The Utah Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education

Ramona Cutri

About Us

Get involved! Feel free to contact Board Members with questions about Utah NAME.

Volunteers

If you would like to volunteer, please contact Dr. Ramona Cutri (ramonacutri@gmail.com).

Meet Our New President-Elect

My name is Taran Kealaka'i Hing Fee Chun. I am from Hawai'i and was born and raised on the island of 'Oahu in a town called Wahiawa. My heritage is Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino. My grandfather on my father's side immigrated to Hawai'i from China to work the pineapple fields and married my native Hawaiian paternal grandmother. My grandfather on my mother's side immigrated to Hawai'i from the Philippines, joined the military and married my native Hawaiian maternal grandmother. Based on my diverse heritage, I guess you could say that I embody multiculturalism through my multiple ethnicities. Having been born and raised in Hawai'i, I identify most with my native Hawaiian culture.

I have been in the field of education for nine years, three of them as a high school teacher and coach in Hawai'i, and I am beginning my sixth year as a secondary administrator here in Utah. I have served five of those years as an assistant principal in the Provo School District at Dixon Middle School, and am beginning my first year as principal at Granite Park Junior High School in Granite School District. I completed my bachelor's degree in Physical Education Pedagogy and my Master's degree in Educational Leadership at Brigham Young University in Provo, and have completed two years towards my doctoral degree in Educational Leadership at the University of Utah. I hope to complete that doctoral degree in 2010. I currently teach a master's level course on Culture and Diversity in the Educational Leadership Program at Argosy University in Draper, Utah.

My wife is Navajo and was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation in Kayenta, Arizona. We met while students at BYU and together we have five beautiful children, three boys and two girls. My passion in education is rooted in helping students to dream big and to support them in making those dreams become a reality. Having been exposed to Critical Pedagogy and Critical Race Theory, I believe that as an educational leader I have the opportunity to help those I lead reflect on practices that may be replicating privilege for some, while denying access to others. Ours is the responsibility to reflect on those practices to be culturally responsive to the needs of all students and their families. I firmly believe that a pedagogy of caring is the best approach to teaching students and working with families.