About Us

Teresa Lara-Meloy, PI, Senior Math Education Designer, TERC. Teresa is bilingual, binational, bicultural education designer passionate about creating joyful opportunities for youth, teachers, afterschool facilitators and coaches to learn meaningful mathematics. In her math ed career, she has worked on uncovering the role that dynamic representational technologies play in math learning, the types of making that provide a rich math learning opportunities, and ways to support the teaching profession with disciplined improvisation and video analysis. She jumps at any chance at making and recently has acquired a taste for enameling. 

Jennifer Knudsen, co-PI, TERC, is an educator whose work sits at the intersection of design and research. Over the past 30 years, she has been a teacher, learning experience developer, and research project director. Her current work is on making for content learning and positive identity development as well as teaching to support students’ mathematical argumentation, both with a focus on equity and social justice. As a maker, she is a mixed media artist, using watercolor, collage, and simple stitching. She also enjoys 3D modeling and printing with her adult daughter. 

Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, Ph.D., Co-PI, Research Scientist, TERC. Nuria leads the research portion of the project. She studies the experiences of BIPOC people, especially women, in STEM education and careers. She also studies STEM learning in out-of-school environments with BIPOC children. She loves listening to the stories of learning that facilitators and children share as they show what they have made in the afterschool program. In her spare time, she hikes with her family and creates collages with upcycled materials on useful objects.  

Celia Garcia Alvarado is the Executive Vice President for Education for the Cesar Chavez Foundation. She has been working in the field of education for over 18 years. She began her career as an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District and in 2003 was named Teacher of the Year for her district. She served as Managing Director of Teacher Leadership Development and as Vice President of Corps Member and Alumni Impact for Teach For America. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Western Region for Education Pioneers. She is an adjunct faculty member at Loyola Marymount University’s Graduate School of Education and serves on the board of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. Celia received her B.A. from Stanford University, her Ed.M. from Harvard University and Ed.D. from UCLA. 

Ken Rafanan is a senior STEM education researcher at TERC. Ken’s recent work has focused on designing learning activities integrating making, design, and 3d printing to support student engagement with mathematics, spatial reasoning, and computational thinking. He leads an NSF ITEST project investigating making and entrepreneurship to engage young women of color in STEM. In his spare time, Ken enjoys making in many disciplines at a local makerspace where he is a mentor in the ceramics studio, supporting others as they discover the challenges and joys of working with clay. 

Rachel Hayes, Project Manager, oversees pre- and post-award management for several projects at TERC. Before joining TERC in 2007, Rachel was an academic advisor for the Advising and Counseling Center and the Student Success Program at Bunker Hill Community College. Rachel loves reading with her beautiful daughter and enjoys co-creating bedtime stories with her. 

Elise Levin-Güracar, works on math and making projects at TERC. She primarily does qualitative research and enjoys interviewing research participants and running focus groups. Elise loves to work with acrylic paint, sew, and knit.  

Angelica Cazares is the Director of Education for the Cesar Chavez Foundation. She has over 20 years of experience in the education field. For the last 15 years, as part of the Cesar Chavez Education Team, she has continued to dedicate herself to providing high-quality educational programs and services to underserved communities. Throughout her career, she has focused on providing educational programs, where she and her team have been able to make a significant impact on the lives of students and families in need. In her spare time, she loves to express herself through her love of food and cooking with her sons, as well as creating fresh flower arrangements. 

Sarah Grams is a former middle school teacher, PreK-12 teacher coach and high school administrator, with education roots in Baltimore, Milwaukee and Los Angeles public schools. Sarah’s role on the Cesar Chavez Foundation’s Education Fund is overseeing innovative and growing programs that educate students’ hearts and minds, from afterschool programs to curricula and teacher trainings. Sarah lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three amazing children. She is a maker in the kitchen, in hand-making her kids’ Halloween costumes and as an expert fort-builder. 

Jeffery Salcido is an educator at Tenaya Middle school. This is Jeffery’s fifth year in education with a focus on implementing crosscutting concepts and STEAM into student’s everyday lives. He enjoys tinkering with technology and computers to create new things using 3d printing. He enjoys working with his hands and old cars. 

Jad Eways is an educator with a background in secondary science instruction and curriculum design who loves creating inquiry-based, hands-on, and joyful learning experiences.  At the Cesar Chavez Foundation, he researches and designs STEM pilot programs that focus on growing math, science, data, and digital literacies and fluencies. He enjoys making quality hummus, tahini kofta, and all other Palestinian dishes.