Adonica Pelichet Duggan

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

CEO
Baton Rouge Alliance for Students

In Baton Rouge, La., where large numbers of families have unenrolled from public school in favor of private and parochial institutions, Adonica Pelichet Duggan, 45, operates on a singular faith that, household income aside, high-quality education is a child’s birthright. When she founded the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students in 2021, she was banking on one additional belief that, like her, other educators and public education advocates were serious about dodging the snares of stalled-out policies and technicalities to make local public schools not just adequate, but excellent and not just in discourse, but for real.

A 20-year education veteran, Duggan innovated Changemakers, an eight-month cohort that brings together dynamic individuals across sectors — corporations, nonprofits and public entities — to learn practical knowledge and civic strategies designed to improve the school system and navigate toward the goal of equitable access for all students. The Baton Rouge native developed the curriculum and specialty trained more than 100 community leaders in Changemakers’ first cohort, also helping seven mission-aligned school board members get elected to office to be the advocates student-centered community members need.

Duggan has also charged herself to empower families with must-know intel on finding a school that compliments their child’s learning needs; and train new leaders to demand action and change that centers students, particularly in low-income and underserved communities. Once upon a time, in her previous work life, Duggan managed media and communications, where she won a Golden Achievement Award from the National School Public Relations Association. Now she gives children a platform of their own through the Baton Rouge Youth Voice Initiative, which gave more than 500 local middle and high school students the opportunity to share and discuss their education-related desires and challenges. The project culminated in a Youth Voice Report and, thanks to its organizer, identified the areas of greatest and urgent need from the perspectives that matter most. — Janelle Harris Dixon