Las Hermanas canizales
The Canizales sisters are proud products of public schools, bilingual education, college-access programs, and the resourcefulness, brilliance, and entrepreneurial spirit grounded in their immigrant roots.
With over 50 years of combined experience advancing equity-driven educational outcomes in PreK-16 institutions, The Canizales Group brings deep expertise in engaging all stakeholders—students, families, educators, coaches, administrators, and executive leaders.
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Founding Partner
Mayra Canizales Cruz (she/her/ella) is a lifelong educator dedicated
to transforming schools into affirming spaces for children and adults
by fostering linguistically liberating practices and
systems. A former award-winning and equity-driven principal of
Oyster-Adams Bilingual School for seven years, she excels in systems
thinking to operationalize initiatives with intentional outcomes.
Mayra is a thoughtful community organizer who actively disrupts
visible and invisible systems of power to create spaces that center
students, educators, and families of color. Her expertise includes
school leadership development, dual language education, adult
coaching, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and facilitating challenging conversations with patience and power in both Spanish and English. -
Founding Partner
Yanira Canizales Wandera (she/her/ella) is a devoted educator and community advocate with decades of experience designing transformative educational experiences in collaboration with the community. As a mother, founding school leader, and local educational advocate, she brings both micro and macro perspectives to address the challenges and opportunities in education.
Yanira is a leader in shifting power dynamics and disrupting systemic
racism through community co-creation and liberatory design. Her deep expertise in community engagement and coalition building fuels her passion for advancing linguistic liberation and achieving excellent student outcomes. Additionally, Yanira’s strengths include strategic planning and the design and facilitation of impactful adult learning
experiences. -
Founding Advisor
Claudia is an equity-centered K–16 systems innovator with 25 years of experience leading transformational initiatives that expand college access, academic transitions, career readiness, and family engagement across California. An immigrant, first-generation college graduate, and former Dreamer, she brings a deep commitment to designing educational programming that honors community cultural wealth, elevates family voice, and removes structural barriers to student success while leveraging institutional strengths and partnerships.
Her career spans roles as a counselor, professor, researcher, statewide trainer, and curriculum designer, giving her a comprehensive understanding of the policies and practices that shape equitable educational ecosystems. She is recognized for leading large-scale professional development communities, building digital infrastructures that extend statewide impact, and designing curricula, advising frameworks, and transition models that strengthen enrollment, persistence, and completion. She collaborates across departments and with external stakeholders to advance shared goals and expand opportunities for students and families.
Claudia specializes in strategic visioning, cross-sector collaboration, organizational change, and data-informed decision-making, centering humanizing relationships over transactional processes. She believes transformative programming emerges when design is student-centered, collaborative, and shaped through meaningful multi-stakeholder engagement to build on community strengths and yield more equitable and humanizing outcomes. Her leadership aligns new initiatives with institutional priorities and fosters sustainable structures that support continuous improvement.
OUR VISION
We envision a national education system where all 4.95 million emergent bilingual learners have access to a high-quality Dual Language seat. In this future, Latino/x principals are empowered to lead in their communities—nurturing, challenging, and preparing students to thrive as multilingual leaders.
Our ultimate goal is to reverse the loss of heritage languages and ensure that every emergent bilingual student achieves academic excellence, bilingualism and biliteracy, and strong sociocultural competence.
“One of the greatest assets The Canizales Group brought was the ability to quickly and effectively establish trust. The Canizales Group is well-organized, thorough, flexible, and focused on student and community needs.”