Ann Ishimaru

Codesigning collective leadership for joyful learning and just futures

Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru is an award-winning scholar, writer, educator and the Killinger Endowed Chair and Professor of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Policy at the University of Washington College of Education. Through her community-engaged scholarship, she cultivates the leadership and solidarities of educators, organizational leaders and racially minoritized youth, families and communities to realize more transformative futures. In addition to many peer-reviewed articles in top-tier educational research journals, she is also the author of Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities (Teachers College Press, 2020) and co-editor of Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change, with Decoteau J. Irby (Teachers College Press, 2025).

Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change

This book reveals the complex and crucial work of sustaining justice-focused educational systems change in the face of subtle resistance and outright attacks. Scholars and practitioners, who have worked together in various capacities across different school systems, examine systemic equity leadership in U.S. public schools over the course of nearly a decade and across a time of profound racial and historical change.