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Join the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP) for the launch of the latest report in IRRPP’s State of Racial Justice in Chicagoland series focused on education.

Register at the link below. Reception immediately following the event.

Panelists include:
Beatriz Diaz-Pollack
Beatriz Diaz-Pollack joined Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in July 2021. She serves as Senior Counsel for the education equity practice area working to address educational disparities in our public school systems and advocating to secure access to a high quality education for all students. Beatriz brings experience working on issues related to the educational system from multiple perspectives including, most recently, as an Illinois Special Education Due Process Hearing Officer, as a researcher and consultant examining legal issues impacting the education of Multilingual Learners, and as an educator at both the elementary school and university levels. In addition, Beatriz previously worked for the Illinois State Board of Education as an Assistant General Counsel, focusing primarily on issues relating to special education and school funding. She began her legal career at Legal Assistance Foundation, providing civil legal services to clients experiencing poverty in Chicago. Beatriz serves on the Illinois Due Process Screening Committee as the Experienced Hearing Officer appointee of the Illinois Attorney General. Beatriz earned her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School and was her class's Latino/a Law Students Associations’ Student of the Year and the recipient of the Brown vs. Board of Education Award for outstanding commitment to public education and poverty law. She also holds a Master of Science in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jianan Shi
Jianan Shi (he/him) is the former Executive Director for Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, a citywide grassroots organization that organizes parents around education equity issues. Jianan is also the former Board President of Chicago Public Schools. As an immigrant who has deeply fallen in love with Chicago, he is honored to have served in this role for almost 4 years; there is no better way to love Chicago than to love its families. Prior to RYH, he was a high school science educator in Chicago on the SW side and in Boston’s Dorchester community. He has been involved in the work of Asian American Midwest Progressives and a former Chicago United for Equity senior fellow. When he is not scheming to transform this city, he loves to play with his pup and introduce his out-of-town friends to Malort.

David Stovall, Professor, Black Studies, and Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Stovall's scholarship investigates three areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) the relationship between housing and education, and 3) the intersection of race, place and school. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he works with community organizations and schools to address issues of equity, justice and abolishing the school/prison nexus. His work led him to become a member of the design team for the Greater Lawndale/Little Village School for Social Justice (SOJO), which opened in the Fall of 2005. Furthering his work with communities, students, and teachers, his work manifests itself in his involvement with the Peoples Education Movement, a collection of classroom teachers, community members, students and university professors in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area who engage in collaborative community projects centered in creating relevant curriculum.

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Associate Professor of History and Affiliate Faculty in Black Studies, University of Illinois Chicago
Elizabeth Todd-Breland is Associate Professor of History and Affiliate Faculty in Black Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. She is author of “A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s” and co-author of “I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education.” Her research and teaching focus on U.S. urban history, African American history, the history of education, and public policy. From 2019 to 2024, Todd-Breland served as a member of the Chicago Board of Education.

This event is supported with a generous grant from the Polk Bros. Foundation.