Issues of racial justice and educational equity are front-and-center for Yvonne Muñoz, 31, a higher education senior policy analyst at The Education Trust-West (ETW).
In her role at the California-based education non-profit, she attempts to help support students of color and low-income students, with the added background of having lived and persevered through the experiences that these students now face.
“I come to the work of racial justice as someone who has lived experience with systemic racism and how it shows up in my life with parents who were undocumented, family members who have been impacted by the justice and prison system, growing up in poverty and most recently, my sister surviving gun violence,” Muñoz said.
“So there isn’t a day that goes by where I forget that I’m the exception to the rule in the role that I play at ETW and then also in the space of higher education and having … attained my degree.”
Muñoz has been through the gamut of California higher ed. Starting at Woodland Community College approximately a year after high school, she attained an associate degree in social science there. She then went on to the University of California, Davis for her B.A. in sociology and M.A. in education.
She also took part in the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program and holds a graduate certificate in applied policy and government from Sacramento State University.
After graduate school, she accrued policy experience as an Assembly Fellow for then-Assembly Member Todd Gloria, who is now the mayor of San Diego.
