Ireri Valenzuela

Ireri Valenzuela is a leadership development practitioner and qualitative researcher dedicated to advancing equity and student success in California’s community colleges. She joined The RP Group in 2014 as a senior researcher and, in 2018, became the Leading from the Middle Academy’s first coaching coordinator. Today, she directs and facilitates LFM, designing professional learning for college teams and developing individual workshops under the broader program that create brave spaces for participants to deepen their leadership practice and advance equity-minded, evidence-informed change. A core value of her leadership is co-creation, partnering with facilitators and coaches, to shape LFM’s curriculum and coaching framework.

Alongside this work, Ireri contributes as a qualitative researcher focused on elevating student and faculty voice to inform campus and system change. For the past five years, she has led the qualitative component of the Open for Antiracism (OFAR) evaluation, conducting faculty interviews and contributing insights that shape professional learning and antiracist pedagogy. She has also facilitated focus groups with students, helping colleges better understand and respond to what students need to be successful.

Her commitment to education and social justice was shaped by her early experience teaching English to Latino and Southeast Asian immigrants in California’s Central Valley. Inspired by her students’ resilience, she earned a master’s degree in adult education from San Francisco State University and has applied adult learning principles and systems-change strategies throughout her career. Prior to joining The RP Group, she held research and program leadership roles with MDRC and California Tomorrow.

Ireri’s leadership has been described as inspiring others to “stand up and stand out despite adversities” and as a model of how equity-minded leadership creates lasting impact through both small and systemic change. She lives in San Francisco, where she co-parented her son, now in college, and enjoys traveling, gardening, and cooking.