thank you to our partners

CLC is grateful to our local, state, and national partners for their collaboration and leadership as we work together to support justice-centered communities of practice in schools everywhere.

  • "Mayra and Madeline of CLC are thoughtful, knowledgeable, flexible, responsive, and values-driven partners. Apart from their expertise in SEL, Social Studies, Ethnic Studies, ELA, pedagogy, Social Justice, DEI, and adult learning, something that stands about working with CLC is that they helped us see how our organization’s values connect with their values of love, learning, and liberation. By partnering with Mayra and Madeline, the Chavez Foundation continues to get closer to our goal of impacting the hearts and minds of one million learners by 2028. We could not reach our goal without CLC as partner for years to come!"

    Victor Gonzalez, Education Leader, Cesar Chavez Foundation

  • "Madeline and Mayra from CLC are the dream team! They are thoughtful, collaborative, knowledgeable, flexible, responsive, detail-oriented and driven. They not only brought their experiences as classroom teachers, they also listened to what we needed to make educational materials effective for students and teachers. They found effective ways to connect our museum content to what teachers and students need in the classrooms. Their work really brought out the themes, topics, and questions that we wanted our curriculum to highlight!"

    Sonal Shukla, Asst. Director of Programming & Education, American Writers Museum

  • "We LOVE Mayra and Madeline and the energy they bring to the PD’s they lead! They consistently give teachers opportunities to be heard and to reflect and as a result, our teachers always walk away from a CLC session with ideas and tools they can immediately use in their classrooms. We are excited to continue to grow this partnership and cannot wait to begin our planning with CLC for next year!"

    Juliet Lauro-Geruso, Roosevelt High School AP

  • "CLC is a gift to educators, the educational system, and the world. Mayra and Madeline have taken their decades of expertise in Chicago Public Schools and have reimagined a more effective way for students to engage and be active citizens. We have laughed, cried, challenged, and have been in complete awe and gratitude for one another. Mayra and Madeline come to the table knowing they have much to offer and still have much to learn to create the environment children deserve."

    Heather Roberts, Director of Education, Young Chicago Authors

  • "You two are AMAZING!! Thanks for always pushing AND supporting us at the same time. It is INSPIRING!!" "Thank you for being SO intentional and working so hard to help us help the kids (and teachers)!" "I have some amazing ideas now about how I want to integrate SEL into my classroom. I took away some ways to address some problems or issues that I have been experiencing and how to work on fixing these things and new approaches. Really happy about this!"

    Roosevelt High School Teachers

  • "Goodness. I felt so much love. I've honestly rarely felt so empowered by just the soft start and shouting out our loved ones. I felt connected to absolute strangers."

    Teacher Who Participated in Our Love, Learning, and Liberation Series

  • "Your session made me feel connected and safe. I'd love to be able to make others feel the same way."

    Teacher Who Participated in Our Love, Learning, and Liberation Series

  • "You provided a great treasure trove of resources and a space to come together and work with like minded colleagues on the practice of teaching!"

    Teacher Who Participated in Our Love, Learning, and Liberation Series

  • "Mayra and Desi are so passionate and compassionate! They bring their experience to the sessions but also learn and grow from their interactions with the participants. The series felt immersive and comprehensive and left me with a lot to reflect on and integrate into my own teaching practice."

    Teacher Who Participated in Our Love, Learning, and Liberation Series

  • "The work of creating a culturally responsive classroom is an ongoing practice and this learning series gave me some much needed time to reflect and delve into resources to reinvigorate that practice."

    Teacher Who Participated in Our Love, Learning, and Liberation Series