Two Top Equity Officials on Leave From Oregon Department of Education

Deborah Lange and Mariana Praschnik-Enriquez have both been with the department for years.

Oregon State Capitol (Edmund Garman)
By Joanna Hou

Two top officials at the Oregon Department of Education’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion are on leave as of this week, WW has learned.

Assistant superintendent Deborah Lange and Mariana Praschnik-Enriquez, who directs the EDI office, are both on leave, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The reason for their leave isn’t clear.

ODE communications officer Marc Siegel says the agency does not comment on personnel matters.

Lange led the Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion from May 2020 to June 2021 before being promoted to assistant superintendent. She was previously a principal in the Springfield School District, where she was almost fired in 2016 from her post at Page Elementary School after district officials said she “lacked skills to be a principal,” according to The Register-Guard. Her job was reinstated at a special grievance hearing with the district’s school board. She was relocated to Riverbend Elementary School, where she was principal until 2018.

Praschnik-Enriquez was promoted to director in May 2024 after serving as the interim director of the EDI office for about one year. In a LinkedIn post announcing her promotion, Lange wrote Praschnik-Enriquez was “the ideal candidate.” Praschnik-Enriquez previously worked in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

WW could not reach either Lange or Praschnik-Enriquez for comment.

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