Leading Equity

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Amy Ferrell, Ph.D.

Amy Ferrell studies community, discourse, and literacy. Her scholarship, which situates disability research in social, cultural, historical, racial, linguistic, and political contexts, has appeared in journals such as Harvard Educational Review, Reading Research Quarterly, Urban Education, Linguistics and Education, and International Journal of Inclusive Education. She is coauthor of the second edition of The Ethics of Special Education (Teachers College Press). Her current projects explore the profound need for critical literacy approaches in special education research and practice, from which all forms of texts are viewed as ideological and contestable. Additionally, she works to reframe the decades-long debate of inclusion in the field of special education leveraging a perspective of community as a site of mutual giving. Instead of viewing culturally derived and socially constructed norms of independence, achievement, and success as emancipatory, she proposes that true community counters oppression, segregation, and control.

Show Highlights

• Inclusion
• Social Justice at an early age
• The COAST method
• Critical literacy examples

Connect with Amy

[email protected]                                      

Exploring Critical Literacy for Elementary Students with Disabilities

Critical Literacy: Enhancing Students’ Comprehension of Text

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20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

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Melanie Bertrand, Ph.D.

Melanie Bertrand is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies & Practice at the University of Arizona and a former K-5 teacher. Her research explores the potential of youth and community leadership to improve schools and challenge systemic racism and other forms of oppression in education. Her work pushes the educational leadership field to include youth--especially youth of color and other youth facing injustice--in expanded conceptions of leadership.

Carrie Sampson, Ph.D.

Carrie Sampson is an assistant professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University. Her research focuses on educational leadership, policy, and equity from three interrelated perspectives -- democracy, community advocacy, and politics. Drawing from a range of critical theories and employing mostly qualitative methods, Dr. Sampson's published work includes peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and policy reports on school boards, school desegregation, English learners, and community organizing in education. She has also received various awards and recognition for her scholarship, including the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Educational Research Division A (Administration, Organization, and Leadership) Early Career Award, and the UCEA William J. Davis Award for the article entitled “(Im)Possibilities of Latinx school board members’ educational leadership toward equity."

Show Highlights

• The White Innocence Playbook
• What happens in school board meetings
• Strategies for school board members

Connect with Melanie and Carrie

Melanie’s Faculty Page

Carrie’s Faculty Page

Bertrand, M., & Sampson, C. (2022). Exposing the white innocence playbook of school district leaders. Equity & Excellence in Education.

Sampson, C. & Bertrand, M. (2021). Counter-storytelling, metaphors, and rhetorical questioning: Discursive strategies of advocacy toward racial equity in school board meetings . Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 

Sampson, C. & Bertrand, M. (2020). “This is civil disobedience. I’ll continue.”: The racialization of school board meeting rules. Journal of Education Policy, 1-21. 

Bertrand, M., & Sampson, C. (2020). Challenging systemic racism in school board meetings through intertextual co-optation. Critical Studies in Education, 1–17. 

Additional Resources

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Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

Order the Leading Equity Book Today!

Patrick Camangian, Ph.D.

Patrick Camangian, Ph.D. is a former English teacher in Los Angeles and Oakland and a professor of Teacher Education at the University of San Francisco. Patrick’s interdisciplinary research on humanizing education intersects radical democratic analysis, critical pedagogy, and health science research. Patrick pursues these areas of research to improve teacher quality, capacity, and retention, as well as to inform policies and practices impacting urban schools and communities. 

Show Highlights

• Gender conflicts in education
• Dismantling male supremacy

Connect with Patrick

USF Faculty Page

Academia.edu

Loving (Lumpen) Masculinities: Teaching to Transform Heteropatriarchy, Toxic Masculinity, and Urban Misogyny

Additional Resources

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Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

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Stephanie Renee Toliver, Ph.D.

S.R. Toliver is an assistant professor of Literacy and Secondary Humanities at the University of Colorado, Boulder whose scholarship centers the freedom dreams of Black youth and honors the historical legacy that Black imaginations have had and will have on activism and social change. She is the author of Recovering Black Storytelling in Qualitative Research: Endarkened Storywork, and her academic work has been published in several journals, including Journal of Literacy Research andResearch in the Teaching of English.

Show Highlights

• Defining Nerds
• Nerdy vs. Dorky
• Nerdy Black girls exist
• Relationship building strategies

Connect with Stephanie

Website

Book: Recovering Black Storytelling in Qualitative Research: Endarkened Storywork

Mastodon

Weird Is Normal”: A Womanist Discourse Analysis of Black Girl Nerds’ Community Building

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20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

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Dr. Tracey A. Benson

Is the founder of The Anti-Racist Leadership Institute. He has served as a university professor, principal coach, high school principal, middle school vice-principal, district trainer, and elementary school teacher. His book, Unconscious Bias in Schools: A Developmental Approach to Exploring Race and Racism, was released with Harvard Education Press in August 2019. Benson firmly believes student achievement, teacher efficacy, and school success is contingent upon high quality, racial equity-focused school, and district leaders. He has committed his career to leading for change, courageously addressing entrenched practices that impede lifetime outcomes of students of color.

Show Highlights

• The differences between DEI and Anti-racist work
• Anti-racist work
• The aftermath of Brown v Board of Education
• The absence of recognition for doing anti-racist work and racial battle fatigue
• Strategies for Anti-racist teaching and leadership

Connect with Tracey

Website

Book: Unconscious Bias in Schools: A Developmental Approach to Exploring Race and Racism

Twitter

“Nobody’s Mule”: Black Womanist Caring-Agency, Urban Charters, and the Choice to (Not) Teach

Additional Resources

Amplifying Student Voices January 19-21

Book Dr. Eakins

Watch The Art of Advocacy Show

Learn more about our Student Affinity Groups

Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

Order the Leading Equity Book Today!

Dwight Carter

Dwight Carter is an award-winning education leader from Central OH and the Director of Student Support Systems for the Eastland-Fairfield Career and Technical School District.

He is the co-author of What’s In Your Space? Five Steps to Better School and Classroom Design (Corwin, 2016), Leading Schools in Disruptive Times: How to Survive Hyper-change (Corwin 2017/2021); and a contributing author to Because of a Teacher: Stories of the Past to Inspire the Future of Education written and curated by George Couros. His first solo book, Be GREAT: Five Principles to Improve School Culture from the Inside Out, was published recently (IMPress, 2022).

Jack Slavinksi

Jack is founder/owner of a leadership development consulting business, with focus on transforming culture, developing leaders at all levels and comprehensive well-being/resiliency training.  

He has been an adjunct professor (sr. lecturer) at The Ohio State University for 11 years at the undergraduate and graduate levels, teaching four leadership, team and change oriented courses year-round.  Jacks consulting business has a highly diverse client base-K-12 education (from BoE to students), higher education, business, athletics, ministry, and law enforcement.

Jack has a corporate background in executive leadership, having worked at firms such as GE – Technology Consulting, TIAA, Citi and Xerox in many global, transformational roles.

Jack believes that each of us has enormous potential to intentionally develop and change, with his purpose being to equip and enable each of us to “create the best future version of ourselves, our teams and organizations”.  He believes in the power of mindset management, positivity and motivation.

He lives with family in S. Delaware, with hobbies in fitness training, outdoor work, organizational behavior research and college football.

Show Highlights

• Defining leadership
• Basic leadership skills
• Leadership Framework

Connect with Dwight

Website

Twitter

Connect with Jack

Website

Additional Resources

Book Dr. Eakins

Amplifying Student Voices Program

Watch The Art of Advocacy Show

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Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

Order the Leading Equity Book Today!

Maya Payne Smart

Maya Payne Smart is a writer, parent educator, and literacy advocate who has served on the boards of numerous library and literacy organizations. She and her family live in Milwaukee, where she serves as affiliated faculty in educational policy and leadership in the College of Education at Marquette University. Her website, MayaSmart.com, provides tips and tools for parents to nurture, teach, and advocate for kids on the road to reading.

Show Highlights

• What Maya wishes teachers would have told her as parent to a young child
• Questions guardians can ask
• Progress monitoring for teachers and communication with guardians
• Top 6 Levers
• Parent/Guardian advocacy strategies
• The importance of partnerships between the school and the home

Connect with Maya

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Book: Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six

Additional Resources

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Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

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Order the Leading Equity Book Today!

Chris McNutt

Chris is obsessed with the benefits of progressive education and wants a practical place to find everything, for free, under one roof (hence HRP!) He was a public high school digital media & design educator who centered his practice on experiential learning, purpose-driven pathways and community involvement.

Show Highlights

• Progressive education
• Behaviorism
• Zero tolerance

Connect with Chris

The Human Restoration Project

Instagram

Twitter

Behaviorism and Empty Pedagogy

TLAC Techniques

Additional Resources

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Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

Order the Leading Equity Book Today!

Ross Szabo

Ross Szabo is a social innovator who pioneered the youth mental health movement. He is the Wellness Director and founding faculty member at Geffen Academy at UCLA, where he has created a program for students to learn about mental health once a week throughout their education from grade 6-12. Ross is also an award winning speaker, author and the CEO of Human Power Project, a company that designs mental health curriculum.

Ross turned a diagnosis of bipolar disorder with anger control problems and psychotic features at age 16, into an opportunity to educate others. His natural ability to make mental health approachable for large groups of people has led to countless media appearances.

Ross has spoken to more than 2 million people about the importance of mental health and provided a positive example to empower them to seek help. During his 8 years as Director of Outreach for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, he created the first national youth mental health speakers’ bureau in the country that is now a part of Active Minds. He has trained over 50 mental health advocates who have spoken to millions of people.

Ross is the author of Behind Happy Faces; Taking Charge of Your Mental Health and A Kids Book About Anxiety, which was named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things in 2020. His tremendous efforts in the mental health field have led to him receiving the 2010 Didi Hirsch Erasing the Stigma Leadership Award, 2012 Changing Minds Award and his advocacy work was entered into the Congressional Record by Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

Human Power Project’s first curriculum titled, Behind Happy Faces, is being utilized by over 250,000 students. The curriculum received the 2016 Excellence in Education Award from the Association of Fraternity and Sorority Advisors.

Show Highlights

• Mental health education
• How does mental health education relate to SEL
• Mental health is something that we should all embrace
• Ross shares his story of why he is passionate about mental health education
• Mental Health Education curriculum
• Benefits of mental health education

Connect with Ross

The Human Power Project

Additional Resources

Amplifying Student Voices January 19-21

Book Dr. Eakins

Watch The Art of Advocacy Show

Learn more about our Student Affinity Groups

Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

FREE AUDIO COURSE: Race, Advocacy, and Social Justice Studies

Order the Leading Equity Book Today!

In this episode, Kevin Simpson and Marla Hunter share their experiences as BIPOC educators working in international schools.

Watch the episode on YouTube

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