Meet the EDLI Leadership Team

Kevin Pajaro-MarinezKevin Pajaro-Mariñez, Institute Director
Phillips Exeter Academy

Mr. Kevin Pajaro-Mariñez (Pah-ha-row | Mah-ree-nies) is a first-generation, Black Latino with Colombian and Dominican roots. He was raised in the wonderful city of Providence, Rhode Island. He joined the Phillips Exeter Academy community as assistant director of Equity and Inclusion in 2021 from the University of Michigan, where he served as a hall director for first and second-year students. Kevin has facilitated various diversity, equity, and inclusion dialogues in K-12, higher education, and professional contexts. Additionally, he founded the Black Men's Reading and Reflection Group (BMRRG). BMRRG is a cohort-based, community-oriented group where Black men come together to think expansively about masculinity. He is committed to cultivating spaces that demand critical reflection, deep relationship-building, and develop capacity for difficult conversations around power, privilege, and oppression.

Rachael A. Blansett​, Leader
Oyster River Cooperative School District 

Rachael Blansett (she/her) is a bi-racial/Black queer femme that hails from the Mitten, right outside of Detroit, MI. Rachael has been honored with the opportunity to serve as the inaugural Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) Coordinator for the Oyster River Cooperative School District where she supports in designing professional development plans and resources for teachers, cultivating an inclusive learning environment for students, and institutionalizing efforts centered in educational equity. At the core of her work is relationship-building, community engagement, and cultivating educators' and professionals' capacities to engage in equity-based work and initiatives. Prior to her professional journey, she received her M. Ed in Student Affairs with a certificate in Social Justice Education from Iowa State University and a B.S. in Communications with an emphasis in Journalism from Grand Valley State University. Her research and academic passions include: student activism and agency, challenging anti-Blackness and colonization ideology in higher education, and cultivating spaces for QTPoC (Queer/Trans People of Color) sense of belonging and mental heath.