Welcome to the 2025–2027 Educator Advisory Council Cohort

At Advance Illinois, we believe that the most powerful education policy comes from those who live it every day. We learn more about the impacts of our work from the educators in classrooms, care centers, and campuses living the work across our state. The Educator Advisory Council (EAC) supports our work by ensuring that those shaping policy understand firsthand the needs, strengths, and realities of Illinois students and schools.

It’s with great excitement and deep gratitude, then, that we welcome the 2025–2027 Educator Advisory Council cohort. This new group brings together educators from early childhood through postsecondary, from rural to urban regions, and from a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines, and lived experiences. Every single individual joining us through this cohort brings a shared commitment to equity, a belief in the power of public education, and a readiness to lead.

Over the next two years, these educators will serve as thought partners, advisors, and advocates. They will sharpen their policy knowledge, explore the root causes of the disparities we see in education, and take action together through advocacy efforts including legislative testimony, writing op-eds, or organizing their peers.

We know this work isn’t easy. It requires vulnerability, reflection, and courage to ask hard questions and build trust across differences. But it also offers joy, connection, and the chance to make a real, lasting impact.

Educational change and equity work doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in coalition. It happens when we honor expertise that acknowledges personal, cultural, and community knowledge.

That’s the spirit this new cohort brings.

To our incoming EAC members: thank you for stepping into this space. Thank you for showing up for your students, your communities, and one another. We’re so glad you’re here, and we can’t wait to learn, build, and grow alongside you. In the coming months, we will begin to introduce the cohort so that you can learn more about them.

Learn more about the Educator Advisory Council here.

Maty Ortega Cruz is a Senior Community Engagement Associate for Advance Illinois.