Collaborative Leading in Indigenous Communities

Jill Koyama, a cultural anthropologist, is the PI on the CLIC Project. She currently serves as Vice Dean of the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation in Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. She previously held the positions of Professor and Director in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Arizona’s College of Education and also served as Director of UA’s Education Policy Center and the Institute for LGBT Studies. Jill’s leadership practice, and her research, are informed by her commitment to equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and social justice. Her research is situated across several integrated strands of inquiry: the productive social assemblage of policy; the controversies of globalizing educational policy; the politics of immigrant and refugee education; and community organizing and activism. For the past fourteen years, Jill’s research has centered on how, even under dire circumstances and inhospitable politics, displaced people access and create resource-rich networks, make learning-centered spaces for themselves and their families, and take civic action in the United States. Such research has led her to challenge notions of global citizenship and interrogate traditional pathways of civic engagement, leadership, and education.

Her 2010 book, Making Failure Pay: High-Stakes Testing, For-Profit Tutoring, and Public Schools, was published by The University of Chicago Press and her 2014 co-edited volume, US Education in a World of Migration: Implications for Policy and Practice was released by Routledge Press. Her scholarship appears in several journals, including American Journal of Education, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Educational Policy, and Educational Researcher. She is an Editor of Anthropology and Education Quarterly and has served as Associate Editor and board member on several journals. Jill has received multiple awards for her research, teaching, and leadership. Most recently, she was honored with the 2020 Lydia Kennedy LGBTQ+ Leadership Award from University of Arizona Health Services.

Terri Tovrea McCoy, a third generation Arizonan, comes from a family of educators dating back to her grandmother teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Bisbee, Arizona in the early 1920’s. During her 35 years in public education, her passion for a whole child approach to education guided her work as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and principal.

Believing that honoring the humanity of each teacher and student is critical in equitably preparing every learner to reach their full potential, as a school leader Terri sought to create an environment of connection and belonging where all students and adults were able to engage and thrive. Additionally, she served as the Administrator for Leadership Development for the Maricopa County School Superintendent’s Office. In that role, she provided leadership coaching and professional learning for school district and building leaders throughout Maricopa County.

Having received both her Bachelor of Arts in Education and Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Arizona State University years ago, Terri has come full circle as she is currently teaching graduate courses to aspiring leaders as part of the faculty in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.

Dr. Angela M. Labistre Champion is a proud first-generation college graduate and multiracial woman of color with Filipino, Hawaiian, Mexican-American, and Ojibwe heritages. Born and raised in Yuma, AZ, her experiences as a mixed-race woman growing up in the political and cultural borderlands of southwestern Arizona informed much of her community work and many of her research interests, with a particular focus on hyper-marginalized, intersectional identities. Most recently, her research explored multiracial student identity and inclusion, and, examined and challenged higher education policy and practices which continue to obscure and minoritize multiracial and mixed-race college students. In addition to educational leadership and policy, her educational background also includes training in educational psychology and psychology.

Throughout her graduate career at the University of Arizona, Dr. Labistre Champion co-developed and oversaw several projects geared toward support and empowerment of marginalized communities. As a graduate research associate at the Institute for LGBT Studies, she co-created and launched the Queer Closet: an inclusive space for students to explore and obtain gender-affirming and body positive clothing and enable them to ‘shop’ without financial restrictions and gender-restrictive expectations as is typical with other clothing resources. Additionally, Dr. Labistre Champion co-founded the Mothers of Color in Academia (MOCA) University of Arizona Chapter—an organization dedicated to providing supportive space for mothers of color navigating the numerous (and often exclusive) pathways of academia.

Currently, Dr. Labistre Champion resides in Tucson, AZ with her husband, 7-year-old son (Paul), three tortoises, and one Corgi.

Eoline Cary is serving as a part-time recruiter for the Collaborative Leading in Indigenous Communities grant. She will be responsible for logistics and content communications between the mentors and the indigenous leadership teams as well as having the opportunity to visit sites to help support the participants and their community. Eoline has worked at Arizona State University for over 14 years in the Leadership Pathways Principal Preparation Pathway (master's degree). While at ASU, she was a team member in the iLeadAZ federally funded grant focused on principal preparation and professional development; directed the Helios Leadership Grant; and then continued to support aspiring leaders as the program transitioned into the Leadership Pathways. Prior to joining ASU, Eoline served at the Arizona State Department of Education as Coordinator of Leadership Coaching and Training for principals and superintendents with the Wallace Foundation Leadership Grant. In addition, she has served as a principal mentor/coach in many of the Arizona schools and facilitated the selection of a teacher evaluation system for a local school district. While serving as a principal in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, her school earned the prestigious Blue Ribbon School of Excellence awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. As a result, her school was visited by President Bill Clinton where he toured classes and delivered a major address focused on providing reading support in education. In addition to serving as a principal, Eoline was the director and teacher trainer of an arts integration project, elementary classroom teacher, and music specialist in Maryland, Virginia, Washington State, and Arizona.

Jayme Deschene is one of the recruiters for both the PE and the CLIC Project. She previously worked as Student Recruitment Coord, American Indian Student Support Services and Student Recruitment Coordinator, Native and Indigenous Programs at MLF Teachers College.

Kelly D. Alexander is serving as the Program Manager for the Collaborative Leading in Indigenous Communities (CLIC) program. Kelly spent the last 35 years supporting teachers and students as a Teacher, Principal and Director. She has provided coaching, training and mentoring for Substitute Teachers, pre-service teachers, and new teachers to the profession. Through much of her career she supported schools as an expert in adult education, before and after school programming, community engagement and the development of strategic business partnerships. In 2019, she provided mentorship and coaching of fellows as a part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Building Leadership through Change Through School Immersion Project and in the Fall of 2022, she served as the Program Manager for the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Education Program where she supported 22 award winning teachers from 14 countries. Her undergraduate studies are in Elementary Education and she has a master’s in Educational Leadership, both from Arizona State University. Kelly grew up in the Phoenix Metropolitan area where she, her husband, adult children, and parents still reside. In her recreational time, she enjoys spending time with her Labrador Retrievers, strength training, yoga, camping, and cooking.

Rebecca Tsosie is a Regents Professor at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. Professor Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, is a faculty member for the Indigenous Peoples’ Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona, and she is widely known for her work in the fields of Federal Indian law and indigenous peoples’ human rights. Prior to joining the UA faculty, Professor Tsosie was a Regents' Professor and Vice Provost for Inclusion and Community Engagement at Arizona State University. Professor Tsosie was the first faculty Executive Director for ASU’s Indian Legal Program and served in that position for 15 years. Professor Tsosie has published widely on sovereignty, self-determination, cultural pluralism, environmental policy and cultural rights. She teaches in the areas of Federal Indian Law, Property, Constitutional Law, Critical Race Theory, and Cultural Resources Law. Professor Tsosie is a member of the Arizona Bar Association and the California Bar Association. Professor Tsosie serves as a Supreme Court Justice for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and as an Associate Judge on the San Carlos Tribal Court of Appeals. She received her B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Leslie Beauchamp currently serves as a field specialist with the Rewarding Excellence in Instruction and Leadership (REIL) grant. She works with principals, assistant principals, and district leaders to build strong human capital management systems, implement innovative models that support students and teachers, and increase the effectiveness and retention of teachers and leaders in high-need schools. Leslie previously served as a high school teacher, a middle school assistant principal, and an elementary school principal in central Phoenix. Leslie has been a faculty associate for various educational leadership courses and models including traditional, in-person models, synchronous remote video-based models, and hybrid models since 2001. Leslie earned a master's in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2003. She also holds a Master's Degree in Mind, Brain, & Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education with a Bachelor of Science in English and Secondary Education from Vanderbilt University.

Bill Collins received his BA in Elementary Education from Ohio University and MA in School Administration from Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio. After 15 years as a middle school teacher and administrator in Cleveland, Ohio, he moved his family to Surprise, Arizona where he have had the pleasure to work with the Dysart Unified School District, Nadaburg Unified School District and Roosevelt School District as a school administrator for the last 18 years. During that time, Bill has been a part of opening two schools, been involved with MCESA’s Learner Observation Initiative, the A+ School of Excellence process with Nadaburg Elementary gain in recognition as an A+ School of Excellence, and has had the pleasure of mentored aspiring principals in MA programs for the past 20 years. Bill and his wife (a proud Nationally Board Certified educator) have raised two daughters who have attained their Master's and Doctoral degrees respectfully (the later being an ASU grad). Being a lifelong learner is truly a mindset that Bill gladly shares and supports with family and friends alike.

Susan Poole has loved being a public educator in Arizona since 1984. She was an Elementary and Special Education Teacher in the Deer Valley School District and went on to be an Assistant Principal in the Madison School District. For 20 years, Susan was the proud Principal of Kyrene Middle School where she consistently led a thriving school through dramatic demographic changes and accountability expectations. She then went on to work for the Arizona Department of Education in the Title Two unit focusing on Teacher and Principal Evaluation before joining the School Improvement Division, where she assisted districts all over the state and observed hundreds of classrooms. While with ADE she had the privilege of working closely with other state departments, WestEd and ASU, supporting districts with school improvement initiatives. Currently Susan is principal of San Carlos High School (SCHS) and Alternative School on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. SCHS had been consistently one of the lowest performing schools in the state. Susan is proud to report that after just two years SCHS has earned a “C” rating from the Arizona State Board of Education. Susan also works at ASU in the iLead Program where she has taught Curriculum and Instruction during the summer intensive program and is a Co-Instructor for students’ internship experience.