We are excited to announce the speakers for the keynote program at the 2011 Teaching for Social Justice Curriculum Fair!

Mercedes Martinez Padilla is President of the Toa Baja local of the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico/Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico. Mercedes has been active in the union’s 2008 strike and in protests, marches, and rallies led by the union against government plans to privatize public education and the Teacher’s Retirement System in Puerto Rico. Mercedes brings lessons of the union’s struggle against neoliberal education policies and to defend better working conditions for teachers and a better public education system.


Norma Yanina Parada is a leader in the Tegucigalpa teachers’ movement and a member of two of the most active national teachers’ organizations in Honduras. Yanina was one of 305 teachers suspended by the Lobo government in the spring of 2011 because of their participation in massive protests against the government’s actions against teachers and public schools. In May 2011 she helped launch a 30 day hunger strike to protest the suspension of 5000 teachers and in support of the demands of teachers, students and families regarding public education. She has been active in the National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) since it was formed shortly after the coup of June 28, 2009.

Jitu Brown is Education Organizer for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Jitu has organized in the Kenwood Oakland neighborhood for over 17 years bringing community voices to the table on school issues and helping to stop school closings in the area. Working locally and thinking globally, Jitu has taken youth leaders from KOCO to the United Nations, the Passamaquoddy Native American reservation in Maine and the UN Conference on Racism in South Africa. Jitu has been a leader in coalitions of parents, teachers and youth who have fought school closings, turnarounds, and privatization of public education in Chicago.