Jamila Salisberry, College Access AdministratorWest Adams Preparatory High School

Jamila Salisberry is a College Access Administrator for LA's Promise. In this role she works in conjunction with the school's college counselor to implement school-wide initiatives such as the Go For College Program and college field trips to foster a college-going culture among LA's Promise students. With these and many other programs Jamila has helped to maintain a steady increase in college matriculation rates at West Adams Prep.

In 2005, Jamila joined LA's Promise as its very first employee. At the time the organization was known as Mentor LA. Prior to working for LA's Promise, she was a Learning Facilitator for the USC Med-COR program. Med-COR was a Saturday program designed for LAUSD students to gain exposure to medical careers. At Med-COR Jamila taught English, Algebra I and Algebra II for students grades 8-12.

Jamila is a native of Los Angeles who attended 74th Street Elementary, Audubon Middle School and Westchester High Schools--all LAUSD schools. She earned BA degrees in both English Creative Writing and Psychology at USC and an MFA degree in Creative Writing at Chapman University. In 2011, she began teaching a crash course in college writing for West Adams Prep students. When she is not working with high school students, Jamila teaches children's church and serves on the board of directors for Top Quality Faith Ministries.

Her childhood favorite book remains Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, but today Jamila enjoys reading and rereading songs and stories from The Bible.

Jamila enjoys writing songs and scripts, watching movies and playing games and solving puzzles of all sorts.

“It is not difficult to engage students, to spark in them a desire for learning or to see them succeed, if when everyday they encounter us our students know we care.” – Jamile Salisberry