Lara Evangelista and Chandler Miranda, School as Sanctuary

Evangelista is the Executive Director of Internationals Network, a national nonprofit that partners with public school systems and community-based organizations to design and sustain innovative, multilingual learning environments for recently arrived immigrant and refugee students. The child of immigrants and a first-generation college student, Lara brings both personal and professional commitment to this work. With over 25 years of experience in New York City public schools as both an educator and as a parent, she has led transformative efforts to improve outcomes for newcomer students as a teacher, founding school team member, and administrator. She served as principal of The Flushing International High School and later as Deputy Superintendent for the Consortium, Internationals, and NYC Outward Bound Schools (CIOB) District. Lara holds degrees in languages and education from Georgetown University, New School University, Hunter College, and Teachers College, Columbia University, where she is currently a doctoral candidate in the Urban Educational Leadership program.Chandler Patton Miranda is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Molloy University and an educational anthropologist whose research examines the schooling experiences of recently arrived immigrant youth in the United States. Her work focuses on how educators navigate exclusionary policy and political contexts to create inclusive, empowering learning environments. She is the author of Sanctuary School: Innovating to Empower Immigrant Youth (Harvard Education Press, 2025), which identifies key mindset shifts for transforming schools into spaces of belonging and renewal. Chandler is a former high school science teacher.