Tonikiaa Orange

Dr. Tonikiaa Orange serves as the Director for the Culture and Equity Project (CEP) and is the Director for the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at UCLA Center X. Her commitment to education spans over 20 years, and she is an expert in culturally responsive pedagogy and is the co-developer of the Reciprocal Learning Partnerships for Equity Coaching Framework. As the Director for CEP and PLI, her work focuses on preparing the next generation of social justice leaders to transform and create equitable and culturally responsive educational spaces for all students. She co-teaches Theories of Curriculum and Instruction and School Leader as Researcher in PLI.

Prior to being at UCLA, she was a math and science teacher and principal of a K-8 school in Los Angeles that was specifically designed to serve Standard English Learners through culturally linguistic and responsive pedagogy. She served as a Program Manager for Chicago Public Schools in the department of Curriculum and Instruction, and was a Senior Program Officer for the Los Angeles California Children and Families First Commission, where she co-developed initiatives and grant-giving priorities for school readiness, child abuse, and strategic planning. In addition, she worked as a Senior Evaluation Consultant for an evaluation firm based in New York, where she conduced evaluations on urban school reform initiatives across the country.

Dr. Orange received her Ed.D. in Administrative and Policy Studies, with a concentration in evaluation, from the University of Pittsburgh. She received an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University in Politics and Education and an M.A. from UCLA in Education.