Vania Reyes, assistant principal at Bel Air High School, has been selected to participate in the 2022-23 Texas Education Policy Fellowship Program (TX-EPFP), a Texas Tech University initiative designed to help education professionals deepen their knowledge and develop skills in leadership and public policy.

Reyes is a proud Ysleta ISD graduate, educator, advocate, and parent. Outside of her professional duties at Bel Air High School, she serves as vice president of the nonprofit organization Mija Yes You Can, and actively promotes the need for female representation in every decision-making room.

 “It has been a long-term goal of mine to ensure we have representation and give a voice to our more vulnerable populations,” said Reyes, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in education policy from American University.

By participating in the Texas-EPFP program, Reyes said she hopes to immerse herself “in an organization that will better prepare me to make the changes necessary in our state educational policies to enhance services for our community stakeholders.”

The TX-EPFP is a 10-month, intensive professional development program. It provides rich and robust experiences to participants, who will discover multifaceted aspects of education policy with experts across the state, develop leadership skills through practice, expand professional networks, and explore avenues for fostering positive impact for stakeholders within Texas education.

The fellowship program’s 2022-23 class of consists of 23 Texas leaders and professionals from all sectors of education – nonprofits, K-12, higher education – who live or work in Aubrey, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Leander, Levelland, Meadowlakes, McKinney, Missouri City, Richardson, Rockwall, Rowlett, San Antonio, and Spring.

“We are excited to welcome our fourth cohort of fellows as the Texas site of the Education Policy Fellowship Program,” said Rebecca Hite, TX-EPFP director. “We have a strong and diverse cadre of leaders from around the state. We are glad to provide the opportunity and platform for these leaders to grow in their knowledge, leadership and networks to achieve their personal and professional goals in education policy.”

The 2022-2023 class of TX-EPFP fellows will meet regularly through May and participate in the Washington Policy Seminar through the Institute for Education Leadership.

As a fellow, Reyes joins a network of 9,000 alumni in all 50 states, including state legislators, university presidents, school superintendents, state teachers of the year and leaders of nonprofits and foundations.

For more information, visit www.depts.ttu.edu/education/outreach-and-research/epfp/meet-the-cohort.php