Mahru Elahi
Mahru (they/them) supports the building of inquiry communities centered around collectivism, transformation and equity. Mahru began their educational career in 1998, teaching English and Social Studies as part of the small-schools-by-design movement housed within New York City’s Department of Education. It was there that they began to understand the power of observation, reflection and metacognition to shift both student and adult learning. Mahru returned to their home state of California and gained her M.A. in Educational Leadership from U.C. Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute. Mahru has been a secondary teacher and site leader throughout Northern California, including in: San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, El Cerrito and San Leandro. Mahru also holds a B.A. in American Studies from U.C. Santa Cruz, and an M.S. in Teaching from New School University. They are a graduate of Antioch’s University’s MFA in Creative Writing program, with a subject focus on the SWANA (Southwest Asian North African) community and a genre focus on memoir and hybrid forms of storytelling. Mahru lives in Oakland, CA with their son.