Staff
The Student Advisory Council is organized and supported by Young Invincibles, The Education Trust in Texas, Every Texan, and Breakthrough Central Texas as a joint initiative of the Texas Postsecondary Advocates Coalition for Equity (TX PACE).
As part of a paid fellowship through early 2023, student members will be actively engaged in the work of the Texas Commission on Community College Finance and subsequent legislative activity.
Meet the staff supporting the Student Advisory Council:
Kasey Corpus
Staff
Young Invincibles | Policy Manager and Advocacy Manager
Kasey Corpus is the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Young Invincibles. She lives in Austin, Texas and originally grew up near the border in the Rio Grande Valley. Her past experience includes campaigning for local officials, working at the Texas legislature, and developing community engagement strategy at the City of Austin. With her background in research, community outreach, and advocacy, she has worked to increase civic engagement and the representation of underserved communities in Texas. When she is not working, you can often find her in the crowd at an Austin FC game or looking for live music.
Will Davies
Staff
Policy and data analyst with Breakthrough Central Texas
Will Davies currently serves as a policy and data analyst with Breakthrough Central Texas, an educational non-profit organization that supports first-generation college aspirants to achieve their personal and professional goals from 6th grade through postsecondary completion. He is responsible for the execution of Breakthrough’s research and advocacy activities focused on improving postsecondary access and success for young Texans across institutional and local, state, and federal policymaking domains and leads the collection, management, and analysis of data to evaluate and improve outcomes and strategy. Originally from Boston, Will earned a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Boston University then spent the next four years teaching English as a foreign language in South America.
After returning from abroad, he worked five years as a (Spanish/English) bilingual elementary classroom teacher and three as a campus literacy specialist in Central Texas public schools while earning a M. Ed. in Education Policy and Planning from the University of Texas at Austin where he is currently a doctoral student. Will’s academic research has often focused on the sociopolitical context of bilingual education, especially the rapid discursive shift around and expansion of dual language education and its implications for the access and experience of minoritized students and families.
He is also a research analyst and program evaluator for Building a Green Texas: Activating a New Generation of Sustainability Leaders, an initiative that partners the University of Texas system, Texas school districts, sustainability professionals, municipal governments, and community based organizations to strengthen climate resiliency through the development of green building pipelines and active environmental education opportunities for high school-aged youth from the communities most impacted by climate change and least represented in green careers. Will loves to spend as much of his free time as possible outdoors hanging out, hiking, cooking, biking, swimming, camping, or playing sports with family and friends.
Andrea Thurston
Staff
Ed Trust Texas | Senior Higher Education Policy Analyst
For over a decade, Thurston has worked toward educational equity as an educator, strategist, and consultant. She has led institutions around the nation in achieving strategic plans for more inclusive campuses. Her platform comes from her endeavors at the University of Missouri post-Ferguson to encourage the institution to confront its inequities, using past shortcomings as a framework to create an equitable and intersectional learning environment for the future. For these efforts, she was awarded by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and featured in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
As a Chicago native and the granddaughter of freedom fighters, Thurston earned a B.A. inPsychology and Sociology from the University of Missouri and a Master of Science in Education and Education Policy from Johns Hopkins University. Her journey navigating inequitable systems fuels her passion for closing achievement, attainment, and opportunity gaps. She seeks to continue to yield successful policy change on the local and state level while keeping the voices of historically excluded communities at the center.
Jonathan Feinstein
Staff
Ed Trust Texas | Staff Director
Jonathan brings more than 15 years of experience in education as a teacher, organizer and nonprofit leader. He serves as the State Director of Texas, where he works with and supports partners statewide to advance educational equity for students of color and from low-income backgrounds.
Prior to joining Ed Trust, Jonathan worked at the Commit Partnership, where he led community engagement and advocacy efforts to bring together a wide range of systems leaders and directly impacted stakeholders to improve cradle-to-career outcomes for students in Dallas County. Before that, Jonathan worked as a middle school and special needs teacher, and continues to engage directly with educators, students and other leaders to deepen learning and commitment to racial equity.