Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru is the Kerry & Linda Killinger Endowed Chair and Professor of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Policy at the University of Washington College of Education, where her work centers on cultivating the leadership and solidarities of educators, students of color, families, and communities.
As a community-based and community-engaged researcher, she seeks to advance knowledge of leadership practices, organizational conditions, inquiry, systems change, and approaches that build trust across diverse communities, supporting them in shaping their own educational futures. Ann directs the Just Educational Leadership Institute and serves as Faculty Research Director of the Leadership for Learning Ed.D. program, where she collaborates with leaders and networks to co-design educational systems rooted in data literacies, and relational practices.
Her work has been widely published in leading educational research journals and she is the author of two books. “Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change” (2025), co-written with Dr. Decoteau J. Irby, reveals the complex work of sustaining justice-focused educational systems, and “Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities” (2020), is a widely regarded work on partnership in education.
She holds a Doctorate in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she also earned a master’s in education policy management. Ann also earned a master’s in curriculum and teacher education from Stanford University’s School of Education.
