View as Webpage • October 27 2022
Meet IDRAs New Class of Education Policy Fellows
IDRA is changing the landscape of education advocacy by training advocates to influence state law and lead a powerful network of impacted communities. 
After a highly successful inaugural cycle of IDRA’s Education Policy Fellows Program, we invite you to meet our five new fellows! They will gain real-world advocacy experience and training during the 2023 Texas and Georgia legislative sessions, because we know state policymakers can make stronger decisions by working with advocates who are connected to impacted communities.

Students of color make up most of the two states’ public school population: about in 63% in Georgia and 74% in Texas. Yet, advocates of color often are rarely present in the rooms where decisions about the lives and opportunities for students of color are made.

“We are thrilled to introduce our new class of IDRA Education Policy Fellows, and we're so proud of the caliber of the incredibly talented applicant pool,” said Morgan Craven, J.D., IDRA National Director of Policy, Advocacy and Community Engagement. “The legislative sessions in Texas and Georgia will be particularly challenging, so it is more critical than ever that voices of advocates and communities of color are centered.”

IDRA launched its first Education Policy Fellows Program in 2020 with groundbreaking accomplishments. Our new Education Policy Fellows will work with coalitions, students and families to craft a community-centered education policy agenda and join a network of advocates and policy influencers focused on improving racial equity in education policymaking spaces.

The IDRA Education Policy Fellows Program is generously supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. The programming for the new cohort of fellows will be coordinated by IDRA's new Georgia Advocacy Director and former fellow, Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed.
IDRA Education Policy Fellows
Jonathan Peraza Campos, M.S.
IDRA Policy Fellow – Georgia Emergent Bilingual and Immigrant Student Education
Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/él) received his undergraduate degree from Emory University and his master’s degree in social foundations of education at Georgia State University.
He studies and organizes around the links between racism, imperialism, immigration, militarism, incarceration, policing and education, especially in the U.S. South and the Central American diaspora.
Steve Kemgang
IDRA Policy Fellow – Texas College Access and Success 
Steve Kemgang is a graduate of Baylor University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in French with a minor in educational psychology. He taught English to underserved and low-income students of color in the East Austin community. Subsequently, he earned a bachelor of science degree in human biology at Northwestern Health Sciences University and completed a research fellowship in the emergency department of the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Diana Long
IDRA Policy Fellow –
 Texas Fair Funding for Strong Public Schools
Diana Long grew up on the West Side of San Antonio and is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She is a proud Edgewood ISD alumna and first-generation college student. Diana is pursuing a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Trinity University in San Antonio, where she was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar.
Alisha “Tuff” Tuff
IDRA Policy Fellow –
Texas Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Alisha Tuff is from the southside of Chicago. She attended Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in criminology with a minor in psychology. She is a second-year master’s student in the educational policy and planning program at the University of Texas at Austin. Tuff mentored at Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success).
Ruth Youn
IDRA Policy Fellow – Georgia Culturally-Sustaining Schools

Ruth M. Youn is a native Texan, second-generation Chinese-Taiwanese American, writer and activist in Atlanta. She earned her bachelor’s degree in international affairs at Florida State University. Ruth’s previous studies in French, Spanish and Arabic led her to pursue a five-year stint as an educator in South Korea. Youn became a founding member of the grassroots organization, Asian American Voices for Education (AAVEd)
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IDRA is an independent, non-profit organization. Our mission is to achieve equal educational opportunity for every child through strong public schools that prepare all students to access and succeed in college.