Daisy Salazar-Garza
Principals Institute '17
You’ll meet a very unique community of people here that align with you philosophically. Bank Street is an amazing hub of innovation, resources, support, and collaboration. Sustain the relationships that you've created at Bank Street because they will definitely support you in your work as an educator in the future, just like they did for me.
Daisy Salazar-Garza constantly seeks new ways “to restructure and revitalize systems so they center on our children and educators, making them feel empowered and seen as people.” As the daughter of immigrant parents who weren’t empowered by the education systems she experienced as a child, she has been on a mission to give agency to community members and families. Recently, Daisy founded and directed the KIPP Poder Public School, an anti-racist elementary school in Southern California, and currently, she’s sharing what she has learned from her many roles in education—teacher, principal, founder, and school leader—in her work as an educational consultant.
Daisy earned a master’s degree in educational leadership through Bank Street Graduate School of Education’s Principals Institute in 2017. This program, which was committed to increasing the number of women and people of color in positions of leadership in New York City public schools, has since evolved into the Progressive Leadership Program, which prepares future leaders to become the next generation of courageous advocates for educational excellence, equity, and social justice.
“We learned research methodologies and then applied them to our schools,” she remembers. “I learned to engage with stakeholders to get the qualitative data that informed changes in support of inclusivity and access for marginalized students.”
In the process of founding KIPP Poder Public School, Daisy took the strategies she had learned at Bank Street and partnered with families, calling hundreds of parents and using their insights to create a vision for the school. The result? At KIPP Poder, students became powerful self-advocates.
“At our school, I was so proud to see that students were able to articulate and advocate for what they needed,” Daisy said. “They called out things that were unjust and shared feedback on what we could do to better meet their needs.”
Now, in her consulting work, she continues to rethink the systems that serve students and teachers by facilitating curriculum design and professional development.
Daisy said, “I provide a critical space, a safe space for vulnerability so teachers feel supported and can meet the needs of the children in front of them.”
For Bank Street leadership students whose goals are to find a way to make a difference, her advice is to nurture your network and stay connected to your roots at Bank Street.
“You’ll meet a very unique community of people here that align with you philosophically. Bank Street is an amazing hub of innovation, resources, support, and collaboration. Sustain the relationships that you’ve created at Bank Street because they will definitely support you in your work as an educator in the future, just like they did for me.”
Hear more from our recent conversation with Daisy.