2017 Presenters

Mary Aebischer, PhD

Mary Aebischer PhD in Transformative Learning and Change, is the Chair of the Modern Language Department at Idyllwild Arts and Academy. She teaches 5 levels of Spanish at a private Arts Boarding School. She has been teaching foreing languages for the past 15 years and prior to teaching was a psychotherapist for 20 years. Her deparment incorporates four core values and seven habits of mind that guide daily teaching, facilitated by the use of the Blended Classroom model. Additionally, collaborative projects with the arts creates the artist citizen who is culturally aware and engaged.

Harris Ambush

Harris Ambush is a teacher and community liaison at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, Florida. In 2007 he started Hands 4 Hope non-profit to offer education and enrichment resources in areas of distress, both internationally and locally. Currently he is managing a holistic program that focuses on youth development and their ascension to middle school through multiple arenas that assist with the social, emotional, physical and mental part of growth. Harris was recently awarded the Everyday Hero Award from Bay News 9, and recognized by the Mayor of St. Petersburg for his work within the schools. Harris is completing his Doctor of Education in Educational Psychology with a focus on holistic youth enrichment programs in underserved areas.

Elsie Aquino

 

ELSIE AQUINO, PhD CANDIDATE
Curriculum & Instruction K-12 Program
College of Education
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan

I have loved filmmaking and storytelling since the age of six. This has been the reason for past formal and informal studies. Throughout my life, I have been an advocate for the underserved and underrepresented. My degrees in Media Studies, Media Arts, and my present doctoral studies in curriculum and instruction for grades K-12 at Wayne State University have provided the skills to develop supplementary audio-visual material for the classroom. In April 2006 I was ordained a Buddhist nun at the Zen Center of Puerto Rico by the Zen Master, Joshu Sasaki Rochi. The Buddhist practice has continued for close to twenty years.

Session: Buscando el Sol (video)

Saturday 4-5pm

Heesoon Bai, Ph. D.

Heesoon is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University (SFU). She is an educational philosopher and a psychotherapist with deepening interest in holistic-contemplative education. With colleagues at SFU, she founded a master’s degree program in contemplative inquiry in 2014, which is starting its third cohort in Fall 2017. Following Raimon Panikkar’s lead, Professor Bai proposes philosophy’s three-fold task to be “to know, to love, and to heal.” Through contemplative inquiry and practices, she offers ways of replenishing, nourishing, and animating our being. Her current research interests cluster around examining and deconstructing ontological and epistemological assumptions that underlie our culture’s hurtful and harmful ways with the earth and its inhabitants. She has co-edited three SUNY Press volumes on contemplative education, and she is currently co-editing a volume on ecological virtues (University of Regina Press). Most of her academic publications can be downloaded from herSFU web depository here: http://summit.sfu.ca/collection/204

Carole Belton-Srisupapol

Carole Belton-Srisupapol is the Head Teacher of the English Department at Roong Aroon School, a not for profit institution which emphasizes holistic learning practices and the concept that learning is the human living process.

Ms. Belton- Srisupapol originally hails from Washington DC. She moved to Bangkok Thailand in 1992. She has a Thai husband, 2 children, 2 dogs a rabbit and a multitude of alley cats which call her home 'home'.

An educator for 28 years, she is passionate about compassionate, thoughtful communication as the road to enlightenment. Through her work in curriculum design and teacher training, she explores opportunities to facilitate wholesome multi-ethnic relationships in the learning community.

Marni Binder, Ed. D.

Marni Binder is an Associate Professor in The School of Early Childhood Studies, Faculty of Community Services at Ryerson University, in Toronto, Canada. Before coming to Ryerson in 2007, she worked in both the preservice and graduate programs at The Faculty of Education, York University. Marni also taught in the inner city schools of Toronto for 23 years. Her teaching, research, artistic practice, and publications in the arts, literacy, multimodalities and spirituality in the lives of young children, are rooted in arts-based education research approaches and a holistic philosophy. Marni is the 2017 recipient of the Provost’s Innovative Teaching Award at Ryerson. She is the co-editor, with Sylvia Kind, of the recent publication: Drawing as Language: Celebrating the Work of Bob Steele. https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/transdisciplinary-studies/drawing-as-language-celebrating-the-work-of-bob-steele/

Session: 
What Children Have Taught Me About Holistic Education

Jessica Black-Coles & Teresa Coles-Black

The presenters represent a gamut of diversity -- a white female doctoral student with both teaching and administrative experience in low-income urban schools and an African-American mother of two (her son has severe ADHD and her daughter has hated school since kindergarten.) She has been in a conventional married relationship and a same-sex interracial relationship. It has been a constant struggle finding recognition and support for her two children.

Session:
Creating an Empathetic Classroom

Tom Browning

Tom Browning is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations and Leadership at Wayne State College. Prior to joining the Wayne State College faculty, he was a graduate student and associate instructor at Indiana University-Bloomington. His scholarly interests reside within the intersection between teacher education, critical theory, and multiculturalism.  While at Indiana University, he supervised pre-service teachers during their practicum and student teaching experiences. Additionally, he facilitated the instruction of two courses at Indiana University: Teaching in a Pluralistic Society and the Community of Teachers Field-Based Seminar.  Before his graduate studies, Tom was an alternative high school science teacher for seven years.

Suwanna Chivapruk

Ms. Suwanna Chivapruk is the secondary school principal of Roong Aroon School. Roong Aroon School is a private not for profit organization established in 1997 in Bangkok Thailand. The school is comprised of three independent departments of Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary; grades KG-12. With the concept of Holistic Learning Process, Roong Aroon aims to encourage children at eachage level to attain their own learning potential.

Ms. Chivapruk trained and worked in pediatric nursing. She transitioned to become more involved in education and worked with the Consortium (USA) and Save the Children (USA) before joining Roong Aroon School. Her life goal aims to provide education that provokes growth of both intellect and insight for the emergence of students to enthusiastically make a positive contribution to society.

Avraham Cohen, Ph. D.

My parents, my brother, and I were born in Canada. My grandparents came from European Jewish small village shtetl culture. Growing up in a middle-class WASP neighbourhood I reacted internally against my Jewish differentness. In my mid-twenties I encountered eastern philosophy and practices, and process oriented psychotherapy. They provided me a way of making sense and meaning about life. In places of employment I have been seen as troublesome. Of course, I see myself as radical and an activist. As a self-employed psychotherapist and educator, and as a human being I work to create a sense of community culture in collective development, along with a huge emphasis on the importance of the inner and inter-relational worlds, and human inter-connectedness with the 'other than human.

Session: The Human Dimension in Educational Environments

Sam Crowell, Ph. D.

Sam is professor emeritus at California State University, San Bernardino and is the founder of the MA in Holistic and Integrative Education. He serves as a doctoral faculty member at Cal State and faculty for the UNESCO Chair for Education for Sustainable Development with the Earth Charter. Through his presentations, teaching, and writing, Sam’s vision is to facilitate experiences that help others integrate holistic perspectives of science, learning, and sustainable culture in their lives and organizations; cultivate practices that nourish the inner life; and participate in creative arts, nature, and loving service to others. His latest book, Emergent Teaching with David Reid-Marr, explores a deeper understanding of creativity, significance, and transformation. Sam serves on the board of the Skillful Meditation Project.

Sessions: The Holistic Vision of the Earth Charter & Experiencing Space as Creative Emergence

Nitai Deranja, Anandi Gray

Anandi Gray is a teacher and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. For 20 years she was an adjunct instructor at Southern Oregon University where she taught courses in Psychology and Classical Raja Yoga, Nitai Deranja is president of Education for Life (EFL) International, a network of six schools in the U.S. and Europe. Nitai is the author of  For Goodness' Sake: Supporting Children & Teens in Discovering Life’s Higher Values and The Art of Joyful Education. Together Nitai and Anandi will present a workshop on the Life Skill Action Charts, materials they created to help students develop such skills as Choosing Happiness, Practicing Peace, Cultivating Courage, and Living Truth. More information is available at http://edforlife.org/lifeskills/

Session:
Life Skills that Prepare Students for Well-Being and Success

Megan Farnsworth, Ph. D.

Megan Farnsworth is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Southern Oregon University, and earned her PhD at University of Arizona (2010) in Multicultural Special Education. She possesses a strong commitment to teach, serve, and collaborate with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse families and students who may experience Exceptionalities. Dr. Farnsworth has taught in schools in California, Oregon, Arizona, and Hawai'i for over 14 years, and is currently exploring ways grief affects teaching and learning.

Session:
Exceptional Nature

Autumn Joy Florêncio-Wain

Autumn Joy Florêncio-Wain is a student and teacher of holistic education, currently pursuing her Ph. D. at the University at Albany. A passionate advocate for what she terms the four C’s of holistic education: curiosity, caring, collaboration and connectedness, Autumn has been researching and writing about Waldorf, Montessori and Homeschooling since 2010. With a BA in anthropology (Bard College, 2000), an MS in TESOL (SUNY New Paltz, 2007), Autumn has taught Pre-K through college in the US and Brazil and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Current projects and collaborations include, "Themes of holistic educational practice; caring, curious, connected means toward caring, curious, connected ends", and “Education, heritage and spirit; a duoethnographic dialog with a Huni-Kuin school teacher and holder of sacred wisdom”.

Michael Gordon, M.Sc.

Michael Gordon is a 6th Dan Aikido teacher, and a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in EMDR in Vancouver, Canada. He holds an MSc. in Consciousness & Transpersonal Psychology, and is a graduate fellow and doctoral student in Philosophy Of Education at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. His thesis explores the intersection of pedagogy, psychotherapy and Aikido as practices of embodiment and relationality.

Michael brings a transpersonal and biopsychological approach to his clinical work, having given numerous public talks on the relationship between everyday life, mindfulness, trauma, and cognitive neuroscience. In 2009, he was part of a group teaching meditation to women in the BC correctional system. He has presented and published at several international education conferences and has two book chapters pending publication.

Session: The Way Of The Classroom: Aikido As Embodied Contemplative Education

Tobin Hart, Ph. D.

Tobin Hart, Ph. D.

Tobin Hart  serves as Professor of Psychology in the University of West Georgia’s Humanistic, Transpersonal oriented department. He is co-founder and Chair of the ChildSpirit Institute, a nonprofit educational and research hub exploring and nurturing the spirituality of children and adults (www.childspirit.net). His work explores human consciousness especially at the nexus of psychology, spirituality, and education. His recent books include: The Four Virtues, The Integrative Mind: Transformative Education for a World on Fire, From Information to Transformation: Education for the Evolution of Consciousness, and The Secret Spiritual World of Children.   

Session: Resonance of Knowing

Krystyna Henke, MA

Krystyna Henke is a PhD student in Educational Studies at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. She was born in the Netherlands and although she was partially homeschooled, she attended elementary and secondary Montessori schools there. A free-lance photographer, writer, and journalist/broadcaster, Krystyna holds an undergraduate liberal arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College, New York, as well as a Master of Arts in ethnomusicology and musicology from York University and a Master of Journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto where she resides and is an accredited Teacher of English as a Second Language. Krystyna’s teaching builds on her multi-cultural, multi-lingual background and her love for the arts, which she sees as a great source for students’ emotional and intellectual growth.

Jade Ho

Yi Chien Jade Ho is a teacher, researcher and Ph. D. student in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver BC, Canada. Her passion and research interest is looking at the cultural roots of socal and ecological issues and how education can address the cultural root through place/land-based pedagogy and ecological education. Her latest project involves working with a group of passionate teachers in Taiwan who are transforming their way of teaching through place-based outdoor education.

Session: The Human Dimension in Educational Environments

Anastasia Hoefflinger

I am an alum of Southern Oregon University, which is where I was introduced to the concept of holistic education. In fact, my presentation is of my Master's Thesis research study. Now I am working in one of my favorite fields as a teaching assistant in a resource room at an elementary school in Medford.

Session:
Mindful Intervention in Special Education

Younghee Kim, Ph. D.

Dr. Younghee Kim is a child development specialist and professor in the School of Education at Southern Oregon University. Her scholarship includes holistic teaching and learning, core reflection approach to whole teacher development, human potential, presence and contemplative education, and linking play to practice. She is a co-author of the book “Teaching and Learning from Within: A core reflection approach to quality and inspiration in education (2013)” and a co-editor of the book “Imagine a Place: Stories from Middle Grades Educators (2017).”

Tara Kumabe

Tara Kumabe is a Ph.D candidate, under the supervision of Dr. Jack Miller, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (OISE/UT). She is a certified Ontario elementary school teacher, with specialized qualifications in English and special education. Tara can be contacted at: tara.kumabe@mail.utoronto.ca. 

Session: Supporting Students Experiencing Difficulties: Holistic Practices within the IST Structure

Margaret Lombardi, MA

Margaret Lombardi, MA in French Language and Civilization is a full-time French teacher for the Modern Languages Department at Idyllwild Arts and Academy. She teaches five levels of French at the Academy. She has taught courses in French language and civilization, Italian language and literature and English as a Second Language for over 35 years and has also worked in the space and aerospace sector as an editor/translator in International and External Relations.  She believes in fostering awareness, understanding and empathy toward other cultures through the study of languages. 

Bob London, Ph. D.

I am a professor at California State University, San Bernardino; program coordinator for the MA in Holistic and Integrative Education; and director, Spirituality and Education Network. My major professional interest is clarifying the implications of a spiritual perspective in education, particularly a spiritual perspective that is consistent with a
variety of spiritual traditions, as well as consistent with the implications of the new sciences and some current educational psychologies. My specific interests in this area include: identifying principles and statements concerning education considered consistent with a spiritual perspective, clarifying the implications of a spiritual perspective for
developing a strong connection with nature, describing a research methodology consistent with a spiritual perspective, and transformative approaches to teacher education.

Ba Luvmour, MA

Ba Luvmour has been around the Holistic Education community for a long time.
His work in Natural Learning Relationships child development has been valuable for
schools and families, Teacher Training and Rites of Passage organizations. He is founder
and director of Summa Academy (recently closed) and the author of 7 books and
numerous articles.
He is launching new podcast programs entitled Meetings with Remarkable Educators
coming soon on iTunes and links from website: www.luvmourconsulting.com

Josette Luvmour, Ph. D.

 Co-creator of Natural Learning Relationships child development, Josette Luvmour, Ph. D. is a developmentalist, consultant, educator, author, and public speaker who specializes in human development and teacher professional development. She is faculty at SelfDesign Graduate University and Antioch University. Her writing has been published widely.

In addition to her 26-year consulting practice at Luvmour Consulting, LLC Josette has authored of six books, including Grow Together, Parenting as a path to well-being, wisdom, and joy, as well as numerous journal articles and chapters that focus on building positive relationships with children.

Session: Grow Together: Accessing Wisdom with Children

David Marshak

David Marshak is the founding president of the SelfDesign Graduate Institute (selfdesigninstitute.org). He is also an emeritus professor at Seattle University. David is the author of Evolutionary Parenting (evolutionaryparenting.org), The Common Vision: Parenting and Educating for Wholeness, and Kids Need the Same Teacher for More than One Year. He lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Sessions:
The Evolution of Consciousness in Adult Life
Evolutionary Parenting

Aziza Mayo

Aziza Mayo is a professor of Education at the teacher training college of  the University of applied Sciences Leiden, the Netherlands. She has worked as a researcher at universities in the Netherlands and the UK. Currently, she heads the research program Values and value of Waldorf education. This program brings together educational practitioners and researchers in collaborative research projects. They conduct mixed-method projects with an emphasis on qualitative research with the aim to build knowledge and understanding  of purposes and practices in contemporary Waldorf education; to explore and evaluate innovative practices in Waldorf education;  to contribute to the professional development of present and future educators in Waldorf schools.

Haley Moore, MM

Haley Moore is a Music Education Instructor at Louisiana State University. Before joining the faculty at LSU in August of this year, she was a music teacher in Rochester, NY. She taught high school strings and piano, early childhood music, privately through local community music schools, and ran a theatre/music program at a summer day camp for children grades k-8. 

Haley received a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and a Master of Music in Education from the prestigious Eastman School of Music. Since graduating in 2015, she has presented at multiple conferences and conducted three studies centered on Core Reflection. She is a co-author on a paper that is under review for the Arts Education Policy Review Journal entitled "A New Paradigm for Music Teacher Professional Development Policy: Reflective, Differentiated, and Teacher-Initiated". Haley hopes to expand her research over the next few months and explore other areas of teaching and learning with friends and colleagues.

Session: A Teacher's Guide to Engaging with Core Reflection in the Classroom and Beyond

Yoshiharu Nakagawa, Ph. D. & Sachiko Gomi Ph. D.

 Yoshiharu Nakagawa, Ph. D., is a professor of holistic education at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of Education for Awakening: An Eastern Approach to Holistic Education.

 Sachiko Gomi, Ph. D., is an assistant professor of Social Work at Western New Mexico University. She is interested in a holistic approach to social work.

 Session: Self Inquiry through the Ten Oxherding Pictures

Deena Ortiz

Deena Ortiz is the mother of six children with 13 grandchildren (so far) and is a veteran homeschooling mom.  Since 1995 she has been the owner and director of Etiwanda Academy, which is an umbrella school for homeschooling families.  Deena has played a large role for the past 12 years as a community leader in the arena of family, adult, and community education.  She is also on the board of trustees for Monticello College, a fledgling private liberal arts college located in Monticello, Utah, in the four-corners region of the Colorado Plateau.  She has a B.A. in history and a master's degree in Holistic and Integrative Education from California State University, San Bernardino.  She is currently enrolled in the Master's of Music in Choral Conducting program at CSULA.  She and her husband Pete reside in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Laurel Pederson

Hello, My name Laurel Pederson and I am the owner and trainer at Brainstorm Consulting LLC in Gold Hill, OR. I give workshops, write curriculum and consult  in brain based learning,  brain considerate communication, professionalism, and leadership. I have been a brain based learning educator for 17 years in both Washington and Oregon K-12 and post secondary schools. I am currently completing a capstone project for my EDD doctorate in Performance Improvement and Leadership as well as beginning my Administrative License and I currently teach science at Eagle Point High School in Eagle Point, Oregon.  

My passion is working with educators to share my love of educational neuroscience so that I can help bring brain education, curiosity, play, memory retention, engagement strategies, music, cross curriculum learning, project and problem based learning and student centered classrooms lessons to educators.  Even a few small changes will make a huge difference in student learning and if we don't understand how our students learn, how can we teach them?  

Session: Brain Considerate Classroom

Thomas Peterson, Ph.D.

Dr. Thomas Peterson has served for the past 25 years as a professor of Social, Cultural and Philosophical Foundations of Education at the University of West Georgia. He teaches teacher education courses including philosophy, critical theory, and history. His research interests include teachers’ inner-life, teacher burnout/renewal, growing a spiritual classroom, and igniting a SPARK in high-risk adolescence. Son of a preacher, Tom lived his formative years in South East Asia. Prior to his appointment at UWG, he was an elementary/middle school principal in NC, art teacher in California and Maryland, World Masters gold medal winner in badminton, flight instructor, and pilot missionary to Africa.

Session:  Meeting: A conduit for vulnerability and hope

Renee Poindexter

Renee Poindexter is the founder of Living the Potential Network, a collaborative of social entrepreneurs interested in designing authentic learning environments. She is a former high school English teacher who discovered the significance of learning in the world of business—over 25 years in a variety of industries—including technology, healthcare, financial services, construction, advertising and public relations, executive search, coaching, and consulting. An accomplished trainer, facilitator, success coach, and organizational consultant, Renee has worked with non-profit organizations, schools, and businesses and entrepreneurs to facilitate the positive changes needed to fulfill the organizational vision. Her background in continuous improvement has assisted her in designing programs to inspire people to lead with their heads and hearts connected.

Renee is the Chair of the SelfDesign Foundation in the United States, that includes the SelfDesign Graduate Institute (www.selfdesigninstitute.org) which offers a low residency Master's Degree  program by providing a unique learning community, where both the learners and the faculty are committed to the integrity and capacity of each human being to design her/his own learning—and life. These commitments  are held deeply, because of the shared belief- that the more that human beings can discover and enact their own life designs and purposes, the more they will be able to contribute to the creation of a peaceful, sustainable global society on this planet.

Mileigh Rabun

Mileigh Rabun is a senior at the University of West Georgia while teaching 3 grade at Northside Elementary in Coweta County. She has been involved with the SPARK program since 2015. 

Session: Meeting: A conduit for vulnerability and hope

Eron Reed, Ph. D.

Eron Reed completed her Ph. D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Denver.   Now two years out of the urban elementary classroom, and continuing since her AmeriCorps days to feel deeply service oriented, she teaches at Metro State University of Denver helping teachers in the Alternative Licensure Program survive and thrive.  She is working to build resilience in new teachers as part of their preparation program.  Her research interests include improving teacher education programs, new teacher induction and support, mindfulness and relational approaches to classroom and school culture development, connecting theory to practice in urban elementary classrooms, teacher renewal and revitalization, and development in literacy instruction and interventions.

David Reid-Marr

David Reid-Marr was born in England, graduated from the Royal College of Art, joined a punk band, and managed farm before coming to the U.S. to study Zen Buddhism with Maezumi Roshi. After seminary training he was ordained as a Monk in the Soto school. He currently teaches painting, drawing and architecture at Idyllwild Arts Academy, a highly regarded arts high school; and is an adjunct professor at Cal. State San Bernardino. In 2013 he co-authored the book “Emergent Teaching” with Dr. Sam Crowell which illustrates their unique approach to the theory and practice of teaching and learning. David is a practicing artist who has exhibited regularly in California and the U. S. He lives with his wife Jennifer in Idyllwild.

Pete Reilly

Pete Reilly is a lifelong educator and author of “A Path With Heart: The Inner Journey to Teaching Mastery” and his latest book “In the Garden of Hearts: Meditations, Consolations, and Blessings for Teachers”. Pete is a Master Somatic Coach, holds a black belt in Aikido, and works with educators and leaders to cultivate their unique gifts, so that they’re better able to acknowledge and cultivate the gifts of their students.

 Sessions: 
The Hero’s Journey: The Holistic Teacher’s Personal and Professional Challenge 
Teaching Mastery and Somatic Embodiment

Eric Rosenburg

Eric Rosenberg is a teacher, facilitator, and curriculum designer.  With training in finance, fine art, and education – Eric strives to marry the practices of effective financial management with the principles of positive psychology. That is to say, helping learners manage limited resources to become increasingly invested in pursuits that have purpose and meaningfulness for the unique context of their lives. He recognises the simultaneous roles teachers play as both classroom custodians and learning mentors, designing and implementing innovative approaches that meet traditional school standards while also encouraging and supporting students to become engaged learning partners. While Eric is available to work with anyone, he has a particular interest in helping teenage boys succeed, as he draws upon his own experiences within the education system. To learn more about Eric and his work, please visit www.lifewellspent.ca

Session: 
Humanizing the Institution; Encouraging Student Leadership & Engagement Through Business Education

Cari Satran

As a classroom teacher for the last 14 years I have been meditating with my middle years students. As a lifelong learner, my Master’s (2012) and PBDE (2016) studies investigated the benefits of meditation, and its connections to Holistic, Indigenous and Social Justice Pedagogies, as well as mindfulness in the classroom. This session explores the potential of a daily classroom meditation practice and its links to fostering learning and well-being. The workshop is interactive, including several meditation techniques and ideas that can be implemented in the classroom.

 

Charles Scott

Charles Scott is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University and Associate Professor at City University of Seattle, in Vancouver. His research and teaching interests include contemplative in education, and dialogue and its applications in education, particularly the applications of Martin Buber’s work. His own contemplative practices are based in the Raja Yoga tradition. He is a coeditor, along with Olen Gunnlaugson, Ed Sarath, and Heesoon Bai, of Contemplative Learning and Inquiry across Disciplines (2014) and of two volumes on the intersubjective dimension of contemplative inquiry—The Intersubjective Turn: Theoretical Approaches to Contemplative Learning and Inquiry across Disciplines and Catalyzing the Field: Second Person Approaches to Contemplative Learning—to be released soon by SUNY Press. 

 Session:
A Community of the Spirit: Stories from a Master's Program in Contemplative Inquiry a Master of Education Contemplative Inquiry Program

Meredith Shockley-Smith, Ph.D.

Dr. Meredith Shockley-Smith is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Global and Intercultural Studies department teaching for the Black World Studies program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She recently transitioned from being a Lecturer and Co-Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Northern Kentucky University. She received her PhD from the University of Cincinnati in Educational Studies. Her expertise lies in Black Feminist theory, Critical Race theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Equity theory. Meredith has been teaching for just over ten years. Her passion for the subject matter has taken her beyond the college classroom into K-12 classrooms, as well as into business and community settings.

Dr. Shockley-Smith collaborates with others both on- and off -campus to build stronger, more equitable relationships intentionally to benefit students and the greater community. She consults to support culturally responsive teaching, diverse and inclusive practices, and community engagement and activism. More specifically, she aims to engage fixed mindsets as they relate to cultural identities. 

 

Shauna Sorce, M. Ed.; Lindsey Helfrich, M. Ed.

The Middle School Rite of Passage presentation is based on our experiences designing and implementing an 8-week right of passage course for middle school students. We will take our participants on a journey from the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual conception of this project through its completion and our reflection. Participants will experience a selection of activities used in the initiation process. We will engage participants in exploring the rationale behind this project including the roots of initiation in indigenous culture and the implications of an absence of genuine initiation and rite of passage experiences in western society. Our intention is to provoke deep thought and direct action.

Session:
Middle School Rites of Passage

Rebecca Tree, M. Ed.

Rebecca Tree, M. Ed., is the Founder and Director of Roots & Wings Community Preschool in Medford, a strong advocate for play and playful learning in early childhood programs and beyond. She also teachers Curriculum Design and Curriculum Content at SOU. Rebecca has served in the early childhood field for over 30 years beginning in Colorado prior to moving toe Oregon in 1990.She believes that through intentional observation and nurturing children's curiosity, strengths and interests, we can make meaningful curricular decisions that support children's development and learning.

Session:
Art and Storytelling: Gateways to Literacy for Young Children

Joanna Krop, MA

After 10 years of teaching K-12 Joanna transitioned into holistic health. She currently uses BioResonance to restore wellness to those dealing with chronic health issues. She also incorporates hypnosis, transformative coaching, reiki, and yoga to help people make lasting positive change in their wellbeing. She believes that each person has the ability to heal themselves from within. Her passion for inner-healing led her to do research at OISE-UT focused on teacher burnout. Previously, she has taught a course on preventing teacher stress at OISE-UT, and continues to publish and give workshops. Passionate about preventing teacher burnout, she is the creator of the program, #teacherwellnesscode. Visit her at www.teachingwellbeing.com

Session: Reclaiming Teacher Wellness: Embodying the Sacred Feminine & Masculine

Liz Landon, MA

Session: Project Morning Boost

In 1999, I had the honor of graduating from SOU’s MAT program.  I began my teaching career at Hoover Elementary, where during my 15 years; I received Wal-Mart’s Teacher of the Year Award, & Alpha Delta Kappa’s Female Educator Award.  My principal journey started at Madrona Elementary/Three Rivers and now I am beginning my third year at Oak Grove Medford 549c.  Both schools are high poverty Title One schools where the students can all benefit from learning how to tackle toxic stress.  I believe mindfulness is an awareness that involves paying attention in the present moment with a sense of kindness to one’s self, and these practices can  improve test scores,  cut down on school suspensions, and promote peace.