Enrique Santana Carballo is the founder of VEL (Voices for Equitable Learning), a nonprofit organization based in Rochester, New York dedicated to building equity-centered AI literacy for K–12 educators and students across New York State.

With a background in education and a deep commitment to making emerging technology accessible to every teacher — not just early adopters — Enrique developed the AI in the Classroom course to meet educators where they are: curious, time-pressed, and ready to do right by their students in a world AI is already reshaping.

His work at VEL is grounded in the belief that AI literacy is an equity issue. When only some teachers understand how AI works, only some students benefit from thoughtful, critical engagement with these tools. VEL's mission is to close that gap — one classroom, one teacher, one honest conversation at a time.

This course draws on two foundational texts in AI education: Matt Miller's AI Literacy in Any Class and Artificial Intelligence in Education by Holmes, Bialik, and Fadel — synthesized into a format built for the realities of K–12 teaching in New York State, including the legal landscape of student data privacy under FERPA, COPPA, and NYS Education Law 2-d.