JULY 2025
July 15 – Elizabeth Rosner & Jason Craige Harris
Finding Our Way Back to Each Other
This workshop for school-based professionals takes the form of a fireside chat with author Elizabeth Rosner and mediator Jason Craige Harris, a white Jewish woman and a black Christian man respectively. Inspired by connections between Jewish and black histories, the session will explore how to foster cross-identity solidarity and allyship. Participants will explore the mindsets and practices that either hinder or support meaningful collaboration across lines of difference. Through guided discussions, they will learn how to address challenges facing their own communities and others in ways that amplify all voices, avoid silencing, and deepen mutual understanding. This session provides tools to navigate tensions, nurture empathy, and build alliances that honor the shared humanity and unique struggles of all involved.
July 17 – Shernice Lazare
Re-engage the Broader School Community in Fostering an Inclusive Environment
Calling all DEI Directors or anyone who is charged with leading DEI efforts at their organization. Join us for a dynamic workshop focused on renewing your commitment to your school's DEI mission and values. This session will provide a space for reflection and insight to invigorate your leadership and deepen your impact. Together, we’ll explore ways to re-engage staff, students, and the broader community in fostering an inclusive environment, while addressing challenges and celebrating progress. Walk away with practical strategies to enhance your school’s DEI efforts, reinforce your mission, and create a sustainable, equity-driven culture that reflects your core values.
July 22 – Kelly Bird EdD
Reflecting on Whiteness: Strengthening Our Commitment to Building Inclusive Communities
As educators, our commitment to our school’s mission and values is central to shaping a positive, inclusive learning environment. In this workshop, White educators will reflect on how their own racial identities—specifically the power and privilege tied to Whiteness—impact their interactions and teaching within the school community. By exploring these dynamics, we will deepen our understanding of how to align our personal and professional practices with the values of equity, inclusion, and belonging that are core to our schools’ missions. By understanding the complexities of Whiteness within our unique, multifaceted identities, we can become more intentional anti-racist allies to each other and to BIPOC students and colleagues. Drawing on the idea of "calling people in" (as Ali Michael suggests), we’ll explore how to create environments where all students and educators feel seen, heard, and valued.
July 24 – David Smith
Aligning Advancement with Your School's Mission and Values
For decades, independent school fundraising programs have centered wealth instead of mission and values. This workshop will help outline ways to shift advancement operations (development, alumni relations, communications) to better align with the mission and values of your school. Learn how to raise more money and engage more constituents by renewing your commitment to your school's mission and values.
July 29 – Janet Stickmon
Healing Racial Battle Fatigue and Reconnecting with Joy
This is a workshop for faculty, administrators, and staff of color in K-12 education who want to heal their racial battle fatigue and practice centering joy in their lives. This session creates a healing space designed for you to: 1) learn about racism-related stress, racial battle fatigue, and how your health is impacted, 2) meditate and reflect upon what brings you joy, and 3) explore ways to intentionally center joy in your life as an essential part of your health and well-being.
July 31 – Sam Hosein
Activating the Advisory Space
The Pollyanna Advisory Curriculum is designed to guide students in thinking critically about race, justice, and equity, and to help educators support students as they grapple with these complex issues. It encourages students not to shy away from having difficult conversations but instead equips them with the skills to remain actively engaged in the pursuit of making our world a more equitable and compassionate place. This workshop will explore different ways to integrate the lessons from the Pollyanna Advisory Curriculum as tools to confront the realities and challenges of the modern-day teenager.
AUGUST 2025
August 5 – Jan Abernathy & Jason Craige Harris
Navigating Clashes in Personal and Institutional Values
Independent schools are vibrant communities where diverse personal values often intersect with shared institutional commitments. This workshop equips school employees with tools to navigate tensions between personal and institutional values effectively. Participants will learn how to:
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Articulate Institutional Values – Develop clarity and alignment around the school's core values and commitments.
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Educate the Community – Foster shared understanding and ownership of these values across the school community.
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Apply Values in Ethical Decision-Making – Use the institutional values as a guide for addressing complex issues involving identity, politics, and perspective with consistency and integrity.
Through interactive discussions, real-world scenarios, and practical frameworks, this session will empower participants to engage thoughtfully with challenges, fostering a community that upholds its shared mission while respecting diverse viewpoints.
August 7– Jan Abernathy & Naledi Semela
Keeping Your Head on Swivel: Mitigating the Threat to DEIB Efforts Through Proactive Communication
When we first presented on this topic in 2022, the assault against DEI was only in its infancy. Since then, affirmative action in higher education has disappeared, and many states are dismantling all DEIB efforts. Families are increasingly asking schools to justify their 'woke' policies and accusing us of pushing a harmful activist ideology. We will discuss how equity practitioners and communications professionals can work together to explain a school's DEIB efforts in the face of unrelenting challenges and ensure that they stay one step ahead in the ever-changing equity landscape within our schools.
August 12 – Ivy Alphonse-Crean
Strategic vs Operational DEI Efforts: Who Owns What
What should the relationship between a DEI office and a Board of Trustees be? What is the difference between "operational" priorities related to DEI on a campus and "strategic" ones? And, how do DEI practitioners juggle both as school employees? From DEI mission statements to Board-level committees, this workshop will discuss several possible frameworks for fostering the board-practitioner partnership, and for furthering a school's DEI mission on multiple levels.
August 14 – Angelica Cardenas PMH
Embodied Approaches for Social Change
This workshop will approach DEIB work from an embodied perspective, exploring the critical role of the body in holding, perpetuating, and transforming unjust systems. Participants will learn to tune into their bodies to better understand how power and oppression show up in everyday life, and how to use this awareness to create meaningful change. Through discussion, reflection, and body-based practices, participants will learn how to cultivate their somatic awareness as a powerful tool to support equity and inclusion practices.
August 19 – Ali Michael PhD
Discerning What Is Real and What Is Not: Good and Bad Faith Critiques of DEI
DEI isn’t perfect and never has been. But over the past five years, it has suffered a crippling campaign to discredit and eliminate it. This workshop will help participants consider the purpose of DEI programming, recognize the hallmarks of the anti-DEI campaign, and envision what comes next for programming that prioritizes justice in our schools. Participants will learn to differentiate between bad faith and good faith critiques of DEI. Ali will share her original research, which includes interviews with DEI practitioners and countless news stories, as well as the Conflict Campaign report from UCLA researchers.
August 21 – Jason Craige Harris
Beyond Resolution: Advanced Strategies for Navigating Complex Conflicts
This advanced workshop equips participants with advanced conflict resolution techniques to address challenging interpersonal and systemic disputes within school communities. Participants will explore frameworks for navigating power dynamics, uncovering underlying needs, and fostering accountability while maintaining relationships. Through scenarios, attendees will practice de-escalation strategies, restorative approaches, and methods for addressing conflicts with equity and empathy. By the end of the session, participants will leave with actionable tools to transform conflict into an opportunity for growth and connection.