Alumni Changemakers: Veronica Crespin-Palmer

As a 2006 Teach For America - Los Angeles corps member and later a teacher coach, Veronica Crespin-Palmer recognized that many of her students' parents were unaware that they had the power to influence decisions made in their children's schools, and that school administrators often didn't know how to effectively engage with families. In 2012, she returned to her native Denver, Colorado and co-founded RISE Colorado with a mission to educate, engage, and empower low-income families and families of color to end educational inequity in the city's public school system. "Families are the sleeping giant missing from the movement to end educational inequity," Veronica says of her experiences as an educator and parent advocate. "When families have the knowledge about educational inequity and the tools to help their children at home and in school, families will stop at nothing to ensure their children are successful."