About me
Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru (Japanese American Yonsei/she/her) seeks to foster joyful learning in educationally just schools and communities. She is a writer, researcher, mother, teacher, and the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair and Professor of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Policy at the University of Washington College of Education. Through her community-engaged scholarship, she cultivates the leadership and solidarities of educators, organizational leaders and racially minoritized youth, families and communities to realize more transformative futures. Dr. Ishimaru directs the Just Educational Leadership Institute, which hosts the annual Leading towards Justice Symposium and multiple research partnerships, and serves as the Faculty Research Director of the Leadership for Learning EdD program. In addition to many peer-reviewed articles in top-tier educational research journals, she is also the author of Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities (Teachers College Press, 2020) and co-editor of Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change, with Decoteau J. Irby (Teachers College Press, 2025).
