Viridiana Carrizales
CEO, ImmSchools, Helotes, Texas
Overview
ImmSchools is the country’s only immigrant-led organization in the United States focused on ensuring equity for all individuals, no matter their immigration status, by utilizing the K-12 education system as a vehicle for change. ImmSchools’ three-pronged approach of activating families, educating teachers and school staff, and enacting policies and procedures in school districts to protect a student’s rights at all times, provides an intersectional solution ensuring that every family has the right to a foundational platform from which they can achieve anything. As part of EdLoC’d Boulder Fund, ImmSchools seeks to strengthen our programs by ensuring that families continue to have access to safe, welcoming, and inclusive schools as we all overcome this pandemic. Now more than ever, the work of ImmSchools is not only essential but critical to support our immigrant families and students. The role of an educator part-times as guardians for our children in schools and we are on a mission to reach as many teachers and administrators as possible so that our students and their families can thrive in their communities. We want, and will, raise the future of this movement to be even more resilient, more powerful, than every generation before us.
Bio
Viridiana Carrizales was born in Michoacán, Mexico and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was 11 years old. She began her journey as an immigrant activist in 2004 by co-founding a grassroots organization dedicated to organizing and informing undocumented students of their rights and access to higher education. Viridiana holds a bachelor degree in Spanish Literature and Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. For six years, she led Teach For America’s efforts to recruit and place teachers with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in classrooms throughout the country. Through her leadership, the program recruited over 240 DACAmented educators who are teaching in 22 cities across 11 states. Viridiana has been recognized by the League of United American Citizens (LULAC) and the Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for her leadership and dedication to the immigration community. After 14 years, she became a US citizen in 2016 and currently resides in San Antonio, TX.