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Meet your Educational Leadership & Policy Studies faculty
Dr. Sarah M. Jouganatos
TK-12 pathway Coordinator
Associate professor Dr. Sarah M. Jouganatos has over 20 years of experience working in education both in the California TK-12 system and in higher education. She currently serves in the Graduate and Professional Studies Department at Sacramento State and is Program Coordinator of the TK-12 Educational Leadership program i EDLP.
Dr. Jouganatos’ focus is to support and guide her students toward competence with various leadership styles. Specifically, Dr Jouganatos emphasizes Transformative Leadership, an equity focused leadership style that can be used to support stakeholders and students in diverse educational systems. She works to empower future school leaders to challenge the status quo by collaboratively constructing equity-focused and racially-just schools.
Dr. Araceli Feliz
Dr. Araceli Feliz is an assistant professor in educational leadership and policy studies at CSU, Sacramento. Prior to joining the faculty at Sac State, Dr. Feliz served as an educational leader in California TK-12 schools for 24 years. Her professional experience includes serving as an elementary school teacher as well as a site and district administrator.
Additionally, Dr. Feliz has served as adjunct faculty at the community college and private university level. She earned a B.A. in English from UCLA; a M.Ed. from CSU Fresno; and an Ed.D. in Organizational Change and Leadership from USC.
She serves as the chair for the Center on Race, Immigration, and Social Justice Literacy Empowerment Project. She is a mentor for the Division of Student Affairs U-Mentor program and sits on the College of Education Dean’s BIPOC Advisory Group.
Through the TK-12 EDLP Program, Dr. Feliz supports developing leaders in their ability to recognize and address equity issues that manifest as academic opportunity gaps for marginalized students.
Dr. Geni Cowan
Higher Education Pathway Coordinator
Dr. Geni Cowan is a full professor in the department of Graduate & Professional Studies in Education in which the EDLP degree program is housed. She serves as Graduate Coordinator for GPSE, Program Co-Coordinator of the Higher Education Leadership program and Program Coordinator for the Workforce Development Leadership program.
Dr Cowan brings more than 30 years of experience in leadership, organizational development, management, human resources development, nonprofit organization administration, and adult education. Nationally, Dr Cowan is a member of the Governing Council for the National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education and has served in multiple leadership roles with the American Educational Research Association (AERA) among other professional activities. She describes the preparation of “rock-the-boat” leaders as a major goal of her instruction. Dr Cowan insists on the duty of leadership to lead diversity, equity, inclusion and abolitionism in educational settings.
Dr. José Chávez
Dr. José Chávez possesses 30 years of experience working in education in various administrative positions in TK-12 systems, community colleges, and higher education. He serves as a faculty member in the Graduate and Professional Studies Department at Sacramento State.
Dr. Chávez has extensive experience in student services and instructional leadership, community college leadership, and equity-driven leadership to transform educational systems to meet the needs of culturally and diverse populations and communities.
Dr. Alejandro Carrión
Dr. Alejandro Carrión is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Program at Sacramento State. He is a BronxRican interdisciplinary researcher whose scholarship attempts to bring Theory to Practice through Action. His work centers on the transformative and liberatory spaces, practices, and fugitive education of Black and Latinx students.