Araceli Simeón is a Project Director at the Parent Organization Network (PON) where she advocates for family engagement in education as a strategy to improve student outcomes and schools. In this capacity, Ms. Simeón manages a network of 14 organizations and projects that seek to remove barriers hindering family engagement and strengthen family and community engagement theory and practice. Prior to PON, Ms. Simeón worked for a decade at Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund directing its national Parent School Partnership program that trains parents to become advocates for their children. Since 2016, Ms. Simeón has served on the State Board of Education’s California Practitioners Advisory Group where she has provided input on ongoing efforts to establish a single coherent local, state, and federal accountability system. She has also served on the California Department of Education’s Ad Hoc Family Engagement Work Group to develop the current version of the self-reflection tool for the Priority 3: Family engagement. Ms. Simeón graduated from the California State Polytechnic University at Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and received her master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Southern California. She is a proud mother of two high schoolers.