CEIS Honored with YWCA San Gabriel Valley’s ‘Lighting the Way’ Award
The YWCA San Gabriel Valley recognized the College of Education and Integrative Studies (CEIS) and the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program with the “Lighting the Way” award at the 2026 YWCA Champions of Change Awards Gala.
The annual event celebrates the leadership and service of community, education, and civic partners working to advance equity in the San Gabriel Valley. This distinction is made because the YWCA San Gabriel Valley and CEIS are in sync.
The YWCA works to eradicate racism, empower women, families, and communities, and create peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. Similarly, CEIS trains students to be socially responsible leaders who advocate for equity and engage with their communities and use education for positive change. CEIS prepares teachers and leaders who fight against injustice, expand opportunity, and make schools and communities more inclusive through its education programs and partnerships with the communities and social justice on an educational and social level.
By awarding CEIS the “Lighting the Way” Award, the YWCA San Gabriel Valley recognized the college’s efforts to create equity and build communities through education. The award is a reflection of both organizations’ efforts to make the world a better place for all people to improve access and empower neglected communities.
The recognition shows CEIS’ continued role in education access and social justice and community participation. At Cal Poly Pomona, more than half of students are first-generation, 58% are from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and almost half are Pell grant eligible. These students are representative of the communities that CEIS serves.
“For CEIS, those numbers are more than demographics,” said Dean Jenelle Pitt-Parker. “They show why educational access, social justice and social mobility are at the core of the CEIS mission.”
CEIS’ impact is not only at the university level but also in schools and communities around the region.
“From 2023 to 2025, 683 candidates completed a CEIS credential program, adding to a pipeline of educators that are in place to assist students, families and communities,” Pitt-Parker said.
The Educational Leadership Doctoral Program supports this mission further by preparing scholar-practitioners to connect research to practice and transform education systems. Its faculty, students, and alumni are teachers, administrators, researchers, advocates, and leaders who remove barriers and provide more opportunities for students.
“Receiving the ‘Lighting the Way’ Award from the YWCA San Gabriel Valley was a meaningful recognition of the excellent work of our doctoral program faculty, current students, and alumni,” said Department Chair Betty Alford. “Our collective work speaks to the College’s commitment to social justice, educational access, and community impact. Our doctoral program alumni and current doctoral students are in positions of influence in education, and we feel we are able to help them ‘light the way’ for a better future.”
That interconnectedness is the core of CEIS’ approach.
The College’s work is founded on partnerships with school districts, community organizations, regional partners, alumni, and educational leaders to provide the learning experience that is based on collaboration, service, and impact on the real world.
The “Lighting the Way” Award acknowledges CEIS’ accomplishments and acknowledges CEIS’ contribution to the college in preparing leaders who open new doors for others.
“To receive the ‘Lighting the Way’ Award is both a huge honor and a call to action for CEIS and our Educational Leadership Doctoral Program,” Pitt-Parker said. “CEIS has been showing through its programs and collaboration that education can be a transformational force. That impact is reflected in the educators that it trains, schools they build, systems it dismantles, and the communities that it redefines.”