2011 Cohort – Institute for Recruitment of Teachers

Alumni Accolades, October 2025

Ricardo Valencia, IRT ’06
The Santa Maria-Bonita School District‘s school board and superintendent have been awarded the 2025 LEAD Award at the California Latino School Board’s Association Unity Conference in San Diego. Valencia is one of the school board members who was recognized for our leadership work.

Ricardo Valencia, IRT ’06 (second in from left)

Gabriel Peoples, IRT ’07
Gabriel’s new book, Goin’ Viral: Uncontrollable Black Performance, was published in the University of Illinois Press’ prestigious New Black Studies series in July. In it, Gabriel grapples with how Black people (as well as Black representations) have been going viral since before the Internet and after it. In each chapter, Gabriel focuses on a performance, considering its past, present, and future, and offers insight into how it went viral and continues to do so.

Alumni Accolades, February 2025

We are so proud of all of our alumni accomplishments! If you are an IRT alum and would like to share your news in an upcoming post or if you are an alumni author and would like to have your book posted on our alumni publications page, please reach out!

Omar Galárraga, IRT ’00
Congratulations to Omar recently awarded tenure and is the Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice, and Director of the International Health Institute at Brown University.

Photo: Brown University

Alumni Accolades, June 2024

Paula Groves Price, IRT ’95
Congratulations to Paula who has received the Zenobia Hikes Award for an administrator in Higher Education. The award recognizes a woman of color with a distinguished career in higher education demonstrated by scholarly endeavors or administrative and professional accomplishments. Paula is the Dean of the College of Education at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

(L-R) Paula Groves Price, IRT ’95 and Brittany Zorn, IRT’13

Alumni Committee Update

Congratulations to Dr. Renée Wilmot, IRT ‘ 12, ’17! Renée successfully defended her dissertation entitled, Pilate’s Wine House: Reimagining Black Women Educators’ Histories & Futures, in May and earned a doctorate in Curriculum, Instruction & Teacher Education from Michigan State University. Wilmot also holds a masters degree in Secondary English from Boston College and a BA from the University of Virginia. Wilmot has been the IRT Alumni Committee Chair and an IRT Advisory Board student representative for the past two years. She has also served as a faculty member for the IRT Summer Workshop and IRT Curriculum Coordinator for several years. As Wilmot’s role of chair ends, she will begin an assistant professor position at Michigan State University in Black, Feminisms, Genders & Sexualities in the Department of African American and African Studies.

We are pleased to welcome Truth Hunter, IRT ’11 who will be acting as the interim chair. Truth is currently pursuing a doctorate in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Hunter also has a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from the university and a BA from Mount Holyoke College.

I am excited to serve as the interim chair for the IRT Alumni Committee because I truly believe in the mission of IRT, and if there’s anything I can do to give back, I want to be a part of it!
Truth Hunter, IRT ’11

Associate Director & Manager of Programs Update, March 2023

Dear IRT Community,

As IRT enters the Spring season, we are continuing to advise scholars as they manage their graduate school acceptances and financial packages. We are encouraging them to savor the joy and acknowledge their efforts in this milestone. We are so very proud of them. As we well know, keeping up with coursework, working multiple jobs, participating in campus activities and applying to graduate schools is a fine balancing act.

We are also in the midst of reviewing applications for our next IRT scholar cohort who will begin their programming year with a 4 week virtual Summer Institute beginning in late June. By remaining virtual, all accepted scholars will have access to IRT faculty, College and University Consortium partners and all programming content. As with other organizations and institutions in service of diversifying the teaching profession, pivoting to increase opportunity and center equity remains the core of IRT’s work.