Gail Ann Rulloda - Ed.D. in Educational Leadership - College of Education
Gail Ann Rulloda is a loving wife, the mother of two beautiful kids and a lifelong learner of the world. She has found joy in working, co-learning and co-creating with students in early intervention, K-12 and higher education settings. She enacts social justice and equity in the institutions where she works, in her community and in her home. She is grounded in radical love and disability justice and seeks to resist perpetuating trauma and hurt through healing, learning and finding joy.
A notable feature of Rulloda’s work as a doctoral student, including her dissertation study, is that it was done as part of a unique partnership with San Lu, her life partner, fellow doctoral student and fellow community-engaged scholar. Rulloda’s achievements are linked to San Lu’s and provide evidence for the power of working together to practice authentic caring. Their relationship is a model for how we must work collectively to create long-lasting change in education.
Rulloda is a service provider in the California community college system, with a life dedicated to supporting students who have been marginalized, specifically students who have been justice system-impacted and those with disabilities. Her dissertation focused on disrupting the dehumanization that justice system-impacted students experience in California community colleges. She has also contributed to the Ed.D. program by working as a graduate assistant supporting three classes. While a doctoral student, she worked on a major program evaluation focused on ethnic studies and helped develop a course for the College of Ethnic Studies that will be part of new requirements for undergraduates and will contribute to the new ethnic studies curriculum for California public schools. She and San Lu presented their developing research findings at the prestigious AERA annual conference in 2022 and continue to present their findings at other important professional conferences across the country.