Dr. Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro is the Vice President of Education Policy & Research at the Latino Policy Forum.
The vision of the education department is that Latinos and English Learners from early childhood through college receive equitable educational opportunities leading to economic prosperity. To accomplish this, Rebecca leads a team that concentrates its efforts on promoting quality bilingual education programming, equitable access to early childhood programming that is responsive to language and cultural difference, diversifying the teacher pipeline, quality parent engagement, and promoting Latino college access and completion.
Her recent work involves a research-policy partnerships with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research examining English Learner achievement from early childhood education to postsecondary and with the Illinois Workforce and Research Education Collaborative examining issues influencing Multilingual Learner access to quality early childhood programing, English Learner academic trajectories preK-12th grade, and Latino college access and completion. Her advocacy efforts are greatly concentrated on ensuring English Learners have access to a quality education and in dealing with the vast shortage of qualified bilingual and bicultural educators across Illinois.
As part of the Senior Leadership Team, Rebecca helps set and oversee the implementation of the organization’s vision, strategy, goals, and overall policy agenda. She is also responsible for maintaining and strengthening the culture and work ethics of the organization.
Rebecca is a state-appointed member of the Illinois Advisory Council of Bilingual Education, Illinois Education Equity Committee, Transition Advisory Committee to the Illinois Department of Early Childhood, and KIDS Advisory Committee. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the board of the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative.
Rebecca earned her PhD from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.