumes and as an expert fort-builder. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Erika Hall,<\/strong> Manager of Programs, Cesar Chavez Foundation. Erika\u2019s passion for Education and working with students started early on through volunteer work and has worked in an educational setting for over 15 years. Driven by educational inequalities, Erika takes pride in being able to support the design, facilitation, and on-the-groundwork for the Central California Amped 4 Making<\/em> school site. She enjoys baking with her daughter, planning family gatherings, and traveling. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Victor Gonzalez<\/strong> is an educator and current grad school student with a background in middle school humanities, secondary English Language Arts, curriculum design, instructional coaching, and academic administration. At the Chavez Foundation, he researches, designs, implements, and evaluates pilot programs, including a suite of curriculum and teacher training products. He enjoys using a variety of stationary supplies to send personalized mail to his friends and family. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jeffery Salcido<\/strong> is an educator at Tenaya Middle school. This is Jeffery’s fifth year in education with a focus on implementing crosscutting concepts and STEAM into student’s everyday lives. He enjoys tinkering with technology and computers to create new things using 3d printing. He enjoys working with his hands and old cars. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Jad<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Jad Eways<\/strong> is an educator with a background in secondary science instruction and curriculum design who loves creating inquiry-based, hands-on, and joyful learning experiences.  At the Cesar Chavez Foundation, he researches and designs STEM pilot programs that focus on growing math, science, data, and digital literacies and fluencies. He enjoys making quality hummus, tahini kofta, and all other Palestinian dishes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Project Advisors  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Santiago Gasca<\/strong> works on a range of research and evaluation projects at AV巴士 with SEEC, CSR, and EdGE. As a former residential counselor for teens and young adults, Santi is especially interested in character development and resilience, particularly pertaining to youth STEM educational engagement in informal settings. Santi enjoys teaching his dogs tricks in his spare time as well as doing some woodworking in his basement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Myunghwan Shin, <\/strong>Assistant Professor of STEM Education in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno, will share his expertise on how to broaden participation in STEM among youth from non-dominant communities, designing innovative, empowering, and equitable STEM learning environments, and supporting teachers and informal educators as well as research conducted in makerspaces and supportive pedagogies, including participatory ethnography, youth-participatory action research, and asset-based pedagogy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dora Medrano Ramos<\/strong>, STEM graduate and Learning Events Manager at Maker Ed, brings her expertise as a facilitator of experiences that support educators to integrate liberatory, maker-centered learning into their practice. Originally from the community of Riverside, Dora centers the learning and liberation of youth of color and believes maker education can be used as a tool to design culturally responsive and equitable learning experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Maria Zavala<\/strong>, PhD, is an associate professor of elementary education at San Francisco State University, where she focuses on mathematics and multilingual education. Her works centers on how every person comes to realize their mathematical power. She serves as an advisor on this project. She researches mathematical identity development and how teachers learn to be culturally responsive mathematics teachers. Her creativity is expressed through music, cooking, and her occasional forays into drawing, painting, and making. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AV巴士 is a nonprofit made up of teams of math and science education and research experts dedicated to innovation and creative problem solving. At the frontier of theory and practice, AV巴士\u2019s work encompasses research, content and curriculum development, technology innovation, professional development, and program evaluation. AV巴士 has a passion for social justice and strives to create level playing fields for all learners, reaching millions of learners every year.   <\/p>\n

The Cesar Chavez Foundation is committed to serving the long-term needs of Latinos and working families.  » Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"1,139,106,218","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-520","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520\/revisions\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terc.edu\/amped4making\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}