Leading Equity

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Bridget Holloman, Ed.D.

Dr. Bridget Holloman, a native of Peekskill, NY, has been an educator in the district where she was raised, Peekskill, for well over 20 years. Bridget has taught Pre-Kindergarten, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. She often loops with a cohort of students, better known as scholars, as she believes having the scholars for two consecutive years allows her to develop the fundamental skills needed for future scholar success! Most recently, Dr. Holloman has been selected as the district’s Parent-Family-Community Liaison. Her philosophy is to develop the whole child; all participants in the scholar's life must be involved. Step one is getting the child’s parents or guardians to buy into the mindset that “academic excellence is the standard”!

Dr. Holloman has an innate calling in her life to be actively involved in the education profession, not only in teaching scholars but in family and community. The words that best describe Dr. Bridget Holloman are passion, perseverance, and commitment.

Dr. Holloman holds many degrees; a BA in Sociology from Binghamton University, an MA in Early Childhood Education from Norfolk University, an MEd in Leadership from Bank Street College of Education, and an EdD in Educational Leadership Administration and Policy from Fordham University. She enjoys reading, traveling, shopping, exercising, eating (salad), and spending time with her friends and family in her free time.

Show Highlights

• Being culturally responsive at home
• Book study
• What’s the point of the book study
• Classroom environments
• Facilitating a brave space
• Accountability outside of the book study time
• Pre and Post results
• After the book study

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Improving Literacy for Elementary School Black Boys Through Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Professional Learning Communities

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Decoteau J. Irby, Ph.D.

I create teaching and learning experiences, music and stories, and opportunities for people to be in community. Be it through music, encouraging the use of urban green spaces, or creating opportunities for Black people to generate wealth and wellness, my priorities are grounded in “going at it” together and creating space for people to shine.

Throughout my life, I’ve created all sorts of things, spaces, and experiences. These include businesses, such Derute Consulting Cooperative, a firm I co-founded in 2013; Visioning Black Spaces LLC, a collective of families that pool and invest our resources to improve Chicago’s Black neighborhoods; and Deaky Bug Creative Works LLC, a firm I use to curate and finance my personal creative endeavors and collaborations.

I’m a professor at University of Illinois at Chicago and author or co-editor of several books, including Stuck Improving: Racial Equity and School Leadership (Harvard Education Press) and a children’s book Magical Black Tears: A Protest Story (Derute Consulting Cooperative).

Through all of my work, I’m committed to creating spaces that bring people together in community. I am active in my neighborhood community garden and I serve as treasurer for my local park advisory council. Finally, I am a self-taught guitarist, songwriter, performer, and recording artist; I’ve released two albums that are available on my website at www.decoteauirby.com.

Show Highlights

• The foundations of Dr. Irby’s passion for researching racial equity
• Racial resources in organizations
• The principal’s role in racial equity work
• Confrontational Culture
• Racial Equity Keepers

Connect with Decoteau

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

Spotify

Bandcamp 

Stuck Improving: Racial Equity and School Leadership

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Byron McClure D.Ed.

Dr. Byron McClure is a National Certified School Psychologist, Founder of Lessons For SEL, and currently the Director of Innovation for 7 Mindsets. He formerly served as the Assistant Director of School Redesign for DC Public Schools, where he was responsible for leading and reimagining what Social Emotional Learning looked like within an inner-city community. He is on a mission to shift how people think from what's wrong to what's strong!"

Kelsie Reed, Ph.D.

Dr. Kelsie Reed is a nationally certified school psychologist who works at the elementary school level in Maryland. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago with her PhD in 2020 and was the recipient of two university awards for her dissertation titled, “Investigating Exclusionary Discipline: Teachers, Deficit Thinking, and Root Cause Analysis.” Dr. Reed is passionate about advancing educational equity for minoritized students, disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline, identifying and implementing alternatives to suspension, and closing the policy to practice gap.

Show Highlights

• The impact of Eugenics on policies and practices
• Assessments created to promote a superior race
• Alternative assessment options
• Hacking Deficit Thinking

Connect with Byron

Hacking Deficit Thinking Website

Twitter

Facebook Page

Instagram

Connect with Kelsie

Instagram

Sassy4SocialJustice

Twitter

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Hacking Deficit Thinking: 8 Reframes that will change the way you think about strength-based practices and equity in schools

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Jessica Morales-Chicas, Ph.D.

Growing up I recognized the various inequities that are perpetuated in education; therefore, I have dedicated the majority of my career to examining, teaching about, and alleviating educational disparities. As an Educator, for 15+ years, I focus on enlightening students with new knowledge, optimizing their skills, and growing their career potential. I earned my Ph.D. in Education from UCLA and am currently an Associate Professor in Child and Family Studies at Cal State LA. My teaching experiences range across various age groups but I particularly enjoy teaching college students. I teach courses on lifespan development, diversity and resilience, research methods, and child and family advocacy. My research uses a developmental lens to examine the role of ethnic diversity and curricular opportunities on youth motivation, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). My research background also drives my community engagement and the service programs I direct. Currently, I am directing a couple of programs that engage and teach youth about STEM skills (e.g., coding, engineering, and virtual reality) and entrepreneurship. Advancing STEM education develops students’ 21st-century skills, enhances students’ career prospects, and ultimately ensures a globally competitive economy. My experiences in education and research also inspired my entrepreneurial spirit. By leveraging the skills I have gained in these industries, I provide consulting services in diversity and inclusion, grant writing, program development, and research design.

Show Highlights

• Challenges in STEM for Latin@ students
• Language support for all families
• Recruitment and retention
• Unique experiences
• Recommendations for STEM programs

Connect with Jessica

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A Cultural Wealth Approach to Understanding Latin@s’ STEM Mentee and Mentor Experiences

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About Andratesha Fritzgerald

Andratesha Fritzgerald is the founder and lead consultant of Building Blocks of Brilliance Educational Consulting Firm.  As an international speaker Fritzgerald exhibits an audacious perseverance that calls organizations to evolve into inclusive antiracist safe zones for all learners. With over twenty years in education, she has served as a teacher, curriculum specialist, administrator, and director.  Her award winning book Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success (CAST, 2020) has been a catalyst for UDL to ensure safety and radical inclusion in every learning community.

Show Highlights

• Antiracism in UDL
• What happens when we hold onto control?
• Dealing with pushback
• Power and honor vs saviorism
• Samaria Rice

Connect with Andratesha

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Twitter

LinkedIn

Linktree

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3 Keys to Using UDL as a Powerful Antiracism Tool

Antiracism & UDL Converge for Student Success

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Dr. Crystal Menzies

A former educator in urban schools, Crystal drew on her personal experience, African-Diasporan history, and her Guyanese and African American roots to found EmancipatED where she develops research-based educational experiences that center Black communities. In her flagship product, she draws on the stories of Maroon communities – Africans who freed themselves from slavery and created hidden societies – to offer Black and Brown families a model for how to navigate as liberated beings within oppressive systems. She lives in the Bay Area (or the Yay area as she affectionately refers to it) and enjoys reading, Marvel movies, and daydreaming of Black Futures.

Show Highlights

• The Maroon communities
• Maroon leadership structure and societies
• Language and communication
• Bringing the Maroon history into our classrooms

Connect with Crystal

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Email

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Kelly J. Cross, Ph.D.

Dr. Kelly Cross, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at University of Nevada Reno, is a data-informed, transformational mission-focused culturally responsive practitioner, researcher, and educational leader. She earned her Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in 2007 and Masters of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2011. Cross completed her doctoral program in the Engineering Education department at Virginia Tech in 2015 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher with the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Cross worked in the Department of Bioengineering working to redesign the curriculum through the NSF funded Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) grant. She is a member of the ASEE Leadership Virtual Community of Practice (LVCP) that organizes and facilitates Safe Zone Training workshops. Dr. Cross has conducted workshops on managing personal bias in STEM, online and in-person, in addition to faculty training on power and privilege. Her research interests include diversity and inclusion in STEM, intersectionality, teamwork and communication skills, assessment, and identity construction. Her teaching philosophy focuses on student centered approaches such as problem-based learning and culturally relevant pedagogy. Dr. Cross’ complimentary professional activities promote inclusive excellence through collaboration. She is an NSF CAREER awardee, delivered multiple distinguished lectures, and has received a national mentoring award.

Show Highlights

• DEI support for queer individuals in STEM
• Engineering Education and the Queer Community
• Faculty and staff support

Connect with Kelly

Email

Cross, K.J., Farrell, S. & Hughes, B. (Ed.). (2022). Queering STEM Culture in US Higher Education: Navigating Experiences of Exclusion in the Academy, published by Routledge an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. eBook: 978-1-003-16925-3

Cross, K.J., Gaskins, W.B., & Coley, B.C (2022) We Cannot Address What We Do Not Acknowledge: An Autoethnography in 2020. Special Issue titled "All #BlackLivesMatter" by Understanding & Dismantling Privilege (UDP), (ISSN 2152-1875), Volume XII, Issue 1. www.wpcjournal.com.

Duckworth, M & Cross, K.J. (2022). Antiracist Holistic Change in “STEM” Higher Education. In Ruth, B.J., Blithe, S. & Bauer, J. Badass Feminist Politics, published by Rutgers University Press. rutgersuniversitypress.org

Jensen, K. & Cross, K. (2021). Engineering Stress Culture: Relationships between Mental Health, Engineering Identity, and Sense of Inclusion. Journal of Engineering Education. http://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20391

*Cross, K.J. (2020), Racism is the manifestation of White supremacy and antiracism is the answer. J Eng Educ. doi:10.1002/jee.20362 (Top downloaded JEE article) 

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About Shane Safir

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 in the community 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 support for schools, districts, and organizations across the U.S., Canada, and beyond. She facilitates workshops on creating brave spaces for equity, listening leadership, becoming a warm demander, and Street Data among other content. She is the author of The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation (Jossey-Bass: 2017) and her most recent book, coauthored with Dr. Jamila Dugan, is titled Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (Corwin, 2021).

Show Highlights

• Equity in British Columbia
• Differences in the United States
• Requests to change equity content
• Student voice

Connect with Shane

Website

Twitter

Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation

The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation

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Book Dr. Eakins

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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!

About Nelson Flores, Ph.D.

Nelson Flores studies the intersection of language and race in education. This includes tracing the racist roots of contemporary language educational research, policy, and practice, documenting the ways that they continue to harm racialized bilingual students, and conceptualizing anti-racist alternatives. His work has been featured by NPR, Education Week, and the LA Times.

Show Highlights

• Early European linguistics
• Assimilation in language
• Bilingual Education Act
• Verbal Deprivation Theory
• The legacy of the Bilingual Education Act
• Can a child be semilingual?

Connect with Nelson

Email

Twitter: @nelsonlflores

"False positives,' "reentry programs," and "long term English learners": Undoing dichotomous frames in US language education policy"

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About Laura Vernikoff, Ed.D.

Laura Vernikoff is an assistant professor of special education at Touro University Graduate School of Education. She previously taught middle and high school special education in New York City. Her current research interests include teacher preparation, intersectionality, assets-based pedagogies and pursuing social justice through education. Her new book, Disabling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Relationship Between Special Education and Arrest, is available through Rowman & Littlefield.

Show Highlights

• The lack of antisemitism education in teacher preparation programs
• What the research says
• What is missing from teacher prep programs
• Christian norms in school

Connect with Laura

Email

The Anti-Defamation League's Antisemitism Resources

Southern Poverty Law Center's Antisemitism Resources

Blumenfeld, W.J. (2006) Christian privilege and the promotion of “secular” and not-so “secular” mainline Christianity in public schooling and in the larger society. Equity & Excellence in Education, 39(3), 195-210, DOI: 10.1080/10665680600788024

White Christian Privilege (book) by Khyati Y. Joshi

My Jewish Learning site with information about Jewish culture, history, and religion

Disabling the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Additional Resources

Book Dr. Eakins

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Free Course on Implicit Bias

20 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Activities

Annihilating Racial Injustice in School Course

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