Our Story
It all started with churros.
On a picture perfect sunny day in Southern California, three doctoral students sat outside a local cafe with papers, planners, and laptops spread about sharing churros and imaging different ways to work collective through our doctoral program. Refusing to accept the status quo of “publish or perish” dictate our experience, we curated a strategy to support each other through the upcoming four years.
From that conversation, The Compassionistas was born.
Our StoryAlternative epistemological truths are required if educational researchers and leaders are to be truly responsible, asking for new ways looking into the reality of others that opens our own lives to view—and that makes us accountable to the people, interests, and needs of whom we study. (Dillard, 2006, P.2)
Mission & Vision
Our mission is to generate intersectional research, policy innovation, leadership training, and public discourse that reclaims higher education as a public good and platform for systemic justice.
We envision a world where higher education is a driver of social justice, led by diverse, emotionally intelligent, and equity-driven leaders who challenge systemic inequity across politics, economics, media, and academia.