Brenda Chavez (Los Angeles, CA) – Brenda is an immigrant and the mother of 5 children, two of whom are still in school. She has served as a parent delegate at Head Start, and as an officer at her children’s elementary school PTA. She has experienced being treated as “less than,” and has learned the importance of persisting and speaking up to make change. Brenda sees Integrated Schools as a way to change people’s mindsets so that parents like her have more of a voice and the schools have the support and resources all children deserve.

Nell Brimmer (Montgomery, AL) – Nell is a public interest attorney with experience in the practice areas of disability rights, legal aid, and reproductive rights. She has been on the board of multiple nonprofits. She grew up working class in Appalachia and Atlanta, raised by a single mother, and attending public schools. As a White mom in the deep South with an elementary aged child in public school, she connected with IS and our resources in charting her course – and sees clearly how great the need is for IS to reach more families with privilege who profess to hold progressive values.

Valerie Lord (Los Angeles, CA) – Valerie is a White mom of two, the older of whom attends their neighborhood global majority public school. Valerie grew up in Houston and lived in New York before moving to Los Angeles 12 years ago. She has served as the Executive Director for two small nonprofits and the Development Director for two mid-sized organizations, all focused on youth-oriented initiatives. As Managing Director at Envision Consulting she has collaborated with more than 50 nonprofit organizations, specializing in executive search, strategic planning, and partnership explorations, helping clients create structures that embody their vision and values in practical, meaningful ways.

Jana Luft (Oakland, CA) – Jana is a White mother of two girls, the older of whom attends their local global majority, Title 1 school. A former high school special education teacher, Jana became aware of resource hoarding and the challenge progressive White parents often pose to education equity; she started listening to the Integrated Schools podcast and attending local chapter meetings when her oldest daughter was in preschool. She has worked in education philanthropy, research, and advocacy to support education justice and has helped develop organizational best practices to create a culture in which staff and volunteers feel seen, included, and appreciated as full human beings.

Betsy Prueter (Atlanta, GA) – Betsy is the Senior Director of Programming for a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that provides professional development for federal policymakers, thinkers, and researchers who are working on higher education issues, which she helped to establish in 2015. She brings extensive grant writing, fundraising, and finance experience, as well as deep expertise in community partnerships, DEI, program evaluation, and board development. Betsy is also a White mom sending her children to public school in Atlanta. She first connected with Integrated Schools in 2018, and has been facilitating monthly community-wide public meetings to engage with parents and encourage them to consider and opt into their neighborhood public school.