Icela Pelayo is a Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation working on the foundation’s racial equity and community engagement efforts supporting thriving children, working families and equitable communities. She supports local community leaders of multi-sector collaborations implementing Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation efforts, and has led strategy and coordination for the National Day of Racial Healing.

Previously, Icela served in various roles at the New Mexico Public Education Department, including Acting Deputy Cabinet Secretary of Teaching and Learning. She also served as Director of Bilingual Multicultural Education, having led comprehensive state policy and program development, implementation, and evaluation in support of culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and emerging bilingual students.

Icela serves as a board member of Hispanics in Philanthropy. She is an alum of HIP’s Líderes Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Icela earned her PhD from the University of Southern California in K-12 Education Policy, focusing on the intersection of policy, teaching, and learning of emerging multilingual students. She earned an MA in elementary education at Loyola Marymount University while working as a public school teacher in South Los Angeles. Icela is a first-generation college graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. She is bilingual (Spanish and English) and a daughter of Mexican immigrants.