Partnership Director
After graduating from Skidmore College, Teshika worked as an admissions counselor and multicultural recruiter for her alma mater, connecting with students across the country to increase access to private liberal arts schools like Skidmore. Her desire to work with students directly led her to Juma Ventures, where she worked as an advisor and case manager, then program director for the high school and college programs in the Bay Area. The challenges that her first-generation college-bound students faced in school and in life led her to pursue a master’s degree to better understand the complexities of our education system and to interrogate why it continues to marginalize students of color. She enrolled in the Educational Policy, Organizations, and Leadership program at the University of Washington, while simultaneously taking classes to complete a Nonprofit Management certificate.
The work of EOS speaks to Teshika, not only because of her experience attending the incredibly segregated Garfield High School, but also because she has personally had to act as a gatekeeper when reading student admissions files, denying students based solely on the lack of rigorous courses on their transcript. She has been in numerous spaces where the commitment to equity is simply symbolic, and where the real work ends up falling on the most marginalized members of that community. She is inspired to join EOS so that the conversation around racial equity happens at every level of a school, a district, and of an organization.
Teshika loves to travel and to find new cities to explore. She is also always searching for new outdoor adventures for her Australian Shepherd mix.
