Book excerpt: Dr. Heather I.H. Washington Dos Santos is a loving wife and mother of five young children who has served as a public urban school teacher and administrator for more than two decades. She has dedicated her life to studies that have served to further both her knowledge base and skillset as it relates to advocacy and public service for underrepresented and minority youth in the public school sector. As a champion for “at risk” youth in schools, Heather has worked tirelessly to remove institutional barriers that serve to detach underrepresented youth from their educational programs; thrusting them into our nation’s juvenile justice system as part of the school-to-prison pipeline. With a specific focus on the study of African American males in our nation’s schools, Heather vows to be a catalyst for change as part of her zealous pursuit of justice and equity in practice for African American males across the country.