Board of Trustees DEI Committee
In 1958, Sequoyah’s founders drafted a Statement of Values, endeavoring to create a community “of diversified backgrounds, racial, religious, and social.” In alignment with that founding commitment, the school’s Board of Trustees has for decades had a Diversity (now called DEI) Committee that:
ensures that the Board’s structures and practices reflect principles of equity and inclusion—and that its membership is reflective of the Sequoyah community as a whole;
partners with Board leadership to create annual and long-term goals reflecting Sequoyah’s commitment to DEI—and to facilitate DEI-related learning among Trustees; and
ensures the school has the necessary resources to achieve its DEI-related strategic goals, including those relating to socioeconomic diversity, and hold the school accountable for achieving those goals.
This year, to support a culture of continuous DEI-related learning on the Board, the Committee is developing a DEI orientation for all new Trustees. Providing this orientation to Trustees before they begin participating in Board discussions promotes greater DEI understanding and fluency—both generally and with respect to Sequoyah, specifically—among those responsible for school governance. Other current Committee goals include: consulting with other Board Committees to ensure their annual goals reflect the Board’s commitment to DEI; developing a dashboard of administration-provided DEI-related data that will improve monitoring and accountability efforts; and studying the Tuition Index Program to better understand how it supports socioeconomic diversity and intersects with other forms of diversity, especially as the Board begins to undertake multi-year strategic financial planning.
Through its work, the Board’s DEI Committee strives to be a prominent, visible symbol to the community (and beyond) of the importance to Sequoyah School of the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Committee membership is comprised of Trustees, administrative leaders, and Sequoyah community members with particular expertise in DEI issues and education. You can read more about these members below.
Laura Gowen, President, Board of Trustees
DuVon Davis, Chair, Board of Trustees DEI Committee
Board DEI Committee Members
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DuVon has over 23 years of financial services experience in both Mergers & Acquisitions and Commercial Banking, with the last 20 years at Wells Fargo. He started his career at Sara Lee Corporation as a Financial Analyst assisting in various aspects of the Company’s acquisition strategy. Prior to joining Sara Lee, DuVon worked in South Africa as a Youth Development Coordinator with the Joint Enrichment Project. DuVon earned a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, as a student in its School of Public and International Affairs. He also earned a Certificate in African-American Studies. He holds an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he majored in Finance & Sustainable Enterprise as a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow. DuVon is active in local non-profits, such as the Princeton Club of Southern California, the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce, and the Ketchum Downtown Los Angeles YMCA. He has one child currently attending Sequoyah’s K-8 and one child who is an alum.
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Laura has been a lawyer for and consultant to a variety of companies and nonprofit organizations. As co-founder and General Counsel of a company using artificial intelligence to improve credit options for the underbanked, she managed regulatory compliance programs, an intellectual property portfolio, and litigation strategy. Before that, Laura provided strategic, legal, and organizational development advice for organizations focused on racial and economic justice, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. She continues to provide pro bono legal services to marginalized individuals and communities. Laura has a JD from Berkeley Law School. Laura joined the Board in 2016 and has two children who started at Sequoyah in kindergarten and are now at Sequoyah’s high school.
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Nicole Rabaudi, a graduate of Sequoyah’s K-8 program, has been a longtime member of the school’s DEI Committee. She holds a B.F.A. from California College of the Arts and an M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pacific Oaks College. In addition to her therapy practice, Nicole is an active volunteer, serving on Sequoyah’s Jogathon and Alumni Committees and as Vice Chair of the Westridge School’s Alumnae Board. Nicole and her husband have a son, Max, who started at Sequoyah in kindergarten and will graduate this year from its high school.
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Umaa Rebbapragada is a Data Scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who holds a BA in Mathematics from UC Berkeley and PhD in Computer Science from Tufts University. She and her husband have two children at Sequoyah, a daughter in 8th grade and a son in 3rd. Umaa has led multiple DEI-related efforts at JPL. She has served a two-year term as Chair of the Asian American Council (2021-2022) and is serving a two-year term as Chair of the Instrument Software and Science Data Systems DEIA committee (2023-2024). She has also participated on committees to advocate for paid parental leave and improved DEI education and training opportunities. Outside of work, Since 2022, Umaa is serving as the STEAM Program Advisor to Glendale and Pasadena YWCA’s Girls' Empowerment Program.
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Carolina is the Policy Director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, a multicultural health policy organization dedicated to improving the health of communities of color in California. Carolina’s family started at Sequoyah after immigrating from Nicaragua in the late ’80s. Carolina still camps annually with her childhood friends from Sequoyah, and remains committed to Sequoyah's values of social justice and socioeconomic diversity in her personal and professional life. Carolina graduated from Sequoyah’s K-8 in 2002 and continues to have outstanding hot lunch I.O.U.s.
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Tasha Willis is an Associate Professor at Cal State LA’s School of Social Work and the university's Faculty Director for Internationalization. Throughout her career she has focused on DEIJ issues throughout the educational pipeline. She currently researches these issues in relation to campus climate and education abroad opportunities at Minority Serving Institutions both in the US and in Colómbia. Tasha has an Ed.D. in Higher Educational Leadership from Cal State Long Beach, a master’s in social service administration from the University of Chicago, and a BA in international studies from Kenyon College. She and her husband have a son in 4th grade at Sequoyah.
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Joyce has worked on social justice issues within the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors for over 20 years. She is the Director of Grant Operations for the Weingart Foundation, where she oversees implementation of its grantmaking and learning and assessment programs. She’s held previous positions at The California Endowment and the Los Angeles Immigrant Funders’ Collaborative. Joyce is an active volunteer and donor, particularly in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. Past leadership roles include serving on the Boards of Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance and Thai Community Development Center, as Chair of the local Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy chapter, and as founding member of two giving circles dedicated to local API communities. Joyce earned her master’s degree in Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine. Joyce has one child attending Sequoyah’s K-8 and is the mother of two alumni.
Are you a Sequoyah parent/guardian who wants to be more involved in DEI work at the school? Email Co-Director of DEI Marisol Perez to inquire or share your ideas!
