Speaker Series
Join us for conversations about parenting, equity and inclusion. We're excited to share research and a forum for conversation for our community. All are welcome!
The Equity and Inclusion Virtual Speaker Series is a program led by a number of independent schools to offer our communities and beyond the opportunity to connect, learn, and engage in topics around equity, inclusion, and antiracist education and action. The purpose of this series is to raise awareness, challenge ourselves, deepen understanding, and empower our communities to advance their efforts to actively recreate systems into equitable, inclusive, and antiracist institutions. The program invites 4-5 speakers throughout the academic year to create access to recognized authors and speakers that engage participants in complex topics through dialogue, cross-cultural communication, and a deeper understanding of the impact that racism and oppression have in our institutions and the greater society. This event is sponsored by various independent schools in NWAIS, but aims to serve a public purpose by making this programming free and accessible to non-NWAIS schools and communities.
These events are free and open to the Public.
Disability, Race, and Identity with LeDerick Horne
March 9, 2023 | 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
Within this presentation LeDerick Horne will draw from the book “Empowering. Students with Hidden Disabilities: A Path to Pride and Success.” LeDerick will share his own experience navigating special education classes and will give advice to help all students develop positive identities as people with disabilities. Strategies to help students reach their transition goals will be provided. The audience will also explore the intersectionality of disability, race, and identity to help them create more inclusive schools and communities. LeDerick’s personal story and poetry will also be shared during this talk.
Participants will be able to:
- List several evidence-based practices and strategies which can empower students with disabilities to reach their transition goals.
- Describe the importance of disability identity to reduce stigma and improve student engagement and disability pride.
- Address many of the challenges facing students with disabilities from communities of color to help service providers and families build a more equitable learning environment.
- List sources of mentors and role models to help students build a meaningful connection to the disability community.
Dear White Women, Please Come Home: Showing Up as a Safe Space in our Schools with Kimberlee Williams
May 4, 2023 | 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
Kimberlee Williams, Author of Dear White Woman, Please Come Home, is a humanist first and believes that racism can be dismantled through authentic relationship building where a mirror is held up to interrogate one's assumptions, beliefs, behaviors, and patterns of interactions. With a shift in any and all of the above as authentic relationships dive beneath the surface, the power and harm caused by the legacy of racism can be dismantled.
NWord: Is There a Message in the Madness with Dr. Eddie Moore Jr.
November 15, 2022 | 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
Who is allowed to say the N!word? What do we do or say when the N!word is said in our classrooms, hallways, practices, cafeterias and resident halls? Ignoring the N!Word is not an option anymore - You can hear N!Word everywhere nowadays. Participants are challenged to examine their personal/professional histories with N!Word when and/or how they first heard N!Word and pictures/feelings associated with the word. The workshop encourages all people, but specifically future leaders, educators and parents, to consider the ramifications of casual or uniformed usage of a powerful and troublesome word.
Participants will leave the session with:
- a heightened understanding of the impact of the word, especially on our youth;
- strategies for eliminating the word from school/curriculum;
- resources for continued growth and development of strategies for addressing difficult conversations.
The Anti-Racist Kid: Identity, Justice, and Activism with Tiffany Jewell
October 19, 2022 | 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm
Grow your antiracist consciousness! Using a framework similar to This Book Is Anti-Racist, learn how to take action and work towards creating anti-bias anti-racist classrooms, libraries, schools, and community spaces. Listeners will grow into their awareness and start to make a plan on how to support their own growth and that of those they are working with. Learn how to authentically center the voices of those who are too often silenced, ignored, and left out of history in our own spaces! Build an inclusive anti-bias antiracist community that empowers all who enter!
Healing & Wholeness as Love, Power, and Resistance with Dr. Yuria Celidwen
January 19, 2023 | 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm
In community, we pause,
we open, we nourish,
and we become.
We pay attention, and all we hear is urgency. The challenges are innumerable, but also infinite are the opportunities. Our grief is daunting, but also heartening is our compassion. This historical moment encourages us to reflect, make sense, and participate in the collective transformation expected from the human world today. Contemplative living reminds us that intentional action requires mindful assessment of the causes and conditions that have shaped who and where we are today. I suggest three contemplative insights are crucial to advance our shared journey towards collaborative and restorative solutions: the reckoning of the harm caused by human othering of self, others, and the Earth; a sense of ecological belonging that engenders a feeling of being part of an ever-expansive circle of care and concern for Earth systems and communities; and the realization of a collective path of spiritual becoming honoring life on Mother Earth.