The Perkins Platform

Join us on Monday, November 21 @ 6pm EST for an informative conversation discussing strategies on teaching structural racism in schools with Ayo Magwood. Ayo is an educational consultant (Uprooting Inequity LLC), specializing in in-depth, evidence-based education on historical and structural racism. Her presentations include primary and secondary historical evidence, data, quantitative maps, research studies and original diagrams/images. She breaks down grad-school-level social science research, data, and abstract concepts into engaging narratives and visuals. She is also working on her book ProEquity: Teaching Honest, Appreciative, and Civic-Minded U.S. History.  Ayo has a B.A. in economics and international relations from Brown University and a M.Sc. in applied economics from Cornell University. She is the author of the book chapter “Why ‘Elite’ Independent Schools Can’t Retain Black and Brown Faculty” in K. Swalwell & D. Spikes (Eds.) Anti-Oppressive Education in “Elite” Schools: Promising Practices and Cautionary Tales, 2021, and co-author of the article “Using Conceptual Tensions and Supreme Court Cases to Increase Critical Thinking in Government and Civics Classrooms”, in Social Education Vol. 77 No. 4, Sep 2013.

Assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, Chenhao Tan joins us to share his research on language and persuasion. Chenhao obtained his PhD degree in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University and bachelor's degrees in computer science and in economics from Tsinghua University. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, he was an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and a postdoc at the University of Washington. His research interests include human-centered AI, natural language processing, and computational social science. His work has been covered by many news media outlets, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He also won an NSF CAREER award, an NSF CRII award, a Google research scholar award, a Salesforce research award, an Amazon research award, a Facebook fellowship, and a Yahoo! Key Scientific Challenges award.

Educator, author, Tedx speaker and co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (IHE), Zoe Weil, joins us to share her thoughts about making the world what we teach. IHE is where she created the first graduate programs (M.Ed., M.A., Ed.D., Graduate Certificate) in comprehensive Humane Education linking human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection, offered online through an affiliation with Antioch University. Zoe is a frequent keynote speaker at education and other conferences and has given six TEDx talks including her acclaimed TEDx, The World Becomes What You Teach. She is the author of seven books including #1 Amazon best seller in the Philosophy and Social Aspects of Education, The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries; Nautilus silver medal winner Most Good, Least Harm, Moonbeam gold medal winner Claude and Medea, and Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times. Zoe was named one of Maine Magazine’s 50 independent leaders transforming their communities and the state and is the recipient of the Unity College Women in Environmental Leadership award. Tune in on Wednesday, November 2 @ 6pm EST!

Join us on Wednesday, October 26 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Ronnie Sidney II, LCSW, on his work, books and experiences as a special education student. Ronnie is a therapist, self-published author, activist, motivational speaker, and business owner from Tappahannock, VA. He is a 2014 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work master's program. In 2017, Ronnie became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has spent nearly 15 years in the mental health field. He released Amazon bestseller Nelson Beats the Odds in 2015, a semi autobiographical comic book about his experiences in special education. He went on to self-publish Tameka's New Dress, Rest in Peace RaShawn Reloaded, Educators Guide to the Nelson Beats the Odds Series and Nelson Beats the Odds Activity Guide. After being blessed with three beautiful daughters, Sidney and his wife are awaiting the arrival of his first son in February!

Join us on Wednesday, October 19 @ 7pm EST for a special episode discussing on-screen representation and why it matters with a panel of diverse voices and special guest, Kiersten Adams. Kiersten is a Philadelphia-based freelance journalist and creative writer whose work centers Black culture and experience at the intersections of the natural and unnatural world. As a journalist and creative writer Kiersten has written for The Philadelphia Tribune, Grid Philly, Salty Mag, Carefree Black Girl, Midnight & Indigo, and more! Interested in media, entertainment, pop-culture, Kiersten is concerned with how Black entertainment will impact the larger cultural zeitgeist. When she isn’t writing she’s wandering the woods of Philly’s Wissahickon, listening to Sun Ra, and re-reading Blood Child by Octavia Butler. Also, on the panel, Arin Perkins (Univ of Utah Law School) and Tony Shade (Univ of Utah Graduate School) who will share their work and experiences advocating for representation in US graduate and professional schools.

Join us on Thursday, October 13 @ 6pm EST for an informative conversation on racial discourse in schools with research scientist, Camilla Mutoni Griffiths, and developmental and social psychology Ph.D. student, Nicky Sullivan.Camilla Mutoni Griffiths is a research scientist at Stanford SPARQ - a “do tank” that brings researchers and practitioners together to reduce disparities using behavioral science. She studies how our interactions with American institutions contribute to our racial attitudes and biases. Griffiths also received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford.Nicky Sullivan is a Ph.D. student in developmental and social psychology at Stanford University. In his research he explores how families have conversations about race and racism, and what the consequences of those conversations are for children. His current research focuses specifically on how to encourage White families to have more frequent and effective conversations about race and racism.

Author, licensed clinical psychologist, executive coach, and organizational consultant, David C. Tate, joins us to discuss his new book, Conscious Accountability: Deepen Connections, Elevate Results. David is the co-founder and CEO of Conscious Growth Partners, a consultancy that focuses on helping organizations thrive through better leadership, teamwork, and culture. He is on the faculty at Yale University in the schools of medicine and management, where he teaches leadership courses within graduate and executive education programs. He coaches global leaders within the Yale Greenberg World Fellows Program. David received a BS from Cornell University and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia. He completed pre- and post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University before joining the faculty.

Join us on Wednesday, September 14 @ 6pm EST for an exciting conversation with Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Insights & Data North America, Jerry Kurtz, to discuss the 12 steps to effective leadership. As the Capgemini Insights & Data Managing Director for North America, Jerry heads up efforts to leverage the power of data, analytics, and AI across Capgemini's entire offering and client base in North America. Jerry has more than 30 years of management consulting experience at Capgemini, PwC Consulting, IBM Global Business Services, Infosys, and Bridgestone Software USA. Jerry has worked primarily in the manufacturing sector, and also has extensive cross-industry leadership experience in Data, Analytics, and AI. Jerry’s competency expertise includes Big Data & Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), Enterprise Transformation, SAP, Supply Chain Management, Shared Services, and Business Process Services.

Join us on Tuesday, September 6 @ 6pm EST for an important conversation with Dr. Linda Mendonça to talk about what U.S. schools are doing to prepare nurses and staff for a possible Monkeypox outbreak and what toll the past two years has had on the school nursing profession. Linda has been a registered nurse for 42 years practicing school nursing for 25 years, overseas and in five states as a military spouse. Her school nursing career includes experience with pre-K to high school students in many states. She has vast experience with current best practice and new initiatives in school health, including the need for data collection in school nursing practice to best meet the needs of students and facilitate their academic success. With the practice of school nursing in the arena of public health, Dr. Mendonça pursued education and certification in public health nursing. She earned her Master of Science in advanced public health nursing and her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Transformative Systems Leadership from Rush University in Chicago. She has served on school nursing organization boards on the state and national levels. Dr. Mendonça is President of the National Association of School Nurses (2021-2023) and a Fellow in the National Academy of School Nursing. Her current professional roles include being an Assistant Professor teaching community/public health nursing at Rhode Island College School of Nursing and providing consultation in school nursing for the Rhode Island Department of Health. One of her passions is environmental health and she was selected to participate in a year-long fellowship with the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment 2019-2020. Throughout her career, Dr. Mendonça made time to volunteer with the American Red Cross and disaster medical assistance teams with medical reserve corps.

Founding Partner of Qverity and former security specialist with the Central Intelligence Agency, Susan M. Carnicero, joins us for an informative conversation on deception, body language and lying. Susan has over 25 years of experience in interviewing, interrogation and polygraph examination, focused primarily on national security, employment and criminal issues. She is the developer of a behavioral screening program currently used within the federal government and in a variety of private industries, tapping experience gained through government service and the private sector. She is widely considered a leading authority on interviewing, detection of deception, and elicitation. Susan has extensive experience in conducting training for federal government agencies and the law enforcement community, as well as for financial services firms and other private-sector companies. Most recently, she has been involved in conducting high-level screening interviews within the U.S. government, and in providing consulting services for Forbes Top 10 families. Susan holds an M.A. in Forensic Psychology and an M.A. in Secondary Education/English from Marymount University in Arlington, Va.  Her undergraduate in communications is from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  Tune in on Wednesday, August 31 @ 6pm EST!