It has been almost two weeks since police murdered George Floyd in the streets of Minneapolis, today we start a series of conversations with area educators and counselors exploring what productive conversations regarding race in this country could look like.  Joining me today are Ovie Oghenejebo, sociology teacher at Lee's Summit North High School, Jordan Lewis, counselor and social worker for Youthrive in Kansas, and Tina Ellsworth, social studies coordinator for an area suburban school district.  This is the first in our series of four conversations about racism and its ramifications.  The death of George Floyd is still very much on our minds and protests are still occurring in cities across the nation.  We hope that you will use this program as a starting point to have Conversations about Race with the people you care about, your neighbors, and people you need to get to know.

The second installment in our series is entitled, "Who needs to hear this?" will be released on June 6th followed by a third installment "What is surprising in this moment?" and a fourth installment, "What's next for schools?".  We will have more discussions to come and would like your input on topics you think are important in our discussions, ideas you might have for future episodes and comments you have for any of the presenters.  You can email your responses to [email protected].