Karena Alane Escalante is a Philadelphia-based doctoral student at Drexel University’s School of Education. Originally from Pomona, California, she earned her B.A. in psychology from Grinnell College and her M.S. from Johns Hopkins University. As a graduate assistant in the Justice Oriented Youth (JoY) lab, her research entails community-based urban and youth studies to advocate for collective leadership practices. After teaching in Hawai’i for several years, she found her passion in emancipating indigenous perspectives through education, specifically for English learners. She seeks to produce research that is ethically moral, celebrating diversity and illuminating cultural relevance within the education system. As a woman of color and first generation Ph.D. candidate, Karena also serves on the Diversity Advisory Council at Drexel. She describes herself as a passionate, de-colonial ethicist committed to advancing sustainable equity through dismantling systems of oppression within academia.