Kiwan Cato-Fox (Cato)
Program Director
Operation Progress LA
A humble but ambitious, razor-sharp professional and educator who has passion for teaching and learning, Cato embraces those who see things differently, are not afraid to experiment, and who have a healthy disregard for constraints.
His commitment to equity in education began at a young age. The Program Director of ‘Operation Progress LA’ had access to a quality education. “I was afforded a quality education that peers in my own family did not have the same access to,” Cato says. “I understood this as a privilege and as I persisted through my education, committed to sharing as many resources as I could.” Active in the field of education for over twenty years, his career began as a high school English teacher before serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in southern, Africa, Namibia – training teachers. He later worked for The Food and Agricultural Organization of The United Nations - Namibia incorporating youth development principles into agricultural programming throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
It is during the latter pivot in his career that made him starkly aware of not only inequitable school systems, but also inequitable access to after-school programming as well.
His work with Operation Progress LA strives to provide children and youth a quality education without having to leave their community, by providing services for in-school and out-of-school educators, children and youth, and their families to transform their systems and build more equitable learning opportunities from elementary school through college.