Parents2Partners.org

About Us

Our Mission:

Our mission is to empower educators, school leaders and youth-serving agencies working with schools in the K-12 setting to build trust and partnerships with the families they serve for the success of all youth.

Our Vision:

Schools and youth serving agencies are inspired and empowered to connect, communicate and collaborate with their diverse guardians.

Our History:

We are passionate about equity and social justice. In her role as educator, advocate and volunteer, our Founder visited all the homes of her students including the newcomers to learn about them and serve as support. Along that journey she gained tremendous insight from the families, their needs and challenges. Discovering the cultural misunderstanding that exists between educators and the diverse families they serve, she was inspired to establish Parents 2 Partners to address issues that result from cultural and linguistic misunderstandings.

Since the creation of P2P, we have been working to empower educators with cultural responsiveness and avoiding cultural assumptions to promote partnerships between diverse parents and educators for academic achievement, social equity, and the overall best interest of students.

Our team is comprised of professional educators and community leaders and other experts. We aspire to promote a greater cultural understanding and educational support for families, educators and students in order to achieve better learning outcomes and greater success.

Board Members:

Leila Kubesch

Leila is driven by her passion for equity and social justice. She served as an advocate for emancipated foster youth in Ohio by raising awareness of the plight of these youth, presenting to large audiences including TEDx Cincinnati, where she won the Audience Choice Award for her talk. She spoke with politicians and dedicated her effort until House Bill 50 passed, enabling foster youth in Ohio to have homes until age 21. She is the 2020 National Toyota Family Teacher of the Year and 2022 National Teacher Hall of Fame Inductee.

Brian Wagner

Brian is the founder and CEO of “A Radical Vision.” His mission is to help people embrace their own abilities and become empowered to achieve a greater vision for their lives. He was born and raised in Northwest Ohio as the son of a tomato farmer and the youngest of 10 kids. At the age of 10, he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a brain malformation. Over the course of the next 33 years, he experienced several medical issues resulting from this diagnosis and in March 2011 he woke up blind. Through brain and multiple eye surgeries, he was able to regain a portion of his vision. Since then, Brian wrote a book titled, “Sometimes It DOES Take a Brain Surgeon.” Brian serves on the board for his commitment to empowering others and his outstanding work with youth experiencing blindness.

Donna Villareal

Donna works at the Ohio Department of Education as a program specialist in the Office of Integrated Student Supports. She completed a masters in Multicultural Education at Akron University in 1989 and worked in the Lau Resource Center. She has taught TESOL in adult basic literacy, vocational, and special education settings K-12. She served as assistant professor of Special Education at Ashland University from 2008-2014. In 2015, she completed a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (200 RYT) with Esther Ekhart and returned to work as a program specialist at the Lau Resource Center, where she continues to promote consistent supports for English learners and multilingual families.

Jamal Sulaiman

Jamal is the curriculum and instruction specialist of non-public school services for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He supports non-public school principals and teachers to identify and meet the needs of English learner students. Jamal has expertise in language learning and assessment having worked at the Thomas Jefferson International Newcomers Academy in Cleveland. He is a committed educational leader who advocates for equitable policies for immigrant families and English Learners.

Joseph (JD) Emnet

JD is a curriculum supervisor at the South Central Ohio Educational Service Center, where he consults with high schools, conducts teacher evaluations, provides training in social emotional learning, and is the ESL coordinator. As a member of the Ohio English Learner Advisory Committee, he works to solve challenges faced by rural Ohio school districts by building capacity and increasing access to needed ESL resources. He advocates for English learners and their families by providing training for rural school and ESCs so they are better prepared to welcome and instruct English learners in their communities.

Rumeysa Sarikamis

Rumeysa works as an ESL Coordinator at Horizon Science Academy Columbus High School, teaches ESL. and serves on the ODE ESL Advisory Committee. She worked and lived in different countries including Russia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia and Iraq and completed her studies in Russia, receiving her Bachelor’s and a Master Degree in Teaching Foreign Languages and Linguistics. She has been teaching students of all ages and holds many roles like offering seminars for ESL parents. She actively uses social media as an outreach method to the non-English speaking community.