Biography
Melissa A. Ibarra is pursuing a doctoral degree in bilingual/bicultural education at The University of Texas at Austin. She taught multilingual children for ten years in Texas, New York, and Hawai’i. She served as a mentor for new teachers in the Austin Independent School District where she also worked as a research assistant on a federally funded grant to support the implementation of restorative practices. Ibarra plans to use her summer experience in Washington, D.C., to understand how education policy can be transformed to address inequities in education so that all children have an opportunity to succeed in America’s public schools.