Anshu Wahi is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Northwest School in Seattle, where she works with all members of the school community to ensure that a social justice imperative informs institutional, academic, and programmatic practices. Prior to this, she was the Director of Diversity and Community at the Bank Street School for Children in New York City. Before joining independent schools, Anshu ran the Education Program at the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, training educators and creating anti-bias curricula with a focus on religious identity. Anshu has worked with Facing History and Ourselves as a qualitative researcher and high school liaison, and has led gender-based media literacy and activism programs with adolescent girls at Powerful Voices, a community organization in Seattle. Anshu has also worked internationally in India and the United Kingdom, and presented at numerous national conferences. She served on the NYSAIS Diversity Committee, contributing to regional events and conferences. She has also worked in film and theater. Anshu holds a BA from Dartmouth College in Psychology, Education and Theater, and an EdM from Harvard University. To learn more, visit Anshu’s website.
Benny Vasquez describes himself as a lifelong learner and a seeker of justice. A native of Brooklyn, he graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in African American Studies and Sociology, then completed his masters in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University. He is currently pursuing an MPA at New York University. Benny’s journey includes a tenure as Director of Diversity at The Town School. Prior to creating impactful cultural change at Town, Benny was the Director of Education at GLSEN - the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. In this position, Benny worked with educators across the country to create safer schools irrespective of sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression. He also organized over 15,000 students across the country in celebrating various national days of action that focused on combating the inequalities faced by the LGBTQ community in our schools. Currently, Benny is the co-executive director of Border Crossers, a national organization that is committed to dismantling racism in k-12 educational organizations. He is also an independent diversity and equity consultant and is working with various schools/organizations across the country in fulfilling their mission to create inclusive communities that value race, gender, sexual orientation and all the other identities that make us whole. His work has included co-chairing the NYSAIS Diversity Committee, training NYC public school teachers, collaborating with the National Association of Education and developing social justice focused programing for mission based non-profits. Benny has always had a strong passion for social justice, education reform and anti-racism work within educational settings and lives and breathes in the intersectionality of his work.
David Byrnes is the Director of Communications at the Nightingale-Bamford School. He is also a member of Nightingale’s faculty and staff diversity team and the advisor to the Upper School CAFE (Cultural Awareness for Everyone) club. Previous to Nightingale, David was Director of Communication at The IDEAL School of Manhattan, a K-8 independent school focused on inclusion, diversity, excellent academics, a true acceptance of differences, and leadership development. He was also IDEAL’s acting Director of Institutional Equity. As such, he supported the school’s efforts to provide a social justice education that actively affirmed the identities of community members while addressing systemic inequities. Prior to IDEAL, David was the Director of Communication at The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine, where he co-facilitated the Allies for Social Justice, a group for middle school students that explored racism, how it shapes U.S. history and culture, how it impacts our lives, and what it means to challenge racism. David’s approach to anti-racist organizing is guided by the Undoing Racism training and framework of The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. He has presented at the NAIS People of Color Conference on the role of white educators in multicultural work, is a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) Diversity Committee, and is a co-founder of NYSAIS’ White Anti-Racist Allies in Independent Schools. David received his B.A. from Amherst College, in Amherst, MA.
Elena Jaime has taught in early childhood and early elementary settings for the past fifteen years. She is passionate about her mission to develop "angelic troublemakers" in the school communities in which she works. Elena's work is grounded in the belief that young children are capable of developing a critical lens and can engage in reflection and action around anti-bias work. She is currently the Lower School Principal at LREI. Prior to LREI, she worked as a classroom teacher and leader in a variety of New York Independent schools, and was a founding teacher at a progressive charter school in the Bronx. Elena has presented at a number of local and national conferences, and has partnered with teachers across New York City as they work to examine the ways in which they can fully integrate equity work into early childhood curriculums. Elena is also a trainer for Border Crossers, an organization that trains and equips educators to be leaders of racial justice in their schools and communities. She received her B.A. in psychology from Wesleyan University and her MS.Ed. in early childhood general and special education from Bank Street College of Education.
Hannah Lucal is program and development associate and a trainer at Border Crossers, an organization that equips educators to build learning environments rooted in racial justice. As a white person, her work is grounded in the belief that working for racial justice is part of the necessary healing from the harms of white supremacist culture. This belief guides her work to uncover and tell her own stories through a lens of race. She is also associate director of the nonprofit Open MIC, where she works alongside investors to seek accountability at media and technology companies around issues related to digital surveillance, privacy and cybersecurity, and freedom of expression online. Previously, Hannah worked at Color Of Change and was a Coro Fellow in New York City. She received a B.A. from Carleton College.
Randy Clancy partners with schools and organizations with the goal of cultivating inclusive, just, equitable and kind institutions through antiracist education and organizing. Randy utilizes the principles of The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism® training, as well as the Peaceable Schools framework, to help communities explore the impact of systemic racism on the lives of individuals, and the structures of institutions. Randy believes that studying the roots of race and racism, examining history through a critical lens focused on race, and reflecting on one’s own racial identity and story, can create a foundation for understanding power, oppression, and the potential for positive social change. Randy is a white, heterosexual, cis-gender woman who uses her personal experiences of privilege and her ongoing study of white racial identity to shape trainings that support deep inquiry, personal reflection, and strategic planning for challenging racism. Randy consults with schools to establish antiracist white affinity spaces, acting as both facilitator and advisor, and training participants to take on leadership roles in building accountable antiracist partnerships with People of Color in their communities. As a co-founder of the CARLE Institute Randy has the opportunity to do what she considers her most essential work: collaborating with other white people and creating accountable partnerships with People of Color to challenge racism in educational settings.
The CARLE Founding Team also includes:
Erica Corbin
New York Interschool