Leading Equity

About Scott Cavanias

Scott Cavanias is currently a middle school principal and has experience as an educational leader throughout the K-12 levels. He has been instrumental in implementing the World’s Greatest Schools process at two different schools, and has supported their transformations into places where beliefs drive everything for students, staff/faculty, and families. Prior to his work as an educational administrator, Scott was a high school teacher, Renaissance Advisor, and ASB Director. He has a passion for student leadership and building school culture, where his work earned him an induction into the California Association of Renaissance Educators (CARE) Hall of Fame. He was also recognized as the Bob Burton Spirit Award Winner by the California Activities Directors Association. Scott is also a part of the Instructional Leadership Corps, which is a joint project with Stanford University and the California Teacher’s Association and works closely with non-profit educational foundations. 

About Jessica Delavigne

Jessica Delavigne is currently a district instructional coach and the 2020 district Educator of the Year.  As a district coach, she supports schools’ work with site and district instructional focus areas and initiatives. Working closely with site administrators and staff, she supports the work that is being done with school culture, vision, and beliefs, and ensures that this work drives focus areas within the instructional realm. Ms. Delavigne has gathered experiences at a number of different school sites that have helped her to understand how critical it is to build a school’s culture, identity, and a foundation of collective values in order to effectively address instructional goals that must support all students. Ms. Delavigne understands and has experienced the power of a unified school culture and shared school vision, and knows just how much movement can be made in instruction and professional development if shared, school-wide beliefs are present.

Show Highlights

• Academic tracking
• Getting rid of track to support all students
• Equipping our teachers to effectively educate during COVID-19
• Student Panels and what to do with the data

Connect with Scott

@AIS_Principal

Connect with Jessica

@jdelavigne_rusd

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

About Principal Deidre (Dee) Hannible

Principal Dee is an educational leader with nearly twenty years of experience serving students, teachers, and families from all walks of life. She believes in fostering positive and energetic environments where students and staff excel. Throughout her educational career, she has persistently developed, trained, and implemented curriculum and researched-based best practices to close student and teacher achievement gaps. She is currently a proud middle school principal in Texas, and the host of the podcast, Unapologetically Educated.

Show Highlights

• Why it’s important to have conversations about race in schools
• Essential life lessons
• Engaging in racial conversations
• Avoiding the conversations and settling for a video instead
• Do your homework
• Setting the stage
• Ethnic studies

Connect with Principal Dee

www.Unapologeticallyeducated.com

@DeeEducated

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

About Brad Weinstein

Brad Weinstein is the Chief Innovation Officer and a co-founder of BehaviorFlip, the first software that utilizes restorative practices. He has been featured in numerous high-profile publications and podcasts including Washington Post, Cult of Pedagogy, and School Leaders Now. Brad also created TeacherGoals on social media, which is one of the most popular educational accounts in the world.

Brad worked as a Director of Curriculum and Instruction in downtown Indianapolis. Prior to that, he served as principal on the eastside of Indianapolis. Brad is a former teacher of the year and taught for 11 years at the middle school and elementary school level. He holds a B.A. in Education from Purdue University, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana Wesleyan University, and completed a Principal Licensure Program from Indiana Wesleyan University.

About Nathan Maynard

Nathan Maynard is a youth advocate, educational leader, and change maker. He is the co-author of Washington Post bestselling and award-winning Hacking School Discipline: 9 Ways to Create a Culture of Empathy and Responsibility Using Restorative Justice. Nathan also is the co-founder of BehaviorFlip, the first restorative behavior management software. Nathan studied behavioral neuroscience at Purdue University and has been facilitating restorative practices for more than 10 years. He was awarded “Youth Worker of the Year” through dedicating his time with helping underserved and underprivileged youth involved with the juvenile justice system in Indiana. He was instrumental in the design and opening of Purdue University's first high school in 2017, Purdue Polytechnic High School, serving underserved and underprivileged youth in inner city Indianapolis, Indiana. Prior to his four years as a school administrator, he was a youth worker and program director in a youth residential treatment care center. He is passionate about addressing the school-to-prison pipeline crisis and closing the achievement gap through implementing trauma-informed behavioral practices. Nathan has expertise in Dialectical Behavioral Coaching, Motivational Interviewing, Positive Youth Development, Restorative Justice, and Trauma-Informed building practices to assist with creating positive school climates.

Show Highlights

• Inclusive school environments
• Identifying if our schools are inclusive
• Inclusivity in online spaces
• Going beyond lip service
• Getting staff on board with inclusivity and promoting social justice

Connect with Brad

@WeinsteinEdu

Connect with Nathan

@NmaynardEdu

@BehaviorFlip

www.behaviorflip.com

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

About Sawsan Jaber, Ph.D.

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. 

Show Highlights

• BIPOC supporting each other
• The fear of saying the wrong thing
• Challenges in racial equality and advocacy
• Words without action

Connect with Sawsan

[email protected]

@SJEducate

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

About Barbara (BK) Kennedy, Ed.D.

Dr. Barbara Kennedy ("BK"), co-author of the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education, 3rd Edition (2018), is the founder of GlobaLingo Education Consulting, LLC. A multilingual educator and advocate for equity for over thirty years, BK has served as a teacher of world languages and bilingual education, district administrator, national consultant, and state director. Fluent in English, German, and Spanish, BK has conducted research on the bilingual teacher shortage in US K-12 schools. She devotes her everyday energies to supporting dual language educators in equity-focused program design, redesign, and evaluation, as well as through professional development.

Show Highlights

• Utilizing world language
• Emerging Bilingual and Multilingual Education
• Discovering languages
• Linguistic Equity
• Certification challenges
• Some strategies for recruiting multilingual teachers
• Compensation for multilingual educators

Connect with BK

[email protected]

http://www.globalingoed.com/

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

About Ambra Green, Ph.D.

Dr. Ambra L. Green is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at The University of Texas at Arlington. Her research is focused on behavior disorders, positive behavior intervention and supports, and disproportionality in special education referrals and exclusionary practices. She has experience working within the U.S. Department of Education Office for Special Education Programs (OSEP) and serves on the OSEP Center on PBIS equity workgroup. She is a national special education scholar with publications and funded research focused on diverse learners with disabilities and issues of inequity and injustice for vulnerable populations.

Show Highlights

• What is PBIS?
• PBIS vs RTI
• Benefits of PBIS
• Challenges of PBIS
• Flexibility in PBIS

Connect with Ambra

[email protected]

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

Register for the Creating A New Normal Virtual Summit

About Kelli Rugless, Psy.D.

Dr. Kelli Rugless is a Licensed Psychologist and the owner of Flourish Psychology, a private psychological practice dedicated to meeting the unique needs of women. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biopsychology from University of California, Santa Barbara, and her Master’s degree and Doctorate of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Health Psychology, from Loma Linda University. Dr. Kelli is a Board Member at Breaking the Chains Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on using creative arts as tools for healing eating disorders, disordered eating and negative body image. Her work focuses on delivering evidenced-based services in a culturally-sensitive manner to the women in her practice as well as making psychological concepts more relevant and accessible to the general population. She has participated in a number of panels, podcasts, magazine articles, and speaking engagements and is in production of her own podcast “The Hangup” which focuses specifically on uplifting women by discussing our unique strengths and how to capitalize on them in our everyday lives.  Dr. Kelli is a member of several professional associations including the American Psychological Association, The Academy for Eating Disorders, and the International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals. Dr. Kelli lives in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and two sons

Show Highlights

• Equitable Learning Spaces
• Coaching Teachers
• Strategies for Instructional Coaches
• Issues with Bias and White Supremacy
• Healing Conversations

Connect with Kelli

IG: dr.kellirugless

Website: www.drkellirugless.com

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

Register for the Creating A New Normal Virtual Summit

About Elena Aguilar

Elena has trained thousands of educators across the United States and abroad in transformational coaching. She is the author of four highly acclaimed books: The Art of Coaching, (2013) and The Art of Coaching Teams, (2016) Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators (2018) and the Onward Workbook (2018), and the forthcoming Coaching for Equity (August 2020). She is a regular contributor to Edutopia and ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and she was a blogger for EdWeek Teacher for many years. 

Elena’s expertise derives from twenty five years as a classroom teacher, instructional coach and leadership coach working in diverse school environments. In her role as a consultant, she has partnered with leaders in public and private organizations across the United States and abroad. Elena is also the co-founder of Kenya Big Picture Learning, and she’s on the advisory board of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Elena holds a BA in history and Latin American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MA in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her teaching credential from California State University, Hayward, and she also holds an administrative services credential. Elena lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, son, and two cats. When she’s not coaching or writing she enjoys traveling abroad, photographing birds, hiking, drinking coffee and reading fiction.

Show Highlights

• Equitable Learning Spaces
• Coaching Teachers
• Strategies for Instructional Coaches
• Issues with Bias and White Supremacy
• Healing Conversations

Connect with Elena

Twitter: @brightmorningtm

Website: www.brightmorningteam.com

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

Register for the Creating A New Normal Virtual Summit

About Joe Truss

Joe Truss is committed to dismantling white supremacy culture in schools. He brings 15 years of 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 5 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 work. He also offers workshops and leadership coaching. 

Show Highlights

• Who is Joe Truss?
• What’s on Joe’s mind these days?
• Racism in America
• Digging into our ancestors
• White Supremacy culture and ways to dismantle it

Connect with Joe

Twitter: @trussleadership

Website: https://culturallyresponsiveleadership.com/wsc-virtual/

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins

Equity Leader Accelerator

Register for the Creating A New Normal Virtual Summit

About Julye Williams

Julye Williams leads First Book’s Accelerator - a division designed to shrink the time expertise from leading researchers and practitioners gets into the hands of educators serving students in under-resourced schools and programs. Julye began her career establishing free tutoring programs in New York City public schools, and went on to create the cultural exchange program, Global Youth Connect, to give students across continents exposure to one another. She later co-founded North Star Academy - Liberty Elementary in Newark, NJ that continues to educate 450 students annually. Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, Julye holds an MBA from Florida A & M University.

Show Highlights

• First Book
• Sources of Childhood Trauma
• Trauma’s Effect on Learning
• Strategies to Help Students
• Compassion Fatigue in Educators

Connect with Julye

Twitter: @FirstBook

IG: @julyewilliams

Website: www.firstbook.org

Email: [email protected]

Additional Resources

Download The Trauma Toolkit

Connect with me on Instagram: @sheldoneakins