The School Builders
NOTE: Our group of school builders has changed over the last three years. The people below have all been involved in the past, and some still are. We also have some new incredible folks who have joined us, and their bios and photos are coming soon!
Noa Isabella
Noa (they/them) is a queer, genderfluid social justice educator, organizer, and peer support coach. Their work is grounded in offering trauma-informed social justice healing & support to folks who are navigating racist capitalism and white supremacy in their workplace, relationships, operations systems, and in themselves. Their organizing and creative work investigates parts, magic, gender, disability, multi-racial identities, family, memory, survivorhood, inner child play, and surviving the 'pocalypse (past, & present). They have stubborn survivor parts and believe in the big brilliant visionary new world that comes after this one. They hold a B.A in Creative Writing and Social Justice Education from Hampshire College.
Grace Aldrich
Grace Aldrich is a mom, storyteller, facilitator, and Black woman living on unceded Penacook territory now called Southern New Hampshire. In addition to local performances and workshops, she has co-facilitated programs at the Parliament of World Religions and Kripalu. In 2018 she was co-creator of a popular regional library series called Talking About Race: Staying Curious, Moving Forward, and Being a Part of the Solution. She is committed to inviting people to find belonging by questioning the outmoded stories they carry that cause harm.
Kathleen Benitez Martinez
Kathleen is a Latinx transplant from the Bronx, New York. They have lived and worked in Burlington as an early childhood educator for almost a decade, and are deeply committed to the children and families of this community. They strongly believe in putting children first (their interests, their needs, their joy!). They are deeply committed to creating learning communities that serve as an antidote to the harmful entangled societal systems we live in. Kathleen loves cooking and baking, thrifting classroom materials and practicing their chess game.
Jessica Giles
Jessica Giles grew up in the Midwest then spent over a decade living, learning, and working in the South before making her big climb to Vermont in 2013. She has studied education and social change in South Africa, elementary education at Goddard College, and earned a BA in Global Studies with a concentration in Intercultural Communication from Warren Wilson College. In previous lives, Jessica has been an organic farmer, veterinary technician, lunch lady, ice cream chef, and higher education administrator. She’s currently an all-the-time mother, avid sewist, and windowsill gardener.
Infinite Culcleasure
Infinite Culcleasure, Izra’s dad, connects with people and policy to help improve educational practices and student outcomes. He earned his Master’s degree in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from the New School for Public Engagement, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Vermont, and various certificates from from his time with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for moving uncontrolled substances back in the 90s.
When he’s not applying his community organizing experience and policy analysis skills to everyday issues, or debunking the myth of meritocracy, he be playing with kinetic sand, digging in the dirt, and in the crates for old records.
Jamie Davis
Emma Redden
Emma Redden is a preschool teacher and community organizer living on occupied Abenaki land. She believes in education as a means to create a more free and tender world, and that young children are the best co-conspirators in this project. She is deeply committed to teaching about race and colonialism and has found that preschoolers are incredibly flexible in their thinking, and curious and engaged around these topics. She has written a book about talking with young children about race and racial violence. She has a Masters of Arts in Education. She loves plants, foods toddlers eat, making collages and being tutored in sewing from Jessica Giles.