Joe Truss
Racial Equity Coach
Truss Leadership
Joe Truss (he/him) is committed to dismantling white supremacy culture in schools. He is married to a High School teacher and a father of 2, soon to be 3 children. He brings 16 years of education experience, and originally grew up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. A first generation college student, he graduated from UC Berkeley, before attending Tufts University where he got his teaching credential. He began as a high school Spanish teacher in East Oakland. After attending UC Berkeley's PLI program, he started school leadership work and now has been the Principal of Visitacion Valley Middle School in SFUSD, for 6 years. There, he has worked to grow Project Based Learning, restorative practices, and reading intervention. In 2018, he started his blog CulturallyResponsiveLeadership.com, where he writes about school leadership and racial equity. He also offers workshops on antiracism and provides team coaching. Last summer he trained over 3000 educators and has presented keynotes to nearly 10,000. He works to empower educators to engineer for equity.
http://www.TrussLeadership.com
About Joe Truss
Follow Joe Truss
Racial Equity Coach
Truss Leadership
Ibram X Kendi
Author, Professor
About Ibram X Kendi
Follow Ibram X Kendi
Author, Professor
Gholdy Muhammad
Author, Professor
Georgia State University, Urban Literacy Collaborative and Clinic
Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University. She also serves as the director of the GSU Urban Literacy Collaborative & Clinic. She studies Black historical excellence within educational communities with goals of reframing curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading educational journals and books. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award and the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year. She works with teachers and young people across the United States and South Africa in best practices in culturally responsive instruction. She is the author of the best-selling book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.
http://hillpedagogies.com/
About Gholdy Muhammad
Follow Gholdy Muhammad
Author, Professor
Georgia State University, Urban Literacy Collaborative and Clinic
Bettina Love
Author, Professor
University of Georgia
Dr. Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia. She is one of the field’s most esteemed educational researchers. Her writing, research, teaching, and activism meet at the intersection of race, education, abolition, and Black joy. Dr. Love is concerned with how educators working with parents and communities can build communal, civically engaged schools rooted in Abolitionist Teaching with the goal of intersectional social justice for equitable classrooms that love and affirm Black and Brown children. In 2020, Dr. Love co-founded the Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN). ATN’s mission is simple: develop and support teachers and parents to fight injustice within their schools and communities. In 2020, Dr. Love was also named a member of the Old 4th Ward Economic Security Task Force with the Atlanta City Council.
Dr. Love is a sought-after public speaker on a range of topics, including: Abolitionist Teaching, anti-racism, Hip Hop education, Black girlhood, queer youth, Hip Hop feminism, art-based education to foster youth civic engagement, and issues of diversity and inclusion. She is the creator of the Hip Hop civics curriculum GET FREE.
In 2014, she was invited to the White House Research Conference on Girls to discuss her work focused on the lives of Black girls. For her work in the field of Hip Hop education, in 2016, Dr. Love was named the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. In April of 2017, Dr. Love participated in a one-on-one public lecture with bell hooks focused on the liberatory education practices of Black and Brown children. In 2018, Georgia’s House of Representatives presented Dr. Love with a resolution for her impact on the field of education. She has also provided commentary for various news outlets including NPR, Ed Week, The Guardian, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
She is the author of the books We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South. Her work has appeared in numerous books and journals, including the English Journal, Urban Education, The Urban Review, and the Journal of LGBT Youth.
https://bettinalove.com/
About Bettina Love
Follow Bettina Love
Author, Professor
University of Georgia
Carolyn Roberts
Speaker, Lecturer
Simon Fraser University
Carolyn Roberts (she/her) uses her voice to support Indigenous resurgence through education. She is a Coast Salish woman belonging to the Squamish Nation. Carolyn is an Indigenous academic who holds two degrees from UBC, a Masters in Aboriginal Education and Leadership and a Bachelors of Education. She also holds a Bachelors of Jazz Studies from Capilano University. Currently she is a Doctoral Student at Simon Fraser University in the eTAP Program. She has been an educator and administrator for over 20 years and is currently a Faculty Member and Indigenous teaching Fellow in the Department of Education at Simon Fraser University.
Carolyn’s work at SFU is grounded in educating new teachers and other faculty about the legacies of colonialism that can still be felt on this land today. These legacies that continue to affect the traditional caretakers of these territories is what motivates her to be an active participant of change in educating those around her about the true shared history of this land. Carolyn is a strong voice and leader for the resurgence of Indigenous people reclaiming their languages, their history, and their cultures. Carolyn’s work is about educating others around her in the importance of Indigenous culture and ancestral ways of knowing, to work towards a brighter future for all Indigenous people and the seven generations yet to come.
https://www.carolynroberts.net/
About Carolyn Roberts
Follow Carolyn Roberts
Speaker, Lecturer
Simon Fraser University
Alcine Mumby
Coach
Envision Learning Partners
Alcine Mumby (she/her) recently rejoined Envision as a deeper learning coach with Envision Learning Partners. Prior to coaching, Alcine was a Humanities teacher at one of the first small schools in the Bronx where project-based learning and portfolio defenses served as the foundation of instruction. She then went on to be a founding principal of Envision Academy in Oakland, an administrator in several small middle and high schools in Atlanta and DC, and a leadership coach in DC, Charlotte, & Philadelphia. Alcine earned her BA in English Education from NYU and a Master’s in Curriculum and Teacher Education from Stanford. When she’s not reading great books and listening to podcasts, Alcine enjoys being an aunt to 3 adorable boys and vegan cooking.
https://www.envisionlearning.org/
About Alcine Mumby
Follow Alcine Mumby
Coach
Envision Learning Partners
Carla España
Professor
Bank Street College Graduate School of Education
Carla España (she/her), Ph.D. is a teacher, literacy consultant, researcher, author, and co-founder of the En Comunidad Collective. Her love of stories and teaching comes from her roots in Chile and has been nurtured by hundreds of teachers and students across schools in New York City and beyond.
She has a BS in communication studies from New York University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, an MA in childhood education with a bilingual extension from Hunter College (City University of New York), and a Ph.D. in urban education from the Graduate Center (City University of New York). Dr. España’s teaching journey began in Harlem, New York with bilingual sixth graders and continues with teaching language arts in a middle-grade summer program.
She is currently an instructor and fieldwork advisor in the Bilingual and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program at Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Her teaching, research, coaching, and writing live at the intersection of critical literacies, children’s literature, and bilingual education. Dr. España is co-author of En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students with Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera. Find her on Twitter @ProfesoraEspana.
https://www.carlaespana.com/
About Carla España
Follow Carla España
Professor
Bank Street College Graduate School of Education
Luz Yadira Herrera
Professor
California State University, Fresno - Kremen School of Education and Human Development
Luz Yadira Herrera, (she/her) Ph.D. is a teacher, researcher, author, and co-founder of the En Comunidad Collective. Dr. Herrera has over fifteen years of experience in the education of emergent bilinguals in both mainstream and bilingual settings. She started her teaching career in New York City public schools, teaching emergent bilinguals in K-6 in Harlem. In addition, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the City College of New York, Long Island University, and Brooklyn College. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Multilingual and Multicultural Education in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno where she runs a bilingual teacher residency program in partnership with a local school district.
Dr. Herrera's teaching and research are in culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy, translanguaging, critical pedagogies, and bilingual education policy. She is the co-author of En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students with Dr. Carla España. Find her on Twitter @Dra_LuzYadira.
About Luz Yadira Herrera
Follow Luz Yadira Herrera
Professor
California State University, Fresno - Kremen School of Education and Human Development
Michael Essien
Principal, Coach, Consultant
Essien Education Group
Michael is an equity and social justice leader working to interrupt systemic oppression. He has 3 decades of serving Black and Brown students, 21 as an educator and 9 years as an administrator that have provided a unique experience leading to "out of the box" thinking. KQED's MindShift podcast examined "Push-In Services," a program he created to reduce office discipline referrals and suspension of Black and Brown students. Michael's "Push-In Services" has successfully reduced referrals and suspensions of Black and Brown students in multiple school districts. He believes in the Community School Strategy, Project Based Learning, Restorative Justice, and Push-In Services.
https://essieneducationgroup.com/index.html
About Michael Essien
Follow Michael Essien
Principal, Coach, Consultant
Essien Education Group
Jen Benkovitz
Leadership Coach
The Leadership Collaborative
Dr. Jen Benkovitz (she/her) brings over 20 years of experience in education to her role as Founder of The Leadership Collaborative. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she began her career teaching at a Title I magnet school in Charlotte, North Carolina before serving as a school leader in a combination of rural, suburban and urban K-12 public schools in both North Carolina and Washington State. Fiercely committed to advancing equity and social justice in our schools, and recognizing her love for facilitating adult learning, Jen transitioned to serving as a leadership coach and professional development specialist, supporting education leaders both in the United States and abroad. Most recently, Jen served as the Director of School Leadership for a national nonprofit where she partnered with classroom, school, and district leaders across the country to create transformational change in their schools.
Jen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Ohio University as well as a Master’s and Doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jen currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with her partner, teenage daughter, and multiple pets.
https://www.theleadershipcollaborative.org/
About Jen Benkovitz
Follow Jen Benkovitz
Leadership Coach
The Leadership Collaborative
José Garcia
Leadership Coach
José currently serves as Director of Equity for the New Tech Network. Previously he was a high school facilitator in Sacramento, California serving a diverse school community. Most recently, as a school leader, he supported the reopening of an Elementary School focusing on STEAM and PBL. As a young Xicano growing up in Stockton, CA he noticed the inequities and injustices that were impacting his community of color and those living in poverty. This experience led him to become an educator and allowed him to understand and reach the communities in ways that others could not. He currently lives in Sacramento, CA where he spends most of his time being a husband and father of 4 children.
About José Garcia
Follow José Garcia
Leadership Coach
Jamila Dugan
Author, Coach
PhillyPLUS
Dr. Jamila Dugan is a leadership coach, learning facilitator, and researcher. She began her career as a teacher in Washington D.C., successfully supporting her school to implement an International Baccalaureate program. After being nominated for Teacher of the Year, she later served as a coach for new teachers and a director of learning and leadership development for teachers in Oakland, California. As a school administrator, Jamila championed equity-centered student services, parent empowerment, and the development of the first Mandarin immersion middle school in Oakland, California. She currently serves as a leadership development coach in urban areas. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Fresno State University, a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from George Mason University, and a doctorate in Education Leadership for Equity from University of California, Berkeley.
https://phillyplus.org/
About Jamila Dugan
Follow Jamila Dugan
Author, Coach
PhillyPLUS
Shane Safir
Author, Coach
Shane Safir has worked at every level of the education system, from the classroom to the boardroom, for 25 years. In 2003, after teaching in San Francisco and Oakland and organizing with the San Francisco Organizing Project to launch a new school, Safir became the founding principal of June Jordan School for Equity (JJSE), an innovative national model identified by leading scholar Linda Darling-Hammond as having “beaten the odds in supporting the success of low-income students of color.” Since 2008, Safir has provided equity-centered leadership coaching, strategic planning, and professional learning for schools, districts, and organizations across the U.S. and Canada. She facilitates sought-after workshops on creating brave spaces for equity, listening leadership, coaching, and adult learning among other areas. She writes frequently for Edutopia and ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine and is the author of The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation (Jossey-Bass, 2017). Shane’s latest book, coauthored with Dr. Jamila Dugan, is called Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (Corwin, 2021) and hit bestseller status within three days of release. To learn more, visit www.shanesafir.com.
https://shanesafir.com/
About Shane Safir
Follow Shane Safir
Author, Coach
Matthew Kay
Teacher, Speaker
Science Leadership Academy & Philly Slam League
Matthew R. Kay (he/him) is a proud product of Philadelphia’s public schools and a founding teacher at Science Leadership Academy (SLA). He is a graduate of West Chester University and holds a Masters in Educational Leadership with a Principals’ Certificate from California University of Pennsylvania.
At SLA, he teaches an innovative inquiry-driven, project-based curriculum. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of Philly Slam League (PSL), a non-profit organization that shows young people the power of their voices through weekly spoken word competitions. The PSL is the only season-long, school-based slam poetry league in the United States.
He deeply believes in the importance of earnest and mindful classroom conversations about race. Furthermore, he believes that any teacher who is willing to put in the hard work of reflection can, through the practice of discrete skills, become a better discussion leader. Driven by these convictions, he is passionate about designing professional development that teachers find valuable.
Matthew lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Cait, and his daughter, Adia Sherrill.
https://www.notlight.com/
About Matthew Kay
Follow Matthew Kay
Teacher, Speaker
Science Leadership Academy & Philly Slam League
Rosa Perez-Isiah
Director of Elementary Education, Author
Dr. Rosa Isiah has served students in her community for 27 years. Currently, she serves as Director of Elementary Education, Equity, and Access in NLMUSD. Dr. Isiah is passionate about equity and social justice, multilingual Ed, leadership, and closing opportunity gaps for historically underserved students. Dr. Isiah’s experiences as an immigrant, English learner, and a child in poverty add to her passion for her work.
Dr. Isiah is founder of #WeLeadEd Twitter chat and the WeleadED BAMradio radio podcast focused on Ed Leadership and Social Justice. Dr. Isiah co-authored five books on the whole child, equity, leadership, and the power of relationships, including Beyond Conversations About Race (2021). She contributes her voice to blogs, podcasts, and books on social justice, diversity, equity, access, and women in leadership. Dr. Isiah was the recipient of the Loyola Marymount University 2019 Leader for Social Justice award.
Dr. Isiah is a Solution Tree Culture and Equity professional development associate. She has also presented on social justice topics at conferences including AMLE Guatemala City and Hawaii, UCLACenterX Math Parent Project, San Diego County Office of Ed, NY SPED Collaborative, ASCD, ACSA Region 14, CA League of Schools, ISTE, EdSurge, Future Ready, and CALSA.
About Rosa Perez-Isiah
Follow Rosa Perez-Isiah
Director of Elementary Education, Author
Ken (He/Him/His) currently holds an M.A. in Education with a specialization in Educational Technology as well as New Media Design and Production. He has worked as an Educator for over 20 years and spent most of his classroom experience teaching technology at the Middle School level. As a part of his active involvement within the Educational Technology community, Ken is an Apple Distinguished Educator, a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, and a Google Certified Innovator. Ken has worked extensively at the policy level with a number of State Departments of Education, Ministries of Education, non-Profits, and was appointed to the Education Technology Task Force formed by a previous California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Ken regularly gives keynotes, presentations, consults, and leads workshops, covering a wide variety of Educational Technology, Equity and Inclusion, Anti-Bias/Anti-Racist, Multimedia Literacy, Cultural Intelligences, Visual Storytelling, and Instructional Design topics. Ken is the ISTE Digital Equity PLN 2018 Excellence Award winner. Due to his extensive and broad impact Ken has also been named by EdTech Magazine as an influencer to follow.
https://kennethshelton.net/
About Ken Shelton
Follow Ken Shelton
Consultant
A Bay Area native, Nicole’s work is grounded in a passion for public service with a special interest in Education Policy reform. She has worked across the Bay Area school districts for more than a decade. After beginning her career in Oakland, as an independent contractor working in Behavior and Crisis Intervention Support and After School Programing; Nicole received a B.A. in Political Science, along with an M.A. and Credential in Special Education, and a M.A. in Educational Administration from San Francisco State University. In 2014
Nicole transitioned to SFUSD and began her work as an Education Specialist. While serving students and families with exceptional needs, she gained an in-depth perspective of the varied conditions that affect students across the diverse communities within the district. Nicole currently serves on the Professional Learning and Leadership Team for San Francisco Unified School District . Nicole is excited to continue the work supporting educators' understanding on how to mitigate current systems of oppression in
order to better serve students. As an Instructional Coach, Nicole continues to work closely with new Resources Specialists in order to provide an array of knowledge and experience towards executing best practices for student learning towards closing achievement gaps. Additionally, Nicole currently supports educators in the Teacher Leadership programs with innovative ways to approach cycles of inquiry in a hybrid learning; as well as provides intensive coaching and support for educators engaging in site-based racial
equity work.
About Nicole Henderson
Follow Nicole Henderson
Coach
Artnelson Concordia
Coach
About Artnelson Concordia
Follow Artnelson Concordia
Coach
About Aimee Riechel
Follow Aimee Riechel
Teacher
Dr. Sawsan Jaber
Leader, Consultant
A global educator with twenty years of experience in a variety of positions, Dr. Sawsan Jaber is an educational leader in multiple settings in the U.S. and abroad. She has a passion for facilitating critical conversations about equity in schools with educators and educational leaders. Sawsan is a Board Director of Our Voice Alliance charged with amplifying voices of teachers of color to create more equity for students of color. Sawsan is a National Board Certificate candidate. She is the founder of Education Unfiltered Consulting. Sawsan is one of the founding members of the Arab American Education Network. She is a featured speaker in regional, national, and international educator conferences.
About Dr. Sawsan Jaber
Follow Dr. Sawsan Jaber
Leader, Consultant
Lauren Gooden
Director of Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Practices
Lauren Gooden was born in St.Louis and raised in Amherst, Ma, a community that instilled in her values of social justice and equity. Her personal development was nurtured by the black, brown and indigenous in Boston where she felt belonging and found community as a black woman. Lauren has worked for equity as an activist, writer, grassroots organizer, youth worker, trainer, therapist, and public school teacher. She founded Sojourner to inspire and equip others to impact change.
https://www.sojourner.consulting/
About Lauren Gooden
Follow Lauren Gooden
Director of Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Practices
José Vilson
Teacher, Doctoral Student
José Luis Vilson is a veteran math educator who started his career in middle school in the Inwood / Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, NY. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in mathematics education from the City College of New York. He’s also a committed writer, activist, web designer, and father. He's also a doctoral student at Teachers' College, Columbia University, focusing on sociology and education.
https://thejosevilson.com
About José Vilson
Follow José Vilson
Teacher, Doctoral Student
