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Retrato al óleo (c. 1820) del General José de San Martín. Fotografía del original en Museo Histórico Nacional, Buenos Aire

Gil de Castro, José

Retrato del General José de San Martín

Retrato (óleo sobre tela) del General José de San Martín pintado en Chile, 1818, por José Gil de Castro. Obsequiado por San Martín a José Ignacio de la Roza, refiere el Museo Histórico Nacional donde se encuentra el origina

This georeferenced map is a 1797 Plan of the City of Dublin, Ireland, "surveyed for use of the division of justices, to which have been added plans of the canal harbor and its junction with the grand canal and the royal canal and every projection and alteration of the present time." This map was georeferenced via the New York Public Library MapWarper tool

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1797 Plan of the City of Dublin, Ireland

This interview with Nellie Mae Senior Program Officer Delia Arrellano-Weddleton provides
important insight on how racial equity has become a focusing lens for the philanthropic work
of the Nellie Mae Foundation and how her own experiences and background influenced her
path and direction

Cockbain, Kerryn

54	 The	Metropolitan	Center	for	Research	on	Equity	and	the	Transformation	of	Schools
Conversations	in	Urban	Education
A Conversation with Delia Arellano-Weddleton, 
Senior Program Officer at the Nellie Mae 
Education Foundation*
When this interview was conducted, Delia offered her perspective as Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s Senior Program Officer on leading youth and parent organizing. Her role with the Foundation has since shifted 
to Director of Engagement and Partnerships. In this new role, Delia supports the 
Foundation’s engagement with community members to ensure that their voices 
are well-represented. She is also responsible for building Nellie Mae’s partnerships 
with organizations that have complementary interests in supporting communities 
facing racial inequities.
Kerryn Cockbain (KC): Could you describe who you are, both personally  
and professionally?
Delia Arellano-Weddleton (DA): Personally, I have identified myself forever as first-
generation American born. My parents came to the US from Mexico undocumented 
and I always share this with people because it is an important part of who I am 
and how I see the world around us. I was born and raised in Texas and I am a first-
generation college graduate; I went from a low-income community to a wealthy 
Ivy League. To be honest, I felt like a fish out of water the entire time. I went into 
social work because I had this idea, from a very young age, of making the world a 
better place. Somewhere along the way, I decided it was okay if I could just make my 
corner of the world a little better. My social work background involved working with 
primarily Latino communities.
Just before I came into philanthropy, I was running a small program for immigrants, 
providing them with resources and helping them navigate the community that they 
lived in. I came into philanthropy through Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s 
Diversity Fellowship Program. I often tell people that there have been a couple of 
pivotal experiences in my life, and one was going off to an Ivy league school, which 
This interview with Nellie Mae Senior Program Officer Delia Arrellano-Weddleton provides 
important insight on how racial equity has become a focusing lens for the philanthropic work  
of the Nellie Mae Foundation and how her own experiences and background influenced her 
path and direction.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
	VUE	Volume	49	•	Issue	2	 55
put me on a different course in life. 
The other pivotal experience was the 
Diversity Fellowship Program with 
youth and parents that are part of Nellie 
Mae’s grassroots work. The goal of the 
program was to bring more people of 
color into philanthropy through a strong 
social justice lens, and that aligned well 
with the work I had been doing prior. 
I’ve been working at Nellie Mae for 
12 years now, including the time of the 
fellowship. My skills in philanthropy 
have been honed during my time here 
and it’s been an interesting experience, 
as I had to adjust to an office setting. 
As a result of my social work, I was 
used to being in families’ homes, talking 
to the parents and playing with the 
kids. I’m grateful that I was given the 
responsibility early on to build those 
relationships because that was where 
my heart was. That’s where I’ve been 
for the past 10 years, building out our 
grassroots organizing work, which had 
been part of the Foundation’s efforts 
to advance public understanding and 
demand around student-centered 
approaches to learning.
KC: You touched briefly on your 
experiences leading up to where 
you decided you wanted to go, but 
what particular experience or set of 
experiences that you encountered in 
your life, made you realize that this is 
the work you wanted to dedicate your 
life to? 
DA: I came to Nellie Mae because I 
experienced first-hand the difference 
an education, especially a quality 
education, can make. Recently, our 
work has shifted to focus on racial 
equity. The work I have been doing with 
young people has helped me to see not 
only the importance of education, but 
also to understand the oppressive system 
I went through. I often tell people I am 
“long in the tooth,” but the stories that 
I am hearing in 2020 are similar to what 
I went through. And for me, that’s what 
fuels me. Somebody needs to benefit 
from me being here, not just me and my 
family. Someone out there needs to be 
better off because I took up this space. 
Philanthropy is an amazing animal 
and it’s a very kind place to work, but 
it’s also pressing against some very 
traditional ways of doing work. I’ve 
been here long enough that I had to 
press against some of those traditional 
ways. I had to do some of the code 
switching, similar to how young people 
are changing their schools; I had to do it 
in here so that our organization could be 
comfortable supporting the youth voice 
and supporting it in the way that young 
people want it to work, not in the way 
Nellie Mae was prescribing. Personally, 
I no longer feel a need to code switch. 
As I’ve said, some of the youth I’ve 
gotten to know over the years, they have 
helped me find my voice! People of color 
(youth and parents, etc.) should not be 
required to code switch - my hope is 
that we can all be our authentic selves. I 
don’t think I could have done it as well 
if I didn’t know firsthand what they 
were fighting for. 
For me, this work has been really 
about the heart, about, “How do we 
support these young folks, who aren’t 
being heard in their schools and how 
do we provide resources?” It’s about 
just valuing young people, valuing 
community voice, knowing they have a 
lot to say. They have a lot to contribute. 
Our systems are not always set up to 
privilege their voice or their experiences.
Someone out there needs to be better off 
because I took up this space.
56	 The	Metropolitan	Center	for	Research	on	Equity	and	the	Transformation	of	Schools
Conversations	in	Urban	Education
KC: Take us back to about 5 to 10 years 
ago. Can you describe the landscape 
you were operating in then? Specifically 
within that sphere of education? And 
how has that landscape changed or 
remained the same? 
DA: Just before we launched into 
youth organizing, there were very few 
groups that were actually organizing 
in New England. Through the years, 
we have seen that change. There’s a 
lot more organizing, and for better 
or for worse, I think it is the political 
landscape that has made a lot of these 
groups take action and organize. I still 
think that organization is the third rail 
in philanthropy. Quite honestly, even 
though the institution supported [people 
organizing], there’s still a little bit of a 
dancing thing that needs to take place. 
For example, I am aware of program 
officers that need to be cautious about 
how this work is shared with their CEO 
or Board members. 
There are some amazing foundations 
that are very grassroots-oriented. They’re 
not apologetic; they just do it full force. 
Then, there are some program officers 
that value it, but they still have to pursue 
everyone else to get on board. In the 
time I’ve been here, I have seen more 
organizations and foundations actively 
speaking out and changing their strategy. 
I have been here a long time; I’ve seen 
people come and go. There were some 
amazing mentors 10-12 years ago when 
I started whose foundations have exited 
the organizing space. Some new ones 
have come in. But it’s still narrow. One 
of the things that I’m in the midst of 
learning about is how limited the dollars 
are to supporting marginalized voices, 
in terms of dollar systems or big gifts. 
It’s still very limited. And if you think 
about organizing, it’s probably even 
more limited, so I think you could say 
that some philanthropy organizations 
are starting to get comfortable around 
the idea of supporting community voice. 
However, we have a long way to go to 
work with other marginalized identities.
KC: What are some of the changes, 
either positive or negative, that the 
shifting rhetoric within the country has 
brought to your work?
DA: There are a lot more groups that are 
speaking loudly around ethnic studies. 
I think there’s a higher level of sense 
of identity that’s emerging and people 
feeling more comfortable speaking 
truth to power and saying, “We need 
more teachers of color. We need more 
ethnic studies in our schools. We need 
restorative justice.” I think it’s amplified 
the needs in the community in the sense 
that people are not going to hold back 
anymore. We support Connecticut 
Students For A Dream; they’re part of 
United We Dream. They have worked 
on statewide policy around tuition for 
undocumented students. I think the 
political sea has made people realize 
that it’s now or never. If you don’t 
start speaking up now, things can only 
get worse. 
Nellie Mae began rapid response after 
the 2016 election, responding to the 
needs of the communities. I started 
getting emails and knew we had to do 
something. I leaned on grantee partners 
for advice when I started seeing the 
narrative around Parkland. Many 
people in the country are now saying, 
“Wow, this is great. Young people are 
actually out there marching.” I felt that 
the voices of young people of color who 
have been marching and taking action 
for many years were being dismissed or 
were not surfacing. Our young people 
were feeling the same way. They were 
feeling like they were not being seen. We 
were able to put out resources and say, 
“Hey, if you’re looking at our schools 
now, you can take the time to notice 
us too.” It was a moment to leverage 
to ensure other youth people got some 
spotlight. In that way, I’ve seen some of 
the landscape change. I think people are 
willing to take more of a chance. 
	VUE	Volume	49	•	Issue	2	 57
KC: So what do you see as some of the 
most dominant influences or challenges 
right now?
DA: We just adopted a new strategy 
focused on a racial equity lens and 
I’m at the point where I cannot see 
things without seeing them through 
that lens. I think about what happens 
on a daily basis in the school, but it’s 
also really important to talk about 
the root causes. One of the beauties 
about the youth groups that we 
support is that they really do talk 
about root causes. They don’t just 
deal with the superficial. They have 
an understanding. They have a critical 
analysis around why they’re being 
pushed out, why when they show 
up to school, they’re told to check 
their culture at the door. I think it’s 
important to acknowledge that people 
are tempted to say the school system 
we work within is broken, but quite 
frankly, it’s not broken. It’s working 
the way it was designed to work. 
Historically, you have people of color 
that are mostly marginalized and it’s 
not that the system fell apart for them. 
It’s set up in a way that if you’re on the 
margins of society, you’re not getting 
the support you need. You’re not 
getting the love and the respect that 
you need. The buildings and books 
are broken and it’s just not set up for 
success. I have a hard time not thinking 
about racial inequities as being at the 
center of a lot of the issues that we 
are grappling with and that our young 
people, and their parents, are the 
recipients of on a daily basis.
KC: So what would you say to the 
people who through willful ignorance 
or otherwise disagree that there needs 
to be an advocacy for vulnerable 
populations in the educational space? 
DA: I think it would matter who I was 
speaking to. Am I speaking to someone 
in the school? Am I speaking to someone 
in the business world? If I think of the 
business world, it’s tempting to think 
about what they stand to gain from 
things being better. I think I am a work 
in progress because as I’m learning more 
and more about racial equity, it’s helping 
me think differently. My previous 
instinct, if I’m talking to a bunch of 
business people, would be to talk about 
how they’re going to gain from a higher 
skilled group of graduates. I’m not 
certain that I would reply in that way 
right now. I feel like there’s something 
to be said about what’s humane and 
what’s just in our society. That goes to 
the heart more so than to pocketbooks 
or peoples’ thinking. Unless we can 
change peoples’ perceptions of others, 
especially others that don’t look like 
them, anything we do is not going to be 
authentic. When I think about the work 
we’ve done around parent organizing, 
I started with the questions of “Do 
teachers and school administrators 
value what parents have to say? Do they 
respect parents?” Because if there isn’t 
that sense of respect and valuing and 
desire to work with them, everything’s 
going to feel artificial. Ultimately, it’s 
not an easy process and it takes a long 
time, but young people, people of color 
in particular, need to be seen as assets 
and need to be seen as human beings 
that matter. It may not be for my own 
personal gain. It may be about them. I 
think it’s shifting the narrative around 
who stands to gain from us educating 
young people of color.
I have a hard time not thinking about racial 
inequities as being at the center of a lot of the 
issues that we are grappling with.
58	 The	Metropolitan	Center	for	Research	on	Equity	and	the	Transformation	of	Schools
Conversations	in	Urban	Education
KC: You speak a lot about what is right 
and just. Do you have a philosophy, or 
theory, or framework that guides you? 
A compass that serves you through 
these very trying and difficult times 
that you’re facing?
DA: One of the things that guides me 
is I don’t want to waste my time in 
philanthropy. I just cannot afford to 
waste it. I feel responsible for young 
people. I feel responsible for parents 
and I can’t afford to waste this time. 
This is an amazing opportunity; I’m 
here and I need to make it worthwhile. 
That’s what drives me. I have to ask 
myself, “How am I going to make sure 
that the time I get to be in this place of 
privilege, benefits others?” That’s really 
my dream: to have made a difference. 
KC: And finally, where do you see 
the greatest potential for hope and 
progress right now? 
DA: I think it’s about continuing to 
build power in the people who haven’t 
had power or people whose power isn’t 
recognized. I have this mindset that 
when we talk about communities of 
color, low-income communities, that 
there is a lot of power there. There’s a 
lot of strong power. There are a lot of 
beautiful relationships, but we don’t 
always see that as an asset. We come 
into it with our own lens of what 
power looks like. I believe that helping 
them continue to build that power is 
going to be critical to making change 
– helping people come together, build 
collective power, be recognized, and 
be seen. This whole thing connects 
to the saying, “Nothing about me 
without me.” What I’ve heard lately 
is “Nothing about me without me 
is about me.” Keeping that in mind, 
who gets to make the decisions that 
impact them directly? Many people 
stop working at the end of the day, 
but we also have a role as community 
members. Every single decision that is 
made- at the local and school levels- 
impacts lives in our community. I think 
it is about helping the community build 
that power. 
We’ve had a number of stories of 
parents who probably would describe 
themselves as not having had a voice 
and not feeling comfortable speaking. 
They are now. They have won 
elections, at the city level and at the 
school board level, and some of them 
are leading organizations inside school 
districts now. There is a lot of hope 
for the future if we use our strength to 
bring those voices to light.
Delia Arellano-Weddleton (interviewee) 
joined the Nellie Mae Education 
Foundation in 2008. 
Delia, a first-generation American, 
holds more than 20 years’ experience in 
social services and community outreach, 
primarily in low-income, immigrant 
communities. Previously, she worked 
at the Foundation as a Fellow in the 
Associated Grant Makers Diversity 
Fellowship Program. Prior to the Nellie 
Mae Education Foundation, Delia was 
the Coordinator of the Newcomers 
and Neighbors Center in Framingham, 
Massachusetts, which was created to 
respond to the needs of the town’s 
large immigrant community. She also 
previously worked as a Bilingual Family 
Advocate at the South Middlesex 
Opportunity Council’s Head Start 
program, supporting English-, Spanish- 
and Portuguese-speaking families. 
Delia holds a bachelor’s degree in 
sociology and a master’s degree in social 
work from the University of Pennsylvania.
Kerryn Cockbain (interviewer) is a 
South African masters student at NYU 
and serves as the Communications 
Coordinator for the general NYU Metro 
Center. She assists on all communication 
for the various centers housed at NYU 
Metro Center and coordinates with each 
group in external communication efforts.


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Retrato del General José de San Martín

Retrato del General José de San Martín

1797 Plan of the City of Dublin, Ireland

A Conversation with Delia Arellano-Weddleton, Senior Program Officer at the Nellie Mae Education Foundation

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