Meet the Team

Director of KIPP Through College, Keishia Kemp

Keishia Kemp Keishia Kemp joined the KIPP LA team in the summer of 2010 as the Director of KIPP Through College (KTC). She was charged with the organizational-wide mission to ensure that KIPP LA alumni apply to and graduate from college. In her role, she is responsible for the program development, strategic vision, and sustainability plan for the regional KTC program. KTC in Los Angeles provides programming for 5 KIPP schools, and over 550 alumni attending high schools across Los Angeles, and 100 college-aged alumni. Keishia’s project oversight includes high school placement, early college preparedness in K-8, alumni advising and support, an alumni internship and mentoring program, application assistance, scholarship fund management, and college placement and retention services. In the first year of the KTC program in LA, 90% of the founding class of 2011 were accepted to two-year and four-year colleges, on par with the national KIPP average. Before arriving at KIPP LA Keishia served seven years at the Crossroads School of Arts and Sciences as an Academic Dean, College Counselor, and English teacher. During her tenure, she increased visibility and modernized the college counseling program with an annual college attendance rate of 99%. In addition, she established a mentoring program for African American male students, and spearheaded several multicultural curriculum initiatives. Prior to arriving in Los Angeles, Keishia worked as the Assistant Director of Admissions at Georgetown University, also her alma mater. After learning about KIPP through a dear college friend—a KIPP school leader, she felt inspired by the mission of organization. As the Director of KIPP Through College, she realized her goal to be in a position where she could share her knowledge of college preparation, admissions background, and commitment to educational access and equity for underserved communities. Keishia holds a Master’s degree in Education with honors from Harvard University, and a BA in English from Georgetown University.

Email
Office: 213-489-4461 ext. 118
Cell: 323-810-3769

Director of High School Placement at KIPP Academy of Opportunity, Yasmin Dunn

Yasmin Kavanagh has worked in and around LA area schools for over six years. As an LA native, she is passionate about local education reform. Additionally, Ms. Kavanagh developed and co-created a comprehensive writing model geared toward college readiness. She has traveled to numerous major school districts advising and training teachers and administrators on the implementation process of this program. Most recently, she worked with ICEF Public schools as an AP English teacher, English Department Chair, and as the English Language Arts Curriculum Developer. At ICEF Ms. Kavanagh was a passionate proponent of teachers and teacher education. Her passion for teacher education led to her recent appointment at Alliant International University, where she is an adjunct professor in the Shirley M. Hufstedler School of Education. In addition to her work with education in the United States, Ms. Kavanagh has worked to ensure equitable education for underserved populations abroad in France and Africa. She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and holds a B.A. in English and French.

Email
Cell: 323-819-0856

College Advisor, Marisa Ramirez

Marisa Ramirez's passion for service and humanitarian work was inspired by her Jesuit education at Boston College where she studied Sociology and Latin American Studies. It was then through tutoring and mentoring Boston area high school students that lead to her interest in joining Teach for America. Her gift for the craft of teaching was sharpened through her Teach for America experience where she spent two years teaching 7th and 8th grade Language Arts at Collier Elementary School in Phoenix, AZ while pursuing her Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from Arizona State University. After TFA, Marisa worked for the Talented and Gifted Latino Youth program at UMass-Boston as a counselor and teacher, and served as Residential Advisor for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer program in Santa Cruz, CA before moving back to her home city of Los Angeles. Since joining the KTC team she has brought her passion and dedication to educational equity to the students and families KTC serves.

Email
Office: 213-489-4461 ext. 150
Cell: 323-395-3815

College Advisor, Christina Zaldaña

Christina graduated from UC Berkeley in 2008 with a double major in Sociology and Mass Communications. Both during and after her time at Cal, Christina worked with several non-profit organizations which emphasized in after school and summer youth development programs as a way to engage students of color in leadership roles. Although she is passionate about various issues which impact communities of color, KIPP's mission to send students to and THROUGH college resonated with her as the best means of creating strong leaders for change.

Email
Office: 213-489-4461 ext. 107
Cell: 323-636-3749