Community colleges are often celebrated as engines of access and mobility. But behind the institutional curtains lies a more complicated story—one shaped by frontline educators and leaders who labor to transform structures not built for them or the students they serve. This talk draws on insights from a three-year Research-Practice Partnerships with equity leaders across 20 California community colleges. Through their stories, we see the burdens of racial battle fatigue, the persistence of performative commitments to equity, and the creative ways practitioners use their limited agency to push institutions toward deeper transformation. More than just a recounting of barriers, this talk surfaces acts of resistance and imagination—new roles invented, resources redirected, and cultures challenged from within. By illuminating the lived experience of those doing equity work, I ask: What does it take to stay in the fight? And how do we move from one-off initiatives to sustained, structural change? Come behind the curtains, and explore how equity leaders advance notions of racial justice in spaces that constrain and catalyze the work.

Associate Professor at San Diego State University, Dr. Eric Felix studies higher education reform and racial equity, with a focus on community colleges and critical policy implementation.