The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), one of the nation’s largest peer-led professional development programs for teachers, college faculty, parents, and community leaders, recently announced the appointment of Motoko Maegawa and Ruth Mendoza as associate directors.
The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), one of the nation’s largest peer-led professional development programs for teachers, college faculty, parents, and community leaders, recently announced the appointment of Motoko Maegawa and Ruth Mendoza as associate directors.
Maegawa will initially focus on supporting and expanding regional networks of SEED leaders; Mendoza on international expansion. They join co-directors Emmy Howe, Gail Cruise-Roberson, and Jondou Chase Chen on SEED’s leadership team.
“Motoko and Ruth have demonstrated a deep commitment to the personal and communal work of learning, equity, and the valuing of all voices,” said Howe. “We are thrilled to have them take on even greater leadership roles at SEED as we celebrate our 30th year and move into our fourth decade.”
Maegawa began her career in 1999, teaching at both public and independent schools, and is currently the head of middle school at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago, IL, a position she has held since 2012. As of July 1, she is a facilitator/associate with the CRLT Players at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan. The Players use theater as a means of opening up conversations on equity and inclusion.
Maegawa became a SEED leader in 2009, when she was head of middle school and assistant head of school for diversity initiatives at University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods, MI. She became a SEED staff member in 2012, helping to train new leaders at the organization’s residential New Leaders Week. She co-facilitated the student SEED group at the Latin School of Chicago from 2013–2015, and has co-facilitated the faculty SEED group for teachers at Bernard Zell and the Latin School. In 2013, she became the lead organizer for Chicagoland SEED, the network for regional SEED leaders.
Maegawa was a founding member and chair of the Independent Schools of the Central States (ISACS) Equity and Justice Committee; a member and co-chair of the Association of Independent Michigan Schools (AIMS) Diversity Committee; and a founding organizer of the AIMS Middle School Diversity Summit and AIMS Lower School Diversity Summit.
Born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, Mendoza came to the United States at age 18 and is now a senior kindergarten teacher and the SEED coordinator at The Meadowbrook School in Weston, MA, where she has been since 2003. She first trained as a SEED leader in 2010, co-facilitating Meadowbrook’s SEED seminars for faculty, staff, and parents, and became a SEED staff member in 2012. Since 2015, she has cofacilitated the regional New England SEED leaders group. In 2010, she co-founded and co-developed curriculum for Meadowbrook’s Students of Color group and in 2011, co-developed the school-wide All Working At Racial Equity (AWARE) curriculum. She has served on the school’s Diversity Committee and leads the Junior Kindergarten through second grade affinity group. She was also a founding member of Meadowbrook’s Multicultural Teaching Institute summer conference, which launched in June 2014.
SEED, founded by Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D., former associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, in 1987, is a peer-led professional development program that creates conversational communities to drive personal, organizational, and societal change toward greater equity and diversity. They do so by training individuals to facilitate ongoing SEED seminars within their own institutions and communities. Learn more at nationalseedproject.org.
