About Naomi
EDUCATION ADVOCATE · COMMUNITY LEADER · WOMEN’S ADVOCATE
I spent years finding my voice for others. Eventually, I had to learn to use it for myself.
I’m a native New Yorker, raised in public housing on the Lower East Side by Dominican and Puerto Rican parents who taught me the importance of education, perseverance, and speaking up when something isn’t right.
My journey as an advocate began nearly two decades ago, when my oldest child was diagnosed with dyslexia and received an IEP. Navigating New York City’s special education system was overwhelming, but with support from advocacy organizations, I learned how to understand the system, challenge it, and fight for what my child needed.
Eventually, I began helping other parents do the same. What started as one mother advocating for her child became a much larger calling.
From Advocacy to Systems Change
Finding My Voice in Public Education
In 2015, I joined Community Education Council District 1, New York City’s version of a local school board. I served for eight years, five as president, advocating alongside families and communities for more equitable public schools.
That work taught me something that continues to shape how I lead today: families closest to a problem often understand exactly what needs to change. They simply need their voices to be heard.
Building What Didn’t Exist
When the pandemic exposed even deeper gaps for my son with dyslexia, I went searching for a public school that could meet his needs. I discovered that the kind of school I was looking for simply didn’t exist.
So, alongside six other mothers of dyslexic children, I helped create it. Together, we co-founded Literacy Academy Collective to remove systemic and financial barriers for students with language-based learning disabilities.
Finding My Own Voice
For years, I could walk into a meeting and challenge systems, institutions, and people in positions of power without hesitation. I knew how to advocate. I knew how to fight for families. I knew how to make people listen.
At home, I was living a very different reality.
I learned to avoid conflict, question my own perceptions, and carefully manage my words to prevent arguments that could last for hours. I was belittled, manipulated, and made to question my own reality and self-worth.
For a long time, I thought I was the problem.
What I once struggled to name,
I now name clearly: abuse.
For years, I could challenge systems, solve problems, and stand up for others. What I didn’t yet know was how to extend that same courage to myself. I could challenge systems, solve problems, and stand up to people in positions of power. Yet in my personal life, I was constantly bracing for the next argument.
When that behavior began spilling into my professional life, something became impossible to ignore: there was no part of my life this abuse would not eventually reach.
That was when I knew I had to leave.
My mind, my body,
and my soul are finally at peace—
a peace I never knew could exist.
My life is quieter now. I no longer brace myself for the next argument or question my own reality. My home feels safe. I sleep through the night. My phone connects me to family, friends, and work—not interrogation or emotional manipulation. I have clarity in my thoughts and freedom in my choices.
For the first time, I am not surviving my life. I am living it.
