Karina Esperanza Yánez is an art educator and administrator from South-Central Los Angeles whose goal is to provide students with the tools to use the arts as a vehicle for meaningful civic and community engagement. 

Karina is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Organizational Change and Leadership at the USC Rossier School of Education. She holds two Graduate degrees: one in Art & Design Education with an emphasis on Community Arts Education from the Rhode Island School of Design and one in Arts Administration from Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University. She earned her BFA in Fine Art with a minor in Cultural Studies from the California Institute of the Arts.

You can find her reading cozying up with her two dogs when she's not teaching, facilitating workshops, or creating art.