Teresita Martinez, Research Assistant

Teresita Martinez is a first-year master's student in the Economics and Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a BA in economics with a minor in education from the University of California, Los Angeles, and she is committed to understanding and combating the structural and systemic inequalities in the pre-K through higher education finance system.

Prior to joining CCRC, Martinez was an executive fellow at the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), where she used the state agency's data and resources to highlight the barriers that undocumented students face in the California financial aid system. Additionally, as an intern at the California Department of Education—Expanded Learning Division (EXLD), Martinez conducted a time series analysis to understand how a state transportation grant impacted the average daily attendance of rural after-school students. Finally, as an undergraduate research assistant at the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), Martinez explored the structural similarities between two state-wide equity-based funding formulas: the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) for K-12 and the Student-Success Funding Formula (SCFF) for California Community Colleges.