A full-service diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm
Dr. Ivette Dubiel
Dr. Ivette Dubiel (she/her/ella) is the founder, CEO and Chief Equity Officer for Systemic Educational Equity, LLC, a full-service diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm. Systemic Educational Equity, LLC offers a wide-range of customized services for public and parochial school districts, non-for-profits and private corporations.
Dr. Dubiel's passion for equity work stems from her identities. Born and raised in Chicago to young, Puerto Rican parents, her first years of life were met with financial struggles and transient challenges, in that, she attended six schools K-8. She was the first in her family to attend college. Prior to Systemic Educational Equity, LLC, Dr. Dubiel started out her career as an Investigator with the Chicago Police Department, Office of Professional Standards. In that capacity, she was responsible for investigating allegations of excessive force, police shootings, deaths in custody, and domestic violence among members of the Chicago Police Department. She also served as an Investigator for the State of Illinois, Office of Executive Inspector General, wherein she was responsible for investigating allegations of malfeasance, fraud and misconduct among State of Illinois employees. After almost a decade, Dr. Dubiel changed career paths to become a teacher.
Dr. Dubiel was an ESL-sheltered and general education teacher in a public school district. She taught intermediate grade levels and sponsored several extracurriculuar clubs including Spanish classes for students and ESL courses for adults. She also served as the grade-level teacher leader at her school. Immediately following her years in the classroom, Dr. Dubiel served as an Assistant Director of Special Programs overseeing the EL department, Gifted/Talented program and Parent Outreach for Oswego School District 308. In 2014, she became the first Director of Educational Equity for Indian Prairie School District 204. Five years later, Dr. Dubiel served as the Executive Director of Equity and Professional Learning for the DuPage Regional Office of Education. After simultaneoulsy serving as a consultant for over six years to a variety of entities, Dr. Dubiel launched her own DEI consulting firm.
Dr. Dubiel currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at two universities. She teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses on diversity, social justice, and critical transformative leadership as well as foundational pedagogical theories to support instructional practices in working with diverse student populations.
Dr. Dubiel is a co-founder of the Illinois Coalition of Educational Equity Leaders (ICEEL), and was the founder and Board President of the Illinois Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (IALAS). She also served as a co-founder and Board President of the non-profit, Happy Helpers, a 501C3 that organizes volunteer opportunities for families and children aged five and up. Dr. Dubiel also served on the Diverse Learner and Teacher Ready Network for the Illinois State Board of Education.
Dr. Dubiel was a former contributor with Huffington Post, Latino Voices, and has authored these blogs: My Educational Experience, Pedagogy of Love and You Don't Talk Like You're Puerto Rican.
Most recently, Dr. Dubiel was selected to serve as a member of the Community Leadership and Equity Advisory Council for U.S. Representative, Lauren Underwood, for the IL 14th Congressional district.
Dr. Dubiel has earned a bachelor degree from Northern Illinois University, a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a Master's degree in Education from Aurora University and a Master's degree in Educational Leadership also from Aurora University. Dr. Dubiel earned her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership with a social justice emphasis from Lewis University. Her reserarch on transformative leadership led to her dissertation, A Case Study of Care and Relationships in Education: Opposing the Neoliberal Agenda.
Systemic Educational Equity, LLC has, and continues, to support over 100 organizations in their equity work. The most sought after services are Equity Audits, Equity Action Plans, and customizable professional development sessions and trainings.
Our Team
Dr. Erica Davila
Researcher & Editor
Erica R. Dávila (she/her/ella), PhD., is Professor of Educational Leadership at Lewis University. She serves as the current president of the Critical Race Studies in Education Association. She has been teaching and writing curriculum for over 20 years in Elementary, Middle School and University classrooms in Chicago IL, Urbana IL and Philadelphia, PA. During her time in Philadelphia she worked mostly with pre-service teachers as director of Urban Education at Arcadia University where she developed courses and a graduate certificate program. At Arcadia she also supervised student teachers and coached them on curriculum design, specifically culturally relevant curriculum in Mathematics and Reading. In her current role at Lewis University outside of Chicago, she works with aspiring and practicing school and community leaders working towards their doctorate in education. She is the director and teaches doctoral courses in Curriculum Theory, Cultural Studies as well as Critical Pedagogy. Her students consider school- wide or community- wide curricular initiatives, analyzing and envisioning school or district curriculum considering best practices of culturally relevant pedagogy and policy formation. In addition to the work with her students, she has worked on several scholarly projects focused on curriculum theory, most recently publishing an article with two colleagues entitled City of Wind, City of Fire: Education and Activism in Chicago 1966-1975 in the International Journal of Critical Pedagogy that emphasized the pedagogical contributions that drove the political awareness and action of Black and Brown youth in Chicago.