Jacqueline “Dr. J” Sanderlin is a champion educator, community leader, crowd-pumper extraordinaire and celebrity magnet. She uses all of her enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit to attract supporters for her “scholars,” which is what she calls the students in the Los Angeles-area school districts that she’s helped transform. Sanderlin’s “Why Not” attitude has led to dramatic improvements in educational opportunities and outcomes in Culver City, Compton and Inglewood districts.

“As a WE leader and principal for 18 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in challenging school districts, which had approximately 40 percent foster youth and some even homeless,” says Sanderlin. “It was my personal mission to help build bridges of inspiration and hope for them and their families.”

Sanderlin is a huge champion of WE and the WE Teachers program that empowers a teacher community and provides free resources to teachers across America to help them address critical social issues with their students. Says Carrie Patterson, Chief of Operations for WE Charity: “Dr. J brings a passion and dedication to education that is as contagious as it is fun! Her commitment to her students and their potential inspires me and reminds me of the importance of creating a future in education where all students can thrive.”

Says Sanderlin: “I want the future of my students to be limitless. My perspective is for us not to just think big, but to think even bigger.” The charismatic educator started out with dreams of becoming a journalist, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Communications/Public Relations from Cal State University. She even had a campus talk show, where she called herself “Jackie Winfrey.” She went on to earn a Doctorate in Education, Leadership, Administration and Policy from Pepperdine University. “Dr. J” was launched.

As principal at George Washington Carver Elementary School in Compton Unified School District, she connected with comedian and actress Cheryl Hines (of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame), who was a student “reading buddy”. When Hines saw the school’s playground, she commented on how rundown it was. Over five years, the two identified and pooled public and private money—working with William Morris talent agency and The Hollywood Reporter—to refurbish Carver and then Foster Elementary School, fixing the playgrounds, hanging stage curtains, renovating teachers’ lounges, planting flowers and securing new computers.

“I didn’t realize that I had more control than I thought to fix my school. Once we put our minds to something, we got it done. And that spurred another question, Why not? Why not more?” recalls Sanderlin.

That’s when Dr. J introduced the concept of service-learning—where students connect what they learn in the classroom to real issues in the surrounding community and they take action. She began to integrate the WE service-learning curriculum into each one of the district’s schools, supporting them as they tied classroom learning to issues in their communities. Some schools created hygiene packs and distributed them to people living on the streets; others collected used clothes to pass on to homeless children; one school set up a recycling program at their school and did lunch and schoolyard cleanup at recess; another created a strong mentoring program where school ambassadors were selected to mentor younger children. In addition, the entire school district took action to support displaced victims of Hurricane Harvey by filling backpacks with supplies, including clothing, and sending them to Texas.

Understanding that partnerships help to bring community together and support teachers in their mission to empower students, Dr. J has formed over 200 partnerships in the districts where she has worked. For her students, she says these “opportunities and access gave them pride and joy,” and also “college acceptances into Ivy League colleges that would not be there before.” She’s making waves by nurturing her students’ potential to “look beyond their circumstances and engage in being the change in their own communities.”