LEDA welcomes new Scholar Alumni Board members

We are excited to announce that the LEDA Board of Directors has elected two LEDA Scholar alumni as its newest members: Jordan Dickson and Elizabeth Salinas.

Jordan and Elizabeth will bring important perspectives to Board discussions based on their professional experience and leadership, as well as their first-hand experience with LEDA. They join fellow Scholar alumna Yelka Kamara, a Board member since 2017, in enriching our ability to ensure that our future growth and success are informed by some of our most important stakeholders.

Please join us in welcoming Jordan and Elizabeth, and scroll down to learn more about our impressive new Board members!

Jordan joined the LEDA Community in 2007 as a member of Cohort 3. He received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from Stanford University and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is currently a Federal Prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice.

After graduating from college, Jordan moved back to his hometown to work for E. & J. Gallo Winery. While working at Gallo and coaching high school basketball, he was elected to the Modesto City Schools Board of Education, becoming the youngest elected person in Modesto’s history.

After his term ended, Jordan attended law school. While at Georgetown, he was a Public Interest Fellow, a member of the Black Law Students Association, and taught a law class in the D.C. public school system. At the end of his final year, he was one of four graduates from across the country to be selected as part of the U.S. Attorney General’s Honors Program for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, beginning his career as a federal prosecutor directly out of law school.

Jordan currently prosecutes complex cases involving politicians, government officials, and crimes of public corruption. Jordan lives in the Washington, D.C., area and has six younger siblings in California.

Elizabeth joined the LEDA Community in 2006 as a member of LEDA Cohort 2. A proud first-generation college student, she earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is currently a Senior Research Associate at HCM Strategists.

Elizabeth’s drive to develop policies that eliminate educational inequities is grounded in her early professional career working directly with aspiring college students. She began her career on Capitol Hill working on STEM education policy as a fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, later accepting a position in her hometown of Brownsville, TX, as a high school physics teacher. After graduate school, she served as a program coordinator for the MIT Office of Engineering’s Outreach Program.

In these roles, Elizabeth spent years supporting teenagers and young adults through the college selection and application process, specifically engaging students from traditionally underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. These experiences have given her a clear-eyed focus on why our nation needs stronger education policies and a resolve to always remember the students that these efforts are meant to benefit. They were also immensely valuable during Elizabeth’s term as a member of the inaugural LEDA Policy Corps in 2018-2019.

As a senior research associate for HCM Strategists’ postsecondary policy team, Elizabeth works to identify and eliminating equity gaps in higher education. A specialist in research and data analysis, she provides strategic guidance for multiple clients including Lumina Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She currently resides in Malden, MA, and enjoys baking in her spare time.