Education + Early Years – Next100

Education + Early Years


Next100 is committed to enhancing educational equity by researching, developing, and advocating for policies that expand educational opportunities and enable all children to access high-quality, affordable education, from child care to post-secondary education. In this work, we aim to address the many disadvantages communities of color, low-income families, and immigrants face in our traditional education system.

It’s Time We Live Up to Our Promise to Newcomer Students

It’s time to implement policies at the federal level to make resources available for all schools that serve newcomers, and hold schools accountable for doing so effectively.

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Who's Working on It

Portrait of Rosario Villarreal, she has straight black hair, tortoise shell glasses, and a wide smile.
Rosario Quiroz Villarreal Education + Early Years

Rosario Quiroz Villarreal is an advocate for immigrants and students. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, Rosario understood that her parents made sacrifices in moving to a new country in order to secure better opportunities for the future. At Next100, Rosario focuses on protecting the rights and access to education of immigrant students, creating more culturally inclusive classrooms, and interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline.

Roquel Crutcher Education + Early Years

Roquel Crutcher is an advocate and activist for social justice and educational equity. At Next100, Roquel focuses on increasing educational opportunities and postsecondary outcomes for young people in marginalized communities. Roquel has worked at several educational nonprofits as an advocate for educational equity.

Levi Bohanan Education + Early Years

Levi is an advocate for progressive child care policy and high-quality early education. Levi previously served in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Education, and has worked in the U.S. House of Representatives and with education nonprofits. At Next100, Levi’s work focuses on expanding access to high-quality child care and early childhood development opportunities.

Emma Vadehra Education + Early Years

Emma Vadehra was the founder and former executive director of Next100. She previously served as chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education under Secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King, Jr. and as senior education counsel for the late senator Edward M. Kennedy. She is an education policy wonk, an advocate for progressive policy change, and a believer in the next generation.

Francisco Miguel Araiza Changing the Game

Francisco Miguel Araiza was the deputy executive director of Next100. He has spent his career leveraging research and data to advocate for more inclusive, just, and equitable public policies. His passion for public policy stems from his first-hand experience of social inequities as a low-income and undocumented youth.

Alejandra Vázquez Baur Education + Early Years

Alejandra is an educational equity and immigration justice advocate. At Next100, Alejandra’s work focuses on expanding systemic academic, social, and emotional supports for K–12 immigrant students and multilingual learners, drawing on her teaching experience in Miami–Dade County Public Schools. Alejandra is a proud product of Mexican immigrants, and previously worked at various education and immigration non-profit organizations in New York City.

Stefan Lallinger Changing the Game

Stefan Lallinger is the executive director of Next100, a think tank that is redefining how policy development is done by putting those closest to and most impacted by policy in […]

kier blake Climate

kier blake is a second-generation Jamaican organizer who is dedicated to disrupting the status quo in climate education. At Next100, kier will work to expand access to interdisciplinary, justice-centered climate education in New York’s K–12 schools. kier’s approach is informed by the lack of climate education they received learning in Los Angeles and while working in New York City schools, despite living in a community disproportionately impacted by climate change.

Rudrani Ghosh Immigration

Rudrani is a storyteller and an advocate for migrant rights, hailing from the city of Kolkata, in India. At Next100, she focuses on increasing access to affordable and dignified housing for refugees and asylum seekers. Shaped by her experiences as a first-generation immigrant from a low income family, Rudrani also works to expand economic stability and educational resources for migrant communities.

The Latest

Children dressed in red walking along a painted crossroad with arrows.
An illustration showing a gavel and a ripped family photo, alluding to the separation of a family by a court of law.
Happy junior high students talking together in school campus.
A young Black student looking dejected in a classroom.
A group of children happily passing through a school hallway.
A group of students huddled together.
Group of young students huddled together.
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