Third Space with Jen Cort

Quentin McDowell, head of Mercersburg Academy. After arriving at Mercersburg in 2007, Quentin has served as history faculty, director of summer and extended programs, Admission, senior associate director of admission, financial aid, and head boys’ varsity soccer coach for eight years, leading the Blue Storm to its first-ever Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship and the PAISAA state championship game in 2014. Before he arrived at Mercersburg, he was, for two years, a member of the history faculty and head boys’ varsity soccer coach at Cushing Academy in Massachusetts.

Quentin has played an active role in professional associations like The Enrollment Management Association, The Association of Boarding Schools, and the Independent Educational Consultants Association, where he has become an engaged educational leader. Quentin is also co-founder of the Erdmann Institute for Enrollment Leadership, co-founder and faculty member of the Future Leaders Institute, and a member of the Forbes Business Council.

A native of Washington state, Quentin attended Holderness School in Plymouth, New Hampshire, as a postgraduate student before matriculating to Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies. He holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from George Washington University.

Quentin email [email protected]

Mentions:Muhlenberg college, Holderness School, Erdmann Institute for Enrollment Leadership, Forbes Business Council, TABS, Cushing Academy, Mercersburg, Characteristic Institute, NAIS, Linda McDowell, Katie titus, Peggy Macintosh, Marlo Thomas

Authors, speakers, presenters, and change agents, Cornelius and Kass Minor of Minor Collective share how they live in the space of possibility.Cornelius Minor is a Brooklyn-based educator and part-time Pokemon trainer. He works with teachers, school leaders, and leaders of community-based organizations to support equitable literacy reform in cities (and sometimes villages) across the globe. His latest book, We Got This, explores how the work of creating more equitable school spaces is embedded in our everyday choices — specifically in the choice to listen to kids.Cornelius has been featured in Education Week, Brooklyn Magazine, and Teaching Tolerance Magazine. He has partnered with The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, The New York City Department of Education, The International Literacy Association, Scholastic, and Lesley University’s Center for Reading Recovery and Literacy Collaborative.

Kass Minor is an inclusive educator and community organizer deeply involved in local, inquiry-based teacher research and school community development. Alongside partnerships with the University of Chicago, Teachers College Inclusive Classrooms Project, The Author Village, and the New York City Department of Education, since 2004, she has worked as a teacher, staff developer, adjunct professor, speaker, and documentarian. Kass reads books like other people listen to albums; the classroom is her concert space. While Kass’s organizing work in school communities is inspired by her NorthStars Myles Horton and Fannie Lou Hamer, her pedagogy is centered on joy from the surrounding communities and motivated by the idea that every adult can teach and every student can learn. Teacherhood, paired with motherhood, has driven her love of information sharing and redefining who gets to be a knower in the fiery world we live in today. She is the author of, Teaching Fiercely: Spreading Joy and Justice in Our Schools.

Twitter: @MsKass1Instagram: @MsKass1 @theminorcollective
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kass-minor
Clubhouse: @kassminor / House: Joyful NoiseNewsletter: bit.ly/TeachFierceUpdates Website: Kassandcorn.com

Tony Keith, Jr. and Mel Cort share the paths they have walked to ensure understanding of their unstated identities. Lacking windows or mirrors for their historically marginalized identities, poetry created an avenue to express, explore, understand, and speak these identifiers.

Bio
Anthony (Tony) Keith, Jr., PhD. is a Black American gay poet, spoken word artist, and Hip-Hop educational leader from Washington, D.C. He is the author of the debut young adult memoir in verse “How the Boogeyman Became a Poet” and the young adult poetry collection “Knucklehead,” forthcoming from Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. His feature performances include John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington National Cathedral, and the African Alliance Community Center in Arusha, Tanzania. Tony’s writings appear in the Journal of Negro Education, Equity & Excellence in Education and the Journal of Black Masculinity, and many others. A multi-year fellow of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Tony is the founder and CEO of Ed Emcee Academy, an entrepreneurial extension of his award-winning dissertation research about Hip-Hop culture and leadership for racial equity in American education. He holds a Ph.D. in education from George Mason University and lives with his husband, Harry Christian III, and their dog, Sage, in his DC hometown.

Mel Cort, a 'Threepeat' Third Space guest, returns to co-host this episode. Mel is a youth poet at Mercersburg Academy, specializing in Queer and disabled storytelling. They love performing, bookbinding, DEI work, and befriending cats.

Justine Ange Fonte joins Third Space to share her story, wisdom, insights, and challenges for school colleagues. IPOC, who is your community? And White people, what is your role in an ethical community?

About Justine
Justine Ang Fonte, M.Ed, MPH, is an award-winning health educator, public speaker, consultant, ghostwriter, and professor based in New York City. We can all learn about health but need equal access to it. Justine frames pedagogy through the lens of Kimberlé Crenshaw's teachings on intersectionality and interrogates how our multifaceted identities shape how we experience health. Justine believes it is the responsibility of comprehensive health education to be about social justice because health is a human right. Through my teaching, I promote agency, activate empathy, fight for equity, embrace one's authentic self, and navigate care.

Toni Graves Williamson is a nationally recognized diversity practitioner, consultant, now Director of Equity and Inclusion at Friends Select School Toni is a founding faculty member of the National Diversity Practitioners Institute, served on the faculty of the Student Diversity Leadership Conference, and co-founded Mid-Atlantic Region Diversity Conference. She conducts diversity climate studies, trains educators in cultural competency and best practices, and partners with the Friends Council on Education where she is also on the board. Toni is a principal consultant of the Glasgow Group, co-director and facilitator for The Race Institute for K-12 Educators, and contributing author to The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys and Teaching Beautiful Brilliant Black Girls. Toni is on several boards and is an alumnus of Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Columbia University.

Ali Michael is the Co-Director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators, she works with schools across the country to make research on race, Whiteness, and education more accessible to educators. Ali is the author of Raising Race Questions, winner of the 2017 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award and co-editor of the bestselling Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys and Teaching Beautiful and Brilliant Black Girls. This year Ali co-authored the Young Adult adaptation of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility and Our Problem, Our Path: Collective Antiracism for White People. More information at alimichael.org.

Tricia Montalvo Timm is a first-generation Latina board director, venture investor, and speaker. She is on a mission to inspire anyone who has ever felt like an “other” in the workplace to embrace their true selves, owns their identity, and achieve success and fulfillment in their life and career.

Kimberlee is, first and foremost, a humanist, a deep believer in what is possible when humanity is centered. Her mix of authenticity and raw truth permits those around her to choose progress over perfection and bring their whole selves into the room. She is known for finding humor and challenge at just the right moments and, like the best of coaches, leaning in and pushing audiences just enough to believe in the potential she sees. Her approach of connection and compassion makes a consultation feel like a conversation with your best friend, a workshop feel like a workout with your favorite trainer, and a presentation feels like a present from your closest confidant.

Kimberlee received a B.A. in Foreign Language Education from the University of Maryland (go Terps!) and an M.S. in Education from Dominican University. She currently lives in Seattle with her partner, where they refuel by being in the community (with other folks of color), reading and reading some more, and relaxing near any body of water. In addition to all of the above, Kimberlee is a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a cousin, an aunt, a niece, a dancer, an avid learner of languages (five to date), a free spirit, an empath, and now a writer.

Dear White Woman, Please Come Home is Kimberlee's attempt to share with readers what her clients, workshop attendees, and audience members have felt for years. She always brings her entire self, her DC flare, her sass, and her humor. She’s the best friend you didn’t know you had.

Bill Ivey (he/any) is Middle School Dean and teaches Humanities 7, Rock Band, and Academic Skills at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, a gender-inclusive girls' school for grades 7-12 in Western Massachusetts.

Bill serves on the NELMS Board of Directors as an equity, inclusion, and social justice advisor and on the AMLE Equity in Middle Grades Education Committee.

He earned an A.B. in French at Middlebury College, with a concentration in Music, and a M.A.T. in French from the University of Massachusetts. His writings are notably included in Larry Ferlazzo's Q and A blog and the MiddleWeb website.

Dr. Kelly Pascarella is a 17-year public school educator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During her career, she has taught and held leadership positions in two of the top performing school districts in the state of Pennsylvania, Mt. Lebanon, and Upper St. Clair School Districts. Her dissertation research examined teacher access, management, and evaluation of digital education resources amid the Covid-19 pandemic and emergency remote teaching. Kelly's work led to the creation of the Education Blueprint platform, a professional learning network built just for teachers to manage and follow technological development as one educator community. Kelly is a marathon runner, published writer, lover of art and nature, and most importantly, a proud wife and mother of three incredible boys.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jSZxn610-AGy5XO8qFH3sibaYu6WlXOf

Kojo Clarke is currently a Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at a pre k- 9th grade school. In his role he works closely with school leaders to oversee programming and professional development, while supporting parents and caregivers to explore and understand the world of DEI. As a member of the Leadership Team he also supports work of the school's Board of Trustees in several diversity, equity & inclusion initiatives, all with the communal goal of developing "culturally competent" students and adults and building a truly inclusive environment. Kojo completed his undergraduate degree at Franklin & Marshall College, where he double-majored in French and Psychology. He holds a Masters in Education degree from Northwestern University’s School of Education & Social Policy. He started his education career teaching French at an international school in Ghana, and has also worked in public school. Some of his other roles have included: advisor to student multicultural clubs, member of school diversity committees, and as a leader of faculty and staff diversity and equity work. Kojo is a trained SEED facilitator, and has been "formally" involved with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts since 2015. He is a parent to a strong-willed 1-year old and loves her fiercely.