About me
Madeline “Desi” Kobayashi (she/her) is a Chicago-born and raised Boricua writer, educator, curriculum designer, and literacy specialist. She earned her Bachelor's in Secondary Education/History from DePaul University, and spent 14 years as a classroom teacher, for which she received the 2014 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where she is building a literacy reparations curriculum framework for BIPOC youth that centers Love, Learning, and Liberation. She is passionate about supporting collaborative spaces for folks to design culturally responsive curricula that attend to the academic and human needs of young people.
