Luz Salazar is a member of the 25th cohort of the Principal Leadership Institute at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. With nearly 30 years in Education, Luz has held roles as an Elementary, and Middle school teacher, Science and Math lead, Mentor/coach, and adjunct professor. She is a founding member of Melrose Leadership Academy, where she has worked in the implementation of the school’s vision by participating in the ILT, School Design team, and using the Expeditionary Learning framework to support our Beloved community of multilingual learners.
Luz has deep knowledge and experience in understanding the complexities of creating learning spaces where student’s identities and their primary language are the foundation for second language learning. In her current role as a 3-5 grade level lead in a Spanish/ English dual immersion program, Luz uses inquiry cycles to engage in clear communication that sustains the teaching and learning for teachers as well as students.
Luz is an avid supporter of Native Language Revitalization Movement. More recently Luz led an Indigenous Language Institute with the support of the Bay Area Writing Project, in an effort to meet the literacy needs of our indigenous students in urban and rural communities. Prior to that, Luz collaborated with Superintendent Dr. Karen Griego in the Cuba Unified School District in New Mexico. Luz partnered with Cuba’s administrative teams and school leaders, in an effort to introduce the principles of Beloved Community as a foundation for project based learning to support language learners in their school system.
Luz has collaborated with a group of language researchers at Stanford University, and University of San Francisco, to investigate Science learning as a context for language acquisition. Throughout this partnership Luz examined closely the implementation of NGSS in the context of her classroom of multilingual learners in a dual immersion program.
As a mentor, Luz has collaborated with teaching credentialing programs such as Mills College, UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco and St. Mary’s College. More recently, Luz worked together with OUSD Talent division and Alder University to support the OUSD residency program to prepare and develop educators to teach in multilingual settings.
Luz believes in the power of collaboration to create transformative learning spaces that are kind, nurturing and driven by a clear purpose; spaces where imagination allows for all participants to dream a world of possibilities for social justice and environmental well being.
When not working as an educator, Luz loves to travel to warm places and discover new cultures. Luz also enjoys hiking the High Sierras with her family and friends.
