John Diaz serves as a WestEd Program Associate II with the Culturally Responsive Systems team. Diaz’s research interest lies in supporting agencies by examining the role of institutional racism in both creating and perpetuating inequitable policies, elevating the experiences of students and families of color through meaningful engagement to understand how inequities are experienced by community members directly, and working with practitioners through design-based collaboration to form programmatic and fiscal policies that reflect the voices of the community.
Before joining WestEd, Diaz served as a policy analyst for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, where he led independent analysis and reporting to the board on district budget and state finance development. He has also served as a research assistant for the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, as well as an elementary child-care assistant at a special education center.
Diaz holds a BA in social psychology, an MA in public administration with an emphasis on public sector finance, and is currently a PhD student at UC San Diego in the Education Studies department.