Upcoming Podcasts

The Knowledge Exchange

Exploring the Sciences of Learning and Development to Foster Thriving

Podcast Series Overview

Episode 2: Supporting Social, Emotional, and Academic Well-being and Thriving in Challenging Times and Contexts

Description

This podcast will explore how to support social, emotional, and academic well-being and learning in connected ways. Listeners will learn and be able to think about practices that integrate SEL and academics, understand why whole-person approaches deepen engagement and achievement, and explore principles of application across classrooms and community settings. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Sophia Rodriguez (Part 2 - From Engagement to Partnership: Sharing Power in Learning Ecosystems), Sarah Woulfin, and Robert Jagers (Part 1 - From Recovery to Coherence: Implementation, Relationships, and the Conditions for Learning)

Commentators

Joe Bishop and Karen Pittman (Part 3 Sections A & B)

Bios

Sophia Rodriguez is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Sociology of Education at New York University. Her research centers racial equity, urban education, leadership, and policy, with a particular focus on elevating the voices and experiences of immigrant and other minoritized youth. Supported by funding from the Spencer Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, and the Foundation for Child Development, her longitudinal, mixed-methods, and ethnographic projects examine how community–school partnerships, educators, and school-based personnel advance equity and belonging for immigrant youth. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals, including Educational Researcher, Educational Policy, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, and Sociology of Race & Ethnicity, as well as public outlets such as The Washington Post and Chalkbeat. She is the founder and director of the ImmigrantEdNext Research Lab, a public-facing hub dedicated to research and doctoral mentoring. Rodriguez earned her PhD in Educational Policy Studies and Sociology of Education from Loyola University Chicago.

Sarah Woulfin is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy who studies the relationship between education policy and equitable instruction. Much of her work draws on the research-practice partnership approach to formulate relevant questions, engage practitioners substantively, and transform practice. Using lenses of organizational sociology and qualitative methods, Dr. Woulfin investigates pressing issues of district and school improvement, including how to strengthen professional learning opportunities and instruction. While analyzing the institutional structures and organizational conditions of districts and schools, she focuses on how leaders and teachers implement policy. Her research illuminates how infrastructure and leadership influence educational change. Dr. Woulfin's work has been published in outlets such as American Journal of Education, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Teaching and Teacher Education. She co-authored Making Coaching Matter and served as co-editor of Educational Researcher. As a former urban public-school teacher and reading coach, Dr. Woulfin was dedicated to strengthening students' literacy skills to promote equitable outcomes.

Robert J. Jagers, Ph.D., is an independent senior researcher focused on capacity building of local stakeholders to improve learning experiences and outcomes of young people in underserved school communities. Dr. Jagers previously served as Vice President of Research at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Prior to joining CASEL, he was a faculty member in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan, a Co-PI of the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context (CSBYC), and the founding director of Wolverine Pathways, a university-sponsored diversity pipeline program for qualified secondary school students.

Joe Bishop, Ph.D., is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Center for the Transformation of Schools (CTS) in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA. CTS conducts research that supports school systems and policymakers in their efforts to organize schools around the needs, interests, and talents of young people in several areas including school discipline and school climate, juvenile justice reform, student homelessness, students in the foster care system, school finance, and ensuring practices and policies take into account the needs of students of color inside and outside of school settings. Dr. Bishop has held several state and national educational leadership positions with the Learning Policy Institute, the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign with the Schott Foundation for Public Education, Opportunity Action, the Coalition for Teaching Quality, the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund.

Karen Pittman, Ph.D., has played a key role in conceptualizing and promoting positive youth development. She spent six years at the Children's Defense Fund promoting an adolescent policy agenda. She was the founder and Director of the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research until 1995, when she accepted a position with the Clinton Administration as director of the President's Crime Prevention Council. She helped start the Forum for Youth Investment, which she led for many years, and is now a partner at KP Catalysts, LLC, which launched Changing the Odds Remix, a new public platform for sharpening the ideas about how, where, when, why, and with whom learning and development happens (or doesn't happen).

Episode 3: Keynote Discussion—Creating Safe Nurturing Environments that Engage Learners and Foster Thriving and Robust Learning

Description

This podcast explores how creating safe, nurturing environments enables robust learning and thriving. Listeners will learn about the importance of safety, belonging, and engagement, understand why these conditions are foundational to learning, and explore principles for building such environments with students, families, and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

John King (Part 1)

Commentators

Linda Darling-Hammond and Bob Pianta (Part 2)

Bios

John B. King Jr., Ph.D., JD, is the 15th Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest comprehensive system of public higher education in the United States. King served in President Barack Obama's cabinet as the 10th U.S. Secretary of Education. Following his service as U.S. Secretary of Education, King was President and CEO of The Education Trust, a national civil rights nonprofit, and served as Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland, College Park. Before joining President Obama's cabinet, Chancellor King served as New York State Education Department (SED) Commissioner and was the first African American and first Puerto Rican to lead the department. His book Teacher to Teacher emphasizes the transformative role of educators—drawing from his personal journey—and echoes SoLD values about expectations, support, and belonging.

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, created to provide high-quality research for policies that enable equitable and empowering education for each and every child. At Stanford she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped to redesign. Darling-Hammond is the past president of the American Educational Research Association and a recipient of its awards for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, Research Review, and Research-to-Policy. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education. In 2008, she directed President Barack Obama's Education Policy Transition Team. She is currently President of the California State Board of Education. In 2022, she was awarded the Yidan Prize, considered the top global education award. Her extensive work unpacking the science of learning and development for practice include and frequently cited “ The implication for Educational Practice of the Science of Learning and Development,” along with “Educating Teachers to Enact the Science of Learning and Development,” Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development Into Action,” “Educator Learning to Enact the Science of Learning and Development,” “Design Principles for Teacher Preparation: Enacting the Science of Learning and Development,” and “Using the Science of Learning and Development to Transform Educational Practice.”

Robert Pianta is the Batten Bicentennial Professor of Early Childhood Education, professor of psychology, and founding director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia. Pianta's research and policy interests focus on the intersection of education and human development. His work has advanced the conceptualization and measurement of teacher-student relationships and documents their contributions to students' learning and development. Pianta has led research and development of measurement tools and interventions that help teachers interact with students more effectively, widely used in the United States and around the world. He was named a Fellow of the American Education Research Association and received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Minnesota in 2016. Pianta served as dean of the UVA School of Education and Human Development from 2007 to 2022.

Episode 4: How to Leverage the Science of Learning and Development to Foster Robust Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

Description

This podcast will examine how the science of learning and development can strengthen academic, social, and emotional learning. Listeners will learn key strategies, understand why integrating these domains is critical to thriving, and explore how to apply these principles in classrooms and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Stephanie Jones

Commentators

Jim Pellegrino, Carol Lee, Annemaree Carroll

Bios

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is Professor of Education, Psychology, and Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where she directs the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education (CANDLE). A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the National Academy of Education, she is internationally recognized for her research on the emotional and social dimensions of learning. She co-authored Weaving a Colorful Cloth with Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Na'ilah Nasir, Pamela Cantor, and Richard Lerner. Her widely cited work, including Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience, demonstrates how emotions and meaning-making are foundational to robust learning, thriving, and equity.

Stephanie M. Jones is the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and directs the EASEL Lab (Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning). She is a member of the National Academy of Education and a leading researcher on social-emotional learning (SEL), executive function, and early childhood education. Jones has been widely cited for her work on SEL Kernels, a framework for breaking SEL down into fundamental, teachable strategies that can be embedded flexibly into classroom practice. She also co-authored the influential article 'Bringing Developmental Science Back into Education: The Science of Learning and Development', which connects developmental science with educational practice and policy.

James Pellegrino is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a founding Co-director of UIC's interdisciplinary Learning Sciences Research Institute. Pellegrino's research and development interests focus on children's and adults' thinking and learning and the implications of cognitive research and theory for assessment and instructional practice. His unique blend of expertise which combines knowledge of cognitive science, psychometrics, educational technology, instructional practice, and educational policy has led to appointment as head of several National Academy of Science/National Research Council study committees. He is a Fellow of AERA, a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and an elected lifetime member of the National Academy of Education and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Carol D. Lee is professor emerita (the former Edwina S. Tarry Professor) of Education in the School of Education and Social Policy and in African-American Studies at Northwestern University. Lee was president of the National Academy of Education and is a past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She co-edited The Cultural Foundations of Education and the 2023 volume of the Review of Research in Education, which focused on the science of learning and development. In 2021, Lee received the McGraw Prize in Education, the 2021 James Squire Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association, the premier acknowledgment of outstanding achievement and success in education research.

Annemaree Carroll is Professor of Educational Psychology within the School of Education at The University of Queensland. Her research activities focus on the social-emotional learning of children and adolescents, and the importance of social connectedness, (dis)engagement, and social inclusion to their behavioral and educational outcomes. She is known nationally and internationally for developing innovative emotion-regulation interventions for children and youth to drive positive change in their lives. From 2014 to 2020, Professor Carroll was Co-ordinator of Translational Outcomes within the Australian Research Council Science of Learning Research Centre. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2018.

Episode 5: Building Conditions for Learning, Well-being, and Thriving

Description

This podcast will discuss how to build strong conditions for learning, well-being, and thriving in schools and communities. Listeners will learn about the elements of supportive environments, understand why these conditions drive both equity and robust learning, and explore the principles of application. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Zaretta Hammond, Kim Schonert-Reichl

Commentators

Na'ilah Nasir, Megan Bang, Stephanie MacMahon

Bios

Zaretta Hammond, M.A., is a teacher educator and international education consultant. Ms. Hammond is a former high school and community college writing instructor. Through her company, Transformative Learning Solutions, she supports schools, school districts, teacher education programs, and other institutions in understanding how to integrate culturally responsive practices, the science of learning, and authentic assessment. She is the author of the bestselling book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, and of the recently released Rebuilding Students' Learning Power: Teaching For Instructional Equity And Cognitive Justice.

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, Ph.D., is the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. From 1991 to 2020, she was a Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, and Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Her research focuses on identification of the processes that foster positive human qualities such as empathy, compassion, altruism, and resiliency in children and adolescents. She is editor of the Journal of Social and Emotional Learning and a board member of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Before her graduate work, Kim worked as a middle school teacher and as a teacher at an alternative high school for adolescents identified as at risk.

Na'ilah Suad Nasir is President of the Spencer Foundation, former AERA President, and a member of the National Academy of Education. Her scholarship focuses on the interplay of social, cultural, and political contexts and learning, particularly in relation to inequities in educational outcomes, and on how identity, culture, and learning intersect to foster belonging and thriving across diverse educational contexts. She co-edited the Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning and is co-editor of the 2025 Review of Research in Education. She authored Identities: Race and achievement for African-American youth.

Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research. Dr. Bang studies dynamics of culture, learning, and development broadly with a specific focus on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. She currently serves on the Board of Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Education and an AERA Fellow. She was Deputy Director of the Spencer Foundation and is a co-editor of the 2025 Review of Research In Education.

Stephanie MacMahon, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the Science of Learning and in Arts Education, teaching in both the ITE and post-graduate programs in the School of Education at The University of Queensland, and is the program coordinator for the newly established Science of Learning Field of Study. She has over 20 years' experience as a P-12 educator and school leader. Stephanie is also the Program Director of the UQ Learning Lab: a group of multi-disciplinary researchers, educators, and industry partners who collaborate to transform learning, teaching and training in diverse school and post-school contexts through the science of learning.

Episode 6: Aligning Service to Address the Variety of Individual and Contextual Needs and Strengths

Description

This podcast will explore how aligning services to address diverse strengths, needs, and variation can build conditions for learning, well-being, and thriving. Listeners will learn and be able to think about coordinated, consumer-driven approaches across settings, understand why alignment improves effectiveness and equity, and explore principles for collaboration among schools, families, and community partners. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Eric Bruns, Catherine Bradshaw

Commentators

Rey Saldaña, Kwesi Rollins, Jane Quinn

Bios

Eric Bruns is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Bruns's research focuses on public child-serving systems and how to maximize their positive effects on youth with behavioral health needs and their families. He co-directs the National Wraparound Initiative and the National Wraparound Implementation Center and directs the UW Wraparound Evaluation and Research Team. Dr. Bruns has led multiple federally funded research and intervention-development projects (NIMH, SAMHSA, CMS) to define and evaluate the impact of intensive care coordination models. He is also Associate Director of the UW SMART Center, where he leads the Center's Technical Assistance Core and directs its Institute for Education Sciences (IES)-funded Post-doctoral Research Training Program.

Catherine P. Bradshaw, Ph.D., M.Ed., is a University professor and the senior associate dean for research and is a faculty fellow with the University's vice president of research. She was previously an associate professor and the associate chair of the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her primary research interests focus on the development of aggressive behavior and school-based prevention of behavioral and mental health problems. Her research focuses on bullying and school climate; emotional and behavioral disorders; and the design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools. She has led more than 10 federally funded randomized trials of school-based prevention programs. She has published more than 335 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. She is currently the editor of the journal Prevention Science and senior associate editor for Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Education.

Rey Saldaña, MS, is the President and CEO of Communities In Schools® (CIS®), the national organization that surrounds students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Saldaña is a CIS alumnus who served as the Regional Advocacy Director for the Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation and the Chair of the San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Agency-VIA. Before that, he served four terms on the San Antonio City Council, where he was first elected at age 24, becoming the youngest council member in the city's history. Saldaña holds a master's degree from Stanford University's Graduate School of Education. In 2023, Saldaña was awarded Stanford University's President's Award for the Advancement of the Common Good.

Kwesi Rollins, MSW, guides the Institute for Education Leadership's portfolio of programs designed to develop and support leaders with a particular emphasis on Family and Community Engagement, Early Childhood Education and Community-based Leadership Development. Kwesi directs the District Leaders Network on Family and Community Engagement and Leaders for Today and Tomorrow. He has years of experience working with local communities and state agencies to improve cross-sector collaboration and service delivery systems supporting children, youth and families. He has been recognized as the Big Brother of the Year in the District of Columbia. He holds an MSW degree from the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work.

Jane Quinn, Ph.D., is a social worker and youth worker with over five decades of professional experience, including direct service with children and families, program development, fundraising, grantmaking, research, and advocacy. From 2000 through 2018, she served as the Vice President for Community Schools at Children's Aid, where she directed the National Center for Community Schools. She was the principal author of the 1992 Carnegie study entitled A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours and the co-author of three books on community schools, including the 2023 volume entitled The Community Schools Revolution: Building Partnerships, Transforming Lives, Advancing Democracy. Jane has a master's in social work from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in urban education from the City University of New York.

Episode 7: Implementing The 16 Success Drivers and How They Can Be Holistically Enacted and Embodied in Schools and Across Learning Ecosystems

Description

This podcast will examine the 16 Success Drivers and how they can be holistically enacted and embodied in schools and across learning ecosystems. Listeners will learn and be able to think about the drivers and their interconnections, understand why a holistic approach is essential for equity and thriving, and explore principles for implementation across roles and settings. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Eric Gordon, Queena Kim

Commentators

Vivian Gadsden, Jillian Ahrens, Karen Quartz

Bios

Eric Gordon is the CEO of Positive Education Program, an organization that provides services—both direct and consultative in nature—for children challenged by complex developmental trauma, mental health issues and autism, their families, and the professionals who support them. Previously, Eric served as Senior Vice-President of Student Development and Education Pipeline at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Eric also served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) from July 2011 through June 2023. During his tenure CMSD saw dramatic improvement in academic performance, including a 29-percentage point gain in graduation rates to a record 80.9%. Among his many awards, CEO Gordon received the Green-Garner Award of the Council of the Great City Schools in 2016, distinguishing him as the top Urban Educator of the Year, and the Mary Utne O'Brien Social Emotional Learning Leader Lifetime Achievement Award from CASEL.

Queena Kim is the Principal of UCLA Community School, a TK–12 public school in Los Angeles operated in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. In this role, she provides instructional and organizational leadership for a diverse, multilingual school community serving students and families in the Koreatown area, with a focus on academic excellence, equity, and community-centered schooling. Previously, Ms. Kim served UCLA Community School in multiple leadership capacities, including founding teacher, instructional leader, and assistant principal. Under her leadership, UCLA Community School has expanded from an initial elementary program to a full secondary pathway, with strong outcomes in student engagement, bilingualism, and college readiness. The school is widely recognized for its distributed leadership model, often described as "leading from every chair." Ms. Kim was honored with the Teacher-Powered Schools Extraordinary Achievement Award.

Vivian L. Gadsden, Ph.D., is the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and Co-Faculty Director of the Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center. She is also Director of the National Center on Fathers and Families at Penn. Gadsden's scholarship focuses on learning and literacies across the life course, with particular attention to equity, access, and social change for children and families in historically marginalized communities. A nationally and internationally recognized scholar, Gadsden is an elected member and Vice President of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an AERA Fellow, and an inductee of the Reading Hall of Fame. She is a past President of AERA and serves as Co-General Editor of the 2023 and 2025 volumes of the Review of Research in Education.

Jillian Ahrens, MA, is 3rd vice president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, a union representing nearly 5,000 of Cleveland's teachers, paraprofessionals, and other related-service personnel. Ahrens, a 17-year veteran of the CTU Executive Board, currently serves as co-director of Grievances and is on the negotiations team. In addition to her union duties, Jillian is a first-grade teacher for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District at Memorial K-8 School. She has been recognized as a Master Teacher by the state of Ohio. In 2013, Ahrens was honored by CASEL with the Mary Utne O'Brien Award for Excellence in Expanding the Evidence-Based Practice of Social and Emotional Learning. She played a key role in Cleveland's Humanware efforts from its inception in 2008.

Karen Hunter Quartz, Ph.D., is an education researcher and practitioner-scholar based at the UCLA School of Education & Information Studies, where she serves as an adjunct professor and directs the UCLA Center for Community Schooling. Her work focuses on how community schools and research–practice partnerships can strengthen democracy, equity, and public education, with particular attention to teacher autonomy, retention, and the social conditions that shape teaching and learning. Quartz has played a central role in the development of UCLA-affiliated community schools. She led the original design team for the UCLA Community School, which opened in 2009, and later served on the design team for the Mann UCLA Community School.

Episode 8: Assessing and Building Readiness

Description

This podcast will explore why readiness matters for students and educators and how it can be assessed and built. Listeners will learn about readiness frameworks, understand why readiness is foundational to learning and thriving, and explore principles for effective assessment and readiness development. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Michael Fullan, Gene Hall

Commentators

Abe Wandersman, Matthew McCreight

Bios

Michael Fullan, OC, is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto, and a senior fellow at the Learning Policy Institute. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative. Recognized as a global authority on educational reform, he advises policymakers and local leaders to advance the moral purpose of ensuring all children learn. Michael Fullan received the Order of Canada in December 2012. He holds honorary doctorates from several universities worldwide. Fullan is a prolific, award-winning author whose books have been published in many languages. His recent publications include The drivers: Transforming learning for students, schools, and systems and Supporting Student Well-Being and Learning in Challenging Times: A Transition Tool.

Gene E. Hall, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized scholar, educator, and change leadership expert whose career has focused on understanding and supporting the implementation of educational and organizational innovation. He is best known as a co-developer of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), a widely used framework for studying and guiding change processes in education and other complex systems. In 2017, Dr. Hall was named Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Since that time, he has continued to grow and lead Concerns Based Systems, Inc.™, remaining actively involved in national and international projects focused on implementing change, leadership development, and systemic improvement. His most recent books are Implementing Change (6th edition) and The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): Constructs, Evidence, Applications, and Implications For Facilitating Change.

Abraham Wandersman, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at the University of South Carolina and the President and CEO of the Wandersman Center. His work focuses on research and program evaluation related to interagency collaboration and citizen participation in community organizations and coalitions. He is a co-editor of three books on empowerment evaluation and a co-author of several Getting To Outcomes accountability publications. He has collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop the Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation. His professional honors include the Myrdal Award for Evaluation Practice from the American Evaluation Association in 1998 and the American Evaluation Association's Outstanding Evaluation Award for his work on the Spreading Community Accelerators for Learning and Evaluation initiative.

Matthew McCreight, MPPM, is a Partner at Schaffer Consulting with 30+ years of experience helping senior leaders shape and carry out organizational transformations and delivering breakthrough results. He has coached CEOs, senior leaders, and Board members through a range of challenging developmental issues. He has created and led several Schaffer's Achievement Learning leadership development programs and created the firm's Senior Leader "Fast Start" On-Boarding process. Matthew earned a MPPM (Masters in Management) from Yale University School of Management and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University.

Episode 9: Centering Equity

Description

This podcast will examine why equity must be centered in education and how practitioners can do it. Listeners will learn about equity-focused strategies, understand why centering equity is critical to robust learning and thriving, and explore principles of equitable practice. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Anne Gregory, Rich Milner

Commentators

LaShawn Routé Chatmon, UCLA Community School Student

Bios

Anne Gregory, Ph.D., is a professor with the Department of School Psychology in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. She was formerly an assistant professor of clinical and school psychology with the Curry Programs at the University of Virginia. Gregory advances research on racial and gender disparities in school discipline and is currently examining school-wide restorative practices and equity-oriented social-emotional learning. She has been part of the Research-to-Practice Collaborative on Discipline Disparities, a national panel of researchers, educators, and policy analysts advocating for change in gender and racial disparities in discipline. Her publications include "Good intentions are not enough: Centering equity in school discipline reform," "Focused classroom coaching and widespread racial equity in school discipline," and "Reducing suspension and increasing equity through supportive and engaging schools."

H. Richard (Rich) Milner IV is Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education and professor of education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. In April 2022, Professor Milner received the prestigious Joseph A. Johnson, Jr. Distinguished Leadership Professor Award, one of Vanderbilt University's highest honors. His research, teaching, and policy interests concern urban education, teacher education, African American literature, and the social context of education. Professor Milner was president of the American Educational Research Association, the largest educational research organization in the world. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of AERA. His most recent books are: The Race Card: Leading the Fight for Truth in America's Schools; Start Where You Are But Don't Stay There; Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms; and These Kids Are Out of Control: Why We Must Reimagine Classroom Management for Equity.

LaShawn Routé Chatmon is the founding executive director of the National Equity Project, leading the organization's successful transition from the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES). Under her leadership, the National Equity Project has become one of the leading voices in a movement to change the conversation and approach used to achieve racial equity in education. Previously an educator in private and public schools, she served with Dr. Pedro Noguera as Co-Director of The Diversity Project, a school-university partnership designed to address racial disparities in Berkeley, CA. LaShawn is a contributing author in the book Class Dismissed: A Year in the Heart of An American High School a Glimpse into the Heart of a Nation. She currently serves as a SOLD Alliance Advisory Board Member; Learner Studio Collective Action WorkGroup Member; and PowerSurge Executive Leadership Fellow.

Episode 10: Systematic and Comprehensive Approaches

Description

This podcast will explore how to design systematic, comprehensive approaches that integrate instruction, learning conditions, and supports. Listeners will learn and be able to think about building coherent systems across classrooms, schools, and communities, understand why comprehensive design advances equity and effectiveness, and explore principles for coordination, continuous improvement, and sustainability. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Alfredo Artiles, Maurice Elias

Commentators

Joshua Starr, Linda Darling-Hammond

Bios

Alfredo J. Artiles is the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University. He is president of the National Academy of Education. His scholarship examines the paradoxes of educational equity. He studies how protections provided by special education can unwittingly stratify educational opportunities for minoritized groups and is advancing solutions to this problem. Artiles is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Fellow of AERA, a Senior Research Fellow of the Learning Policy Institute, and a National Education Policy Center Fellow. Dr. Artiles served on the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Göteborgs (Sweden) and was an Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham (UK). Artiles' Wallace Lecture received AERA's Palmer O. Johnson Award.

Maurice J. Elias is a professor in the Psychology Department at Rutgers University, director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab, and co-director of the Academy for Social-Emotional Learning in Schools, which offers certificate programs in direct instruction and school leadership relating to SEL and character development for educators and student support professionals in school and out-of-school settings. He has received the Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education and the Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emotional Learning from CASEL. Prof. Elias is on the leadership teams of SEL4US and SEL4NJ. Among his numerous books are The Joys & Oys of Parenting, Nurturing Students' Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social-Emotional Learning, and Boost Emotional Intelligence in Students: 30 Flexible Research-Based Lessons to Build EQ Skills.

Joshua Starr, Ph.D., is an American educator and national education leader whose career has spanned classroom teaching, district leadership, nonprofit leadership, and policy advocacy. He is best known for his work as a public school superintendent and as a prominent voice on equity, instructional improvement, and system-level change in education. Starr began his career as a special education teacher in New York City. In 2005, Starr was appointed superintendent of Stamford Public Schools in Connecticut. In 2011, Starr became superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, one of the largest and highest-performing school systems in the United States. Following his work as a district superintendent, Starr served as chief executive officer of PDK International and later became the managing partner of the Center for Model Schools. He has written extensively about equity-based leadership, system coherence, and the challenges facing public education.

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, created to provide high-quality research for policies that enable equitable and empowering education for each and every child. At Stanford she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped to redesign. Darling-Hammond is the past president of the American Educational Research Association and a recipient of its awards for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, Research Review, and Research-to-Policy. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education. In 2008, she directed President Barack Obama's Education Policy Transition Team. She is currently President of the California State Board of Education. In 2022, she was awarded the Yidan Prize, considered the top global education award. Her extensive work unpacking the science of learning and development for practice include and frequently cited “ The implication for Educational Practice of the Science of Learning and Development,” along with “Educating Teachers to Enact the Science of Learning and Development,” Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development Into Action,” “Educator Learning to Enact the Science of Learning and Development,” “Design Principles for Teacher Preparation: Enacting the Science of Learning and Development,” and “Using the Science of Learning and Development to Transform Educational Practice.”

Episode 11: Consumer-Driven Approaches

Description

This podcast will explore what it means to be family- and youth-driven in education and community practice. Listeners will learn and be able to think about consumer-driven approaches, understand why authentic partnerships with families and youth matter, and explore principles of shared decision-making. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Christina Cipriano, Nia West-Bay

Commentators

UCLA Community School Student, Kwesi Rollins

Bios

Christina Cipriano, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center in the Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Education Collaboratory at Yale University. She is the PI and Director of numerous major federal and foundation grants that support the centering of students' intersectional identities in research and practice, the development and validation of novel school-based assessments and methodologies, and foundational evidence syntheses. The Education Collaboratory at Yale is a translational science lab whose mission is to advance the science of learning and social and emotional development, so all students are seen, served, and safe to learn in school. Chris is a Yale Public Voices Fellow, Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, and serves on numerous national advisory boards, workgroups, and committees, including the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Understood, Special Olympics, and the Frameworks Institute. Dr. Cipriano has published over 120 papers and commentaries. Her honors include the Joseph A. Zins Award for Career Contributions to Action Research (2022), National Voice of Change in Public Education Award from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (2023), Research-to-Policy Collaboration Scholar Award from the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center (2024), the Distinguished Contributions to Human Development Research from AERA (2025), and the Outstanding Achievement Award in Educational Measurement from the National Council on Measurement in Education (2025). Her book, Be Unapologetically Impatient: The Mindset Required to Change the Way We Do Things(2025), was an instant #1 New Release in Applied Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Parenting Books for Children with Disability.

Nia West-Bey, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy. She is a community psychologist with expertise in youth development, the interpretation and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, and the intersection of psychology, social policy, and program evaluation. Before leading the TYP Collaborative, she was CLASP's director of youth policy. In this role, she led a team that sought to advance a vision for policy and systems change co-created with youth and young adults, ages 16-25, that centers safety, healing and well-being, and economic and racial justice. Previously, Dr. West-Bey was a senior policy analyst with CLASP's youth team, where she focused on youth and young adult mental health, two-generation policies and strategies to support young parents of color earning low incomes, as well as girls and young women of color. Dr. West-Bey co-founded and spent 10 years as executive director of a community-based nonprofit organization offering youth development programming to young people in foster care in Washington, D.C.

12: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive and Sustaining Approaches

Description

This podcast will explore how culturally and linguistically sustaining, competent, and responsive practices strengthen equity, belonging, and thriving. Listeners will learn and be able to think about these practices, understand why they matter for advancing robust learning, and explore principles of application in diverse settings. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Tara Yosso, Megan Bang

Commentators

Leslie Fenwick, Rania Awaad

Bios

Tara J. Yosso, Ph.D., has earned an international reputation for her research on educational inequality and school reform. She is Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Personnel in the University of California, Riverside, School of Education. Dr. Yosso applies the frameworks of critical race theory and critical media literacy to examine educational access and opportunity. Her methodology of counter storytelling interweaves empiricism and theory with engaging narratives that expose and analyze racism's effects on Chicana and Chicano students. Her work has been cited more than 41,000 times. In 2023, AERA's Division G recognized her with a Distinguished Contributions to Transforming Social Contexts of Education Research Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2022, the organization Color of Change established the Tara J. Yosso Award for Excellence in Counter Storytelling in Education in her honor, naming her among its first recipients. Dr. Yosso's scholarship exemplifies and pushes the intellectual boundaries of research on race and racism in education, as well as educational equity and access. Her many publications include "A Critical Race and LatCrit Approach to Media Literacy: Chicana/o Resistance to Visual Microaggressions," Critical Race Counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline, and "Whose Culture has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth." She is an AERA Fellow.

Leslie T. Fenwick, Ph.D., is Dean Emerita of the Howard University School of Education, where she is a professor of educational policy and leadership. She was dean in residence at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She is a nationally known scholar with deep expertise in public policy, educational equity, and leadership studies. She is author of the award-winning book Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership (Harvard Education Press), is also a section editor of the Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (AERA), and is a contributor to the bestselling book The Last Word: The Best Commentary and Controversy in American Education (Education Week Press). She served on the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2022, Fenwick was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy, where she has served as an MCLC Senior Fellow and delivered lectures on character, leadership, and ethics. During her tenure as dean, the Howard University School of Education achieved its first ranking on U.S. News & World Report's list of top 100 schools and colleges of Education.

Episode 13: Addressing Root Causes and Contextual and Systemic Factors

Description

This podcast will explore how to move beyond surface-level problems to identify and address root causes and contextual and systemic factors. Listeners will learn and be able to think about strategies for root-cause analysis, understand why systemic approaches are necessary for equity, and explore principles of addressing structural barriers. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Aydin Bal, Maria Hernandez, Kathleen King Thorius

Commentators

Michelle Fine, David B. McMillion 

Bios

Aydin Bal, Ph.D., is a professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Bal's research focuses on the interplay between culture, learning, and mental health across local and global education systems. He examines social justice issues in education, family-school-community-university collaboration, organizational innovation, and future-making. He has developed the Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework and the Learning Lab methodology. In Learning Labs, local stakeholders (educators, students, families, policy makers, and community representatives), especially those from historically marginalized communities, design and implement culturally responsive behavioral support systems. Learning Lab has been implemented in 15 public schools and teacher education institutions in Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin in the United States, and internationally in the Anishinaabe Nation, Brazil, and Turkey. As a practitioner and researcher, Dr. Bal has worked with youth from minoritized communities experiencing academic and behavioral problems in schools, hospitals, and prisons from the United States, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq, the Russian Federation, Turkey, the Anishinaabe Nation, Malawi, and Brazil. He has published in leading journals including American Educational Research Journal, Review of Educational Research, Review of Research in Education, Cognition and Instruction, and Urban Education. In 2017, Dr. Bal received the AERA Review of Research Award. In 2018-2019, he was awarded a Fulbright fellowship. Dr. Bal is the recipient of the 2019 AERA Scholars of Color Early Career Award, the 2022 AERA Cultural Historical Special Interest Group Early Career Award, and the 2023 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Division for Research Distinguished Researcher from Underrepresented Groups Award.

María G. Hernández, Ph.D., is Deputy Executive Director of School Change and Community Engagement and Co-Director of Innovations in Equity and Systemic Change (IESC). She has over a decade of experience providing technical assistance, training, and consulting to districts, schools, and educational institutions to address disproportionate outcomes related to race, ethnicity, language, and ability. She partners with districts and schools to build their capacity in Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education (CR-SE), create equity visions, foster a data-driven culture, develop instructional leadership, cultivate a positive school climate, strengthen family and community engagement, and devise action plans with multiple districts to change system policies and practices and develop equitable educational systems. Her approach of relying on evidence-based research, implementation science, culturally responsive equitable systems, and developing ongoing transformative relationships in academic institutions has led to shifting mindsets, policies, practices, and procedures. In the forthcoming book Dismantling Disproportionality: A Culturally Responsive Sustaining Systems Approach, Dr. Hernández and her colleagues offer a concrete multi-pronged training and technical assistance approach to disrupt disproportionality in education and provide case studies of districts that, through training and technical assistance support, shifted systems to be more equitable for students of difference. Dr. Hernández also has over 15 years of experience working with and researching recently arrived immigrant Latinx children and families.

Kathleen King Thorius is professor and director of Learning Futures Collaboratives in Teachers College. She is editor of Exceptional Children and recently served for six years as editor of Multiple Voices: Disability, Race, and Language Intersections in Special Education. Thorius is a critical special education scholar who develops and facilitates cultural historical approaches to teacher learning, largely with white/non-disabled educators, toward the goal of inclusive education as an intersectional education justice movement. Thorius was a school psychologist before earning her PhD as a USDOE-funded doctoral fellow in an interdisciplinary program to prepare culturally responsive special education professors. She is coauthor of important articles including "Cross-pollinating culturally sustaining pedagogy and universal design for learning: Toward an inclusive pedagogy that accounts for dis/ability," "A critical practice analysis of response to intervention appropriation in an urban school," "Beyond culture as group traits: Future learning disabilities ontology, epistemology, and inquiry on research knowledge use," and "Equity expansive, technical assistance for schools." She is co-editor of Sustaining Disabled Youth and Ability, Equity, and Culture: Sustaining Inclusive Urban Education Reform. She founded the Great Lakes Equity Center at Indiana University Indianapolis.

Episode 14: Addressing the Impacts of Economic Inequality on Learning and Well-being

Description

This podcast will examine how economic inequality affects learning and well-being. Listeners will learn and be able to think about the connections between poverty, opportunity, and thriving, understand why addressing economic inequality is central to equity, and explore principles for creating supports that buffer its effects. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Sean Reardon, Kris D. Gutiérrez

Commentators

Pedro Noguera, Hiro Yoshikawa

Bios

Kris D. Gutiérrez is the Carol Liu Professor of Education and brings expertise in the learning sciences, literacy, educational policy, and qualitative and design-based approaches to inquiry. Gutiérrez is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Board of Directors of the National Academy of Education and the International Society of the Learning Sciences, and past president of the American Educational Research Association. Gutiérrez held a presidential appointment from President Obama to the National Board for the Institute of Education Sciences, where she served as Vice Chair. Gutiérrez's research employs a critical approach to the Learning Sciences and to Cultural Historical Activity Theory, examining the cultural dimensions of learning in designed learning environments, with attention to students and families from non-dominant and translingual communities. Her work on Third Spaces examines the affordances of syncretic approaches to literacy and learning, new media literacies, STEM learning, and the re-mediation of functional systems of learning. Her work in social design-based experiments (SDBEs) foregrounds the historical, political, and ethical dimensions of design research and our theories of learning. Key examples of longstanding collaborations with immigrant and migrant communities include Las Redes, a 15-year afterschool program that privileged translingual language practices as normative for youth, grades K-5; El Pueblo Mágico, a STEM-oriented afterschool program; and the UCLA Migrant Student Leadership Program for California youth from migrant farmworker backgrounds. Gutiérrez has won numerous awards, including the AERA Division C Sylvia Scribner Award, the 2020 Dr. John J. Gumperz Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Scholarship, the 2016 Oscar Causey award, and the 2016 Medal of Excellence from Columbia University/Teachers College.

Pedro A. Noguera is the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the Rossier School of Education and a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. A sociologist, Noguera's research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional, and global contexts. He is the author of 15 books. His most recent books are Common Schooling: Conversations About the Tough Questions and Complex Issues Confronting K-12 Education in the United States Today (Teachers College Press), which was the winner of the Association of American Publishers 2022 Prose Award, with Rick Hess, and City Schools and the American Dream: Still Pursuing the Dream (Teachers College Press) with Esa Syeed. He has published over 250 research articles in academic journals, book chapters in edited volumes, research reports, and editorials in major newspapers. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations, including the Economic Policy Institute, the National Equity Project, and The Nation. Prior to being appointed Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education, Noguera served as a Professor of Education and holder of endowed chairs at UCLA (2015–2020), New York University (2004–2015), Harvard University (2000–2003), and the University of California, Berkeley (1990–2000). In 2022, he was appointed to President Biden's National Commission on Hispanics, and he was asked to serve as the co-chair of the state of California's Black Student Achievement Taskforce by the state superintendent. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Education, and in 2020, Noguera was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023, he was ranked 1st nationally in influence and impact in education by Education Week.

Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Ph.D., is the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Development and Education. He is a community and developmental psychologist who conducts research-practice, research-policy, and research-advocacy partnerships concerning public policies and programs related to immigration, poverty, gender, and sexuality on child and youth development. He has conducted work in the United States as well as Latin America, South Asia, and the Middle East. He was the founding Co-Director of the Global TIES for Children Center at NYU from 2014 to 2024. He is the author of Immigrants Raising Citizens: Undocumented Parents and Their Young Children. He has served on the National Board of Education Sciences under the Obama and Biden administrations. Currently, he serves on the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel and the Board of Trustees of the William T. Grant Foundation. In 2023, he received the Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy and Practice in Child Development award from the Society for Research in Child Development. In 2025, he received the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize from the Jacobs Foundation. He obtained a Master's in piano performance from The Juilliard School and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from NYU.

Episode 15: Inclusivity & Equity

Description

This podcast will explore how Universal Design, Targeted Universalism, and Translanguaging can work together to create inclusive and equitable learning environments. Listeners will learn and be able to think about designing for variability, targeting supports where needed, and honoring students' full linguistic repertoires, and explore principles of application in classrooms and community programs. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Sheldon Berman, Ofelia Garcia

Commentators

Maria Town, Robert Jagers

Bios

Sheldon Berman was appointed AASA's Lead Superintendent for Social-Emotional Learning after serving 28 years as a superintendent in four districts—Hudson, MA; Jefferson County (Louisville), KY; Eugene, OR; and Andover, MA. In each district where he served as superintendent, he implemented systemic SEL programs. Dr. Berman has also provided state and national leadership in multiple organizations that champion the inclusion of and support for individuals with special needs, including chairing the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Special Education Task Force, serving on the CAST Board of Directors, and serving on the Special Olympics' Massachusetts Educational Leadership Network. He has authored numerous articles on inclusive practices and social-emotional learning. He is the author of two books on social responsibility—Children's Social Consciousness and Promising Practices in Teaching Social Responsibility. He was a member of the Council of Distinguished Educators of the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development and served as the primary author of the Commission's report on social, emotional, and academic development practice. Dr. Berman served as President of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and has been a policy leader in three states on education reform, social-emotional learning, civic education, special education, universal design for learning, and education funding. He received the 2003 Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year Award, the 2006 Recognition Award from the Massachusetts Administrators for Special Education, the 2011 Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education, recognition in 2011 by AASA as one of ten courageous superintendents for providing leadership for school desegregation, and the Mary Utne O'Brien Award for Excellence in Expanding the Evidence-Based Practice of Social Emotional Learning from CASEL for lifetime achievement in implementing social-emotional learning in 2020.

Ofelia García is Professor Emerita in the Ph.D. programs of Urban Education and of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has been Professor of Bilingual Education at Columbia University's Teachers College, Dean of the School of Education at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University, and Professor of Education at The City College of New York. Among her best-known books are Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective and Translanguaging. García has been the General Editor of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language and the co-editor of Language Policy. She co-edits the Mouton de Gruyter Series, Contributions to the Sociology of Language. García was co-principal investigator of CUNY-New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (NYSIEB) from its inception in 2011 until 2019. In 2016, García received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bank Street Graduate School of Education. In 2017, she received the Charles Ferguson Award in Applied Linguistics from the Center for Applied Linguistics and the Lifetime Career Award from the Bilingual Education SIG of AERA. In 2018, she was appointed to the National Academy of Education. In 2019, she received AERA's Division G Distinguished Contributions to Social Contexts in Education Research Lifetime Excellence Award and the AERA Leadership through Research Award from the Second Language Acquisition SIG. In 2022, she was awarded the MLA Distinguished Service to the Profession. She was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023, and is the recipient of the 2024 Literacy Research Association Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Award.

Maria Town is the President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. In this role, she works to increase the political and economic power of people with disabilities. Before this, she served as the Director of the City of Houston Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, where she advocated for the rights and needs of citizens with disabilities, served as a liaison between the mayor, city council, city departments, and other public and private entities on matters pertaining to people with disabilities in Houston, and established local and national partnerships to advance inclusion. Town is the former Senior Associate Director in the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement, where she managed the White House's engagement with the disability community and older Americans. She also managed the place-based portfolio and coordinated engagement across Federal agencies. While at the White House, Town hosted an inclusive fashion show that highlighted the efforts of makers and designers to enhance disability integration. Prior to this, Town was a policy advisor at the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, where she led and coordinated numerous efforts to improve employment outcomes for youth and young adults with disabilities. She has particular expertise in areas of youth development and leadership and promoting college and career readiness for all youth. Town was recently named to the Susan Daniel's Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame and to the inaugural class of Emory University's 40 Under 40.

Robert J. Jagers is an independent senior researcher focused on capacity building of local stakeholders to improve learning experiences and outcomes of young people in underserved school communities. Dr. Jagers previously served as Vice President of Research at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Prior to joining CASEL, he was a faculty member in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan, a Co-PI of the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context (CSBYC), and the founding director of Wolverine Pathways, a university-sponsored diversity pipeline program for qualified secondary school students.

Episode 16: Addressing Individual Needs, Strengths, and Goals

Description

This podcast will explore how to build on students' strengths, meet their needs, and support their individual goals and aspirations. Listeners will learn and be able to think about approaches for personalizing supports and opportunities, understand why these practices are essential for equity, thriving, and identity-affirming learning, and explore principles of application in schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Jean-Claude Brizard

Commentators

Mike Furlong, Mark Weist

Bios

Jean-Claude Brizard is President and CEO of Digital Promise, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on shaping the future of education and advancing equitable education systems by bridging solutions across research, practice, and technology. He is a former Senior Advisor and Deputy Director in US Programs at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he focused on PK-16 education across five communities in four states. He also led several strategies to help close the racial and economic achievement gaps in Washington State's educational system as well as support the growth and sustainability of the state's public charter school sector. He is the former Chief Executive of Chicago Public Schools. Before his appointment in Chicago, he was Superintendent of Schools for the Rochester, NY School District. Under Mr. Brizard's leadership, both the Chicago Public Schools and the Rochester City School District saw substantial improvements in student performance. Mr. Brizard's experience also includes a 21-year career as an educator and administrator with the NYC Department of Education. He served as a Regional Superintendent, supervising more than 100 schools in the Borough of Brooklyn, and he also served as the system's Executive Director for its 400 secondary schools. He is a Fellow of the Broad Center, a Fellow of the Pahara-Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network. A commercial pilot and a native of Haiti, Mr. Brizard credits his parents—both of whom were educators—with instilling in him a lifelong commitment to education.

Michael Furlong, Ph.D., is a Research Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of School Psychology at the University of California Santa Barbara Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. The National School Mental Health Center recognized him with the 2022 School Mental Health Research Award. He received the 2021-22 UCSB Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship. Furlong provides consultation and support to the California Department of Education and WestEd related to the California Healthy Kids Survey. A co-editor of the Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools (2009, 2014, 2022), he collaborates with colleagues on Project Covitality, supporting schools' efforts to foster all students' social-emotional development.

Mark D. Weist, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina. In 1995, with other leaders from the University of Maryland, he established the National Center for School Mental Health, now in its 30th year of supporting this field. He is also a partner on the National Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. He has edited or developed 17 books and has published and presented widely in areas of mental health-education system partnerships, school behavioral health (SBH), trauma, violence and youth, evidence-based practice, cognitive behavioral therapy, and advancing policies that support children and youth at local, state, regional, national, and international levels of scale. With colleagues, he currently leads the Southeastern School Behavioral Health Community and he co-directs the South Carolina School Behavioral Health Academy, an innovative learning management and coaching system to promote knowledge and effective skills for diverse staff and community partners interested or involved in SBH. He is also leading or co-leading a number of federally funded studies on strategies to improve SBH effectiveness, impact, and scaling up. Since 2013, Mark has co-chaired the School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange and has helped to lead meetings around the world on advancing interconnected research, practice, and policy in this growing field.

Episode 17: Engaging and Coordinating with Students, Families, Community Organizations, Agencies, and Community Members

This podcast will explore how to engage—and be engaged by—students, families, community organizations, agencies, and community members to create safe, equitable, and thriving learning environments. Listeners will learn about approaches for authentic student voice, family-driven partnerships, and community collaboration, understand why reciprocal engagement is essential for sustainability and equity, and explore principles of application across schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Tracy Hill, Vivian Gadsden

Commentators

Karen Pittman, Emilie Smith, UCLA Community School Student

Bios

Tracy Hill has been the executive director of the Family and Community Engagement Team at the Cleveland Metropolitan Schools' Community Engagement Office since August 2010. She has led successful family engagement efforts that embody family-drivenness and cultural responsiveness with a focus on the whole child. Before joining CMSD, she was a teacher at Cleveland's Positive Education Program, which successfully applies the strengths-based Re-ED model. She served on the Institute for Educational Leadership's District Leaders Network on Family and Community Engagement and was identified by Education Week in 2014 as one of 16 leaders to learn from. She co-authored "School-family-community partnerships: School, safety, mental health, and family resilience" with CMSD's superintendent/CEO and the Executive Director of the Positive Education Program.

Vivian L. Gadsden, Ph.D., is the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and Co-Faculty Director of the Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center. She is also Director of the National Center on Fathers and Families at Penn. Gadsden's scholarship focuses on learning and literacies across the life course, with particular attention to equity, access, and social change for children and families in historically marginalized communities. A nationally and internationally recognized scholar, Gadsden is an elected member and Vice President of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an AERA Fellow, and an inductee of the Reading Hall of Fame. She is a past President of AERA and serves as Co-General Editor of the 2023 and 2025 volumes of the Review of Research in Education.

Emilie Smith, Ph.D., is a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and the College of Social Science Distinguished Scholar. She is the Director of the MSU Youth Equity Project, an interdisciplinary group focused on reducing disparities and increasing opportunities for marginalized youth. Smith identifies as a developmentally oriented prevention scientist whose research focuses on the family, community, and socio-cultural factors that influence child development. Her work draws on rigorous cluster-randomized trials to explore the ways in which families and communities foster racial-ethnic identity and socialization and their roles in children's socio-emotional, academic, and positive youth development. She has won awards for her cutting-edge work at the college and university levels, including the Advances in Culture and Diversity Award from the Society for Prevention Research (SPR). She serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Community Psychology, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and the Journal of Family Psychology. Dr. Smith is newly elected to the Governing Council of the Society for Research in Child Development, is a former Chair of the Ethnic-Racial Issues Committee, and is a Fellow of Division 27 (SCRA) of the American Psychological Association.

Karen Pittman, Ph.D., is co-founder of the Forum for Youth Investment, where she co-directs the Building Capacity for Positive Youth Development Center for Innovation. A member of the National Academy of Education, her work focuses on the intersection of youth development, education, and social policy. She is best known for her pioneering work in the youth development field, including seminal articles like "A New Vision for Youth Development" and "The Future of Youth: The Role of Communities in Promoting Thriving." Pittman's scholarship and leadership reflect a lifelong commitment to ensuring all young people have access to high-quality learning environments and opportunities to thrive.

Episode 18: Relationally Rich Approaches

Description

This podcast will explore how relationally rich approaches both create the conditions for learning, thriving, and equity and serve as a framework for doing the work itself. Listeners will understand why relational factors are foundational to engagement and development, learn about practices that emphasize trust, belonging, and connection, and explore principles for applying relational approaches in schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Marc Brackett, Jason Okonofua

Commentators

Tyrone Howard, Pamela Cantor

Bios

Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. He is the author of two bestselling books—Permission to Feel, now in 30 languages, and, most recently, Dealing with Feeling, also the title of his podcast. Marc is the lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based system for cultivating emotional intelligence used in more than 5,000 schools worldwide. He also has authored over 200 scholarly publications, headlined more than 700 conferences, advises Fortune 500 companies, and co-created the award-winning How We Feel app.

Jason Okonofua, Ph.D., is a professor at Brown University. His research program examines social-psychological processes that contribute to inequality. One context in which he has examined these processes is that of teacher-student relationships and race disparities in disciplinary action. His research emphasizes the ongoing interplay between processes that originate among teachers (how stereotyping can influence discipline) and students (how apprehension to bias can incite misbehavior) to examine causes for disproportionate discipline according to race. The intersection of these processes, he hypothesizes, undermines teacher-student relationships over time, contributes to disproportionate discipline of racially stigmatized students, and ultimately feeds the "school-to-prison" pipeline. By investigating basic processes that contribute to misinterpreted and misguided disrespect among teachers and students, he aims to develop novel interventions that help racially stigmatized youth succeed in school and reduce their risk of discipline problems. His research has been published in top journals, including Psychological Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Pamela Cantor, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, founder and CEO of Turnaround for Children, and founder of The Human Potential L.A.B., which leverages scientific knowledge and technology to transform systems and unlock human potential. She practiced psychiatry for nearly two decades, specializing in trauma, and started Turnaround after contributing to a study on the impact of the 9/11 attacks on New York City schoolchildren. Cantor co-authored The Science of Learning and Development (with David Osher), Whole-Child Development, Learning, and Thriving (with Richard Lerner and Karen Pittman), and Weaving a Colorful Cloth (with Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Na'ilah Nasir, and Hiro Yoshikawa). She founded the nonprofit organization Turnaround for Children (now the Center for Whole-Child Education at Arizona State University), is a Governing Partner of the Science of Learning and Development Alliance, a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University, and a strategic science advisor to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and Learning Heroes.

Tyrone C. Howard is the Pritzker Family Endowed Chair and a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Howard is the inaugural director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families, a campus-wide consortium examining academic, mental health, and social-emotional experiences and challenges for California's most vulnerable youth populations. He is also the former Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. Professor Howard's research examines culture, race, teaching, and learning in urban schools. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, technical reports, essays, and bulletins on issues related to educational access and opportunity. These include Why Race & Culture Matters in Schools, Black Male(d): Peril and Promise in the Education of African American Males, and Expanding College Access for Urban Youth. He is an AERA Fellow and an elected member of the National Academy of Education. He served as AERA president and received the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015. Professor Howard is a native of Compton, California, where he taught elementary school in the Compton Unified School District.

Episode 19: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments and Communities

Description

This podcast will explore how to create inclusive learning environments and settings that foster belonging, equity, and thriving. Listeners will understand why inclusivity depends on strong, caring, and respectful relationships, learn about practices such as shared visioning, and explore principles of application across classrooms, schools, and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Tim Shriver, Stephen T. Russell

Commentators

Lindsay Jones, Elizabeth Kozleski

Bios

Tim Shriver, Ph.D., is the Chairman of Special Olympics International, co-creator of the Dignity Index, and co-founder of UNITE. Tim began his career as an educator and co-founded and currently chairs the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which he helped organize. He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University, a Master's degree from Catholic University, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Connecticut. He has produced 6 films, is the author of the New York Timesbestseller Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most, and co-editor of The Call to Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening.

Stephen Russell (he/him) is Foundation Professor and Director of the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. He is an expert in adolescent and young adult health, with a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity. His 2016 book, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Schooling: The Nexus of Research, Practice and Policy, won awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research on Adolescence. He was President of the Society for Research on Adolescence (2012-2014) and currently serves on the governing boards of the Society for Research in Child Development, the Council on Contemporary Families, the National Scientific Council on Adolescence, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Board on Children, Youth and Families. He is an elected Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations and the National Academy of Education.

Lindsay E. Jones, JD, is the Chief Executive Officer of CAST, where she works with innovative educators and researchers across the globe to design education systems that are learner-centered, flexible, accessible, and rooted in Universal Design for Learning. Lindsay leads strategy and implementation at CAST to ensure all of CAST's work removes barriers, fosters belonging, and creates equitable education opportunities for every learner. Lindsay previously served as the President and CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), a nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes innovation, research, and youth voice to improve the lives of the 1 in 5 with learning disabilities and attention issues. She also served as the senior director for policy and advocacy at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), where she led federal legislative advocacy and worked with dedicated educators from across the country. Lindsay began her career as an attorney, advising and representing schools and parents in special education matters. She was a partner with the law firm of Gust Rosenfeld in Phoenix, AZ, and is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the State Bar of Arizona. Lindsay currently sits on the National Advisory Committee of the Science of Learning and Development Alliance and is an Advisor to the Progress Center, a program that improves outcomes for students with disabilities, funded by OSEP and housed at the American Institutes for Research.

Elizabeth Kozleski, Ph.D., is a professor of research at the Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE). She was previously a dean's scholar for teaching and research at Stanford GSE, chair and professor of special education at the University of Kansas, and an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Policy and Social Research's Center for Research on Learning. She was formerly professor of culture, society, and education and professor of special education at Arizona State University. She co-leads the World Education Research Association International Research Network on Student Voice for Promoting Equity and Inclusion in Schools. Kozleski's research examines how teachers learn in practice in complex, diverse school settings and how educational practices improve student learning. She has been recognized with a Luminary Award in the Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners, a Budig Teaching Professorship in Special Education from the University of Kansas, and the Woman of Distinction Award.

Episode 20: Language, Belonging, and Identity Safety: The Emotional and Linguistic Conditions for Learning

Description

This podcast will explore how centering belonging, supported by language and identity safety, creates the emotional and linguistic foundations for engagement, learning, and thriving. Listeners will learn about practices that foster belonging and linguistic inclusion, understand why identity safety is essential, and explore principles of application in classrooms and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Angela Valenzuela, Claude Steele

Commentators

Franchesca López, Ananda Marin

Bios

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. She is Director of the Texas Center for Education Policy. Valenzuela served as Associate Director for Mexican American Studies from 2000-01 and Associate Vice President for School Partnerships at UT from 2007-2013. A Stanford University graduate, she previously taught Sociology at Rice University and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston (1998-99). In 2007, as a Fulbright Scholar, she also taught in the College of Law at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. She is the author of the award-winning book Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, Leaving Children Behind: How 'Texas-style' Accountability Fails Latino Youth, and Growing Critically Conscious Teachers: A Social Justice Curriculum for Educators of Latino/a Youth. She also founded and operates an education blog titled Educational Equity, Politics, and Policy in Texas. Dr. Valenzuela serves on the LULAC National Task Force on Higher Education and is the Executive Director of the National Latina/o Education Research and Policy Project (NLERAPP). Her most recent recognition is the 2021 Elizabeth G. Cohen Distinguished Career in Applied Sociology of Education Award.

Claude M. Steele is the Lucie Stern Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University. He was Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UC Berkeley and chaired the Russell Sage Foundation board from 2017 to 2020. He developed the concept of stereotype threat and its effects on minority students' academic performance. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. His 2010 book, Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us, summarizes years of research on stereotype threat and the underperformance of minority students in higher education. Steele was a contributing author to two Russell Sage Foundation edited volumes: Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict and Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies.

Franchesca López, Ph.D., is the Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research centers on educational practices and policies that promote equity and belonging for historically marginalized students, particularly multilingual learners and students from racially and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as a high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. Her numerous recognitions include being named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Education Policy Center. She is the recipient of the AERA Midcareer Scholars of Color Award (2024) and the APA Division 15 Best Article Award (2023). She has served as Co-Editor of the American Educational Research Journal, the Review of Educational Research, and Educational Psychology Policy and Practice.

Ananda Marin, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Qualitative Research Methods in Education and Vice Chair of Graduate Education at UCLA. Her research explores the diversity of ways that multigenerational groups of people organize attention and observation to participate in joint activity, collaborate, and improvise in everyday and professional contexts. Drawing on video-based methodologies, she examines how people in science-related and arts-based teaching/learning contexts make meaning in the moment-to-moment unfolding of interaction while accounting for the role of relationality, embodied movement, and place. Her studies in these areas inform her collaborations with educators and practitioners. She has widespread experience partnering with Indigenous communities, community-based organizations, and small collectives to design educational environments that cultivate community well-being. A primary goal of her work is to broaden research methodologies and theories of teaching/learning in ways that are consequential to the communities she partners with and the field of education.

Episode 21: Building and Sustaining School and Classroom Communities Through Restorative Approaches that are Trauma- and Healing-Centered

Description

This podcast will explore how to build and sustain school and classroom communities through trauma- and healing-centered restorative approaches. Listeners will learn about trauma- and healing-centered restorative practices, understand why these approaches are critical to creating safe and equitable learning environments, and explore principles for application across schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Shawn Ginwright, Jeffrey Duncan-Andrade

Commentators

Tyrone Howard, Howard Stevenson

Bios

Shawn Ginwright, Ph.D., is the Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where his work focuses on trauma, healing, and empowering African American youth. With an acute focus on the challenges faced by urban youth in navigating poverty and striving for equality and justice, and his introduction of the concept of "healing-centered engagement," Ginwright's research has been instrumental in reshaping the discourse surrounding youth development. Ginwright is also the co-founder and chief executive officer of Flourish Agenda, Inc., a research lab and consulting firm dedicated to unlocking the power of healing and empowering youth of color. He was the chairman of the board for the California Endowment from 2019 to 2022, overseeing a $5 billion endowment. He has authored several books, including The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves (2022) and Black Youth Rising: Activism and Radical Healing in Urban America (2009).

Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D., is Professor of Raza Studies and Education at San Francisco State University. He is the co-founder of Roses in Concrete Community School, whose goal is to develop youth who embody self-discipline, integrity, love, and hope in pursuit of justice and equity for all communities. The long-term goal is to create a model for urban education that prioritizes the needs of youth and families to build healthy, sustainable communities across the U.S. and around the world. The Roses in Concrete Community School name was inspired by the book of poetry based on the writings of Tupac Shakur, released in 1999, The Rose That Grew from Concrete. This vivid image captures the need to celebrate the tenacity and will of the rose that, against all odds, finds a way to grow in the inhospitable, toxic environment of concrete, transforming it into a rose garden. He also co-founded the Teaching Excellence Network (TEN), which brings together teachers, school leaders, students, and families to build community-responsive schools and classroom cultures that lead to engagement and success.

Tyrone C. Howard is the Pritzker Family Endowed Chair and a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Howard is the inaugural director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families. Professor Howard's research examines culture, race, teaching, and learning in urban schools. He is an AERA Fellow and an elected member of the National Academy of Education. He served as AERA president and received the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015.

Howard Stevenson, Ph.D., is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education and Africana Studies, Human Development & Quantitative Methods Division, Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative, which promotes racial literacy across education, health, and community institutions. His intervention research has focused on teaching emotional regulation skills during aggression challenges to African American youth during basketball play and training educators and mental health professionals to address racial stress and trauma through the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory (RECAST). His most recent book is Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference. Dr. Stevenson is an elected member of the National Academy of Education.

Episode 22: Intervening to Promote Safety, Healing, and Belonging

Description

This podcast will explore how to intervene to promote safety, healing, and belonging across settings and moments. Listeners will learn about multi-tiered approaches to support students, understand why a focus on safety, healing, and belonging is critical to learning and thriving, and explore how to apply these principles in schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Jill Cook, Patricia Jennings

Commentators

Greg Walton

Bios

Jill Cook is the Executive Director of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), where she leads national efforts to strengthen school counseling programs and policies. She has authored and co-authored numerous ASCA resources, including the ASCA National Model, which has become the standard framework for school counseling practice in the U.S. Cook has been recognized for advancing equity, mental health supports, and social-emotional development in schools. She helped develop the National School Counselor of the Year Program and the Recognized ASCA Model Program. Cook has chaired the Learning First Alliance and contributed to national initiatives on foster care, equity in STEM, grieving students, suicide prevention, and special education services.

Patricia A. Jennings is Professor of Education at the University of Virginia and a leading scholar on mindfulness, stress, and social-emotional learning for educators. Jennings led the team that developed Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE), a mindfulness-based professional development program shown to significantly improve teacher well-being, classroom interactions, and student engagement in the largest randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based intervention designed specifically to address teacher occupational stress. CARE research has been evaluated and confirmed by What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) and is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to promote educator well-being. Jennings is a co-author of Flourish: The Compassionate Schools Project curriculum, an integrated health and physical education program, and is a co-investigator on a large randomized controlled trial to evaluate the curriculum's efficacy. Jennings was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Promoting Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Adolescents, where she contributed to the committee's 2019 consensus report. She was honored in 2023 with the Distinguished Researcher Award from the University of Virginia and the Joseph E. Zins Distinguished Scientist Award for Outstanding Contributions to Action Research in Social and Emotional Learning from CASEL in 2024. In 2018, she received the Cathy Kerr Award for Courageous and Compassionate Scientific Contributions from the Mind & Life Institute and was featured in Mindful Magazine's list of "Ten Mindfulness Researchers You Should Know."

Greg Walton, Ph.D., is the Michael Forman University Fellow in Undergraduate Education and Professor of Psychology at Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S). He leads the Lifting the Bar research team. Dr. Walton is a leading expert in psychologically "wise" interventions to support belonging among diverse groups in school and to reduce inequalities, including developing such interventions, integrating them in school practices, evaluating them in ecologically valid field experiments, and scaling them. He is the author of Ordinary Magic: The Science of How We Can Achieve Big Change with Small Acts. Validated interventions created by Dr. Walton have been integrated into scores of institutional practices reaching hundreds of thousands of students. Dr. Walton co-founded the College Transition Collaborative, a Stanford center that has partnered with dozens of colleges and universities to implement and evaluate interventions that support students' sense of belonging in college.

Episode 23: Whole Person Approaches

Description

This podcast will explore how whole-person approaches build on students' strengths and are sensitive to their needs, goals, and contexts. Listeners will learn about a variety of whole-person approaches, understand why these practices are essential for equity and thriving, and explore principles of application in schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Margaret Beale Spencer, Velma Murry

Commentators

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

Bios

Margaret Beale Spencer, Ph.D., a developmental psychologist, is the Charles L. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emerita and Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Professor of Life Course Human Development at the University of Chicago (Comparative Human Development Department), where she also earned her doctorate. Promoting resiliency of highly vulnerable children is her unequivocal life's mission. Forty-five plus years of scholarship have produced critical insights regarding vulnerability, risk, and resilience as normatively experienced by diverse individuals, including those considered privileged. Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) provides an identity, cultural, and ecological perspective. Her gender, race/ethnicity, and context-sensitive program of research has been featured by ABC and CNN and globally disseminated. Research findings and PVEST-framed scholarship include 150+ publications, numerous grants, and awards including the American Psychological Association (2018) Lifetime Achievement Award. As the Urban Resiliency Initiative, current efforts emphasize educational contexts, interrogate neighborhood policing encounters, and seek diminished vulnerability and increased global resiliency. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education, and an AERA Fellow.

Velma McBride Murry, Ph.D., holds the Lois Autrey Betts Endowed Chair, previously held an appointed position of Associate Provost, Research and Innovation, currently serves as Co-Director of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Program for Health Equity Research (PHER), and is a University Distinguished Professor in Departments of Health Policy (Vanderbilt School of Medicine) and Human and Organizational Development (Peabody College). She is Past President of the Society for Research on Adolescence and current President of the International Consortium of Developmental Science Societies. McBride Murry is one of the 100 elected members to the 2020 Class of the National Academy of Medicine. She is an appointed standing member of National Institutes of Health National Advisory Mental Health Research Council. Her research examines the significance of context to everyday life experiences of African American families and youth, focusing on processes through which racism and other social structural stressors cascade through families to influence parenting and family functioning, developmental outcomes, and adjustment among youth during critical developmental periods from middle childhood through young adulthood.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is Professor of Education, Psychology, and Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where she directs the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education (CANDLE). A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the National Academy of Education, she is internationally recognized for her research on the emotional and social dimensions of learning. She co-authored Weaving a Colorful Cloth with Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Na'ilah Nasir, Pamela Cantor, and Richard Lerner. Her widely cited work, including Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience, demonstrates how emotions and meaning-making are foundational to robust learning, thriving, and equity.

Episode 24: Continuous Improvement with Strategic and Problem-Solving Mindsets

Description

This podcast will explore how continuous improvement with strategic and problem-solving mindsets can build conditions for learning, well-being, and thriving. Listeners will learn about cycles of inquiry, understand why continuous improvement advances equity and effectiveness, and explore principles of application at the individual, team, and system levels. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Eric Gordon, Queena Kim

Commentators

UCLA Community School Student, Louis Gomez

Bios

Eric Gordon is the CEO of Positive Education Program, an organization that provides services—both direct and consultative in nature—for children challenged by complex developmental trauma, mental health issues, and autism, their families, and the professionals who support them. Previously, Eric served as Senior Vice-President of Student Development and Education Pipeline at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Eric also served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) from July 2011 through June 2023. During his tenure, CMSD saw dramatic improvement in academic performance, including a 29-percentage point gain in graduation rates to a record 80.9%. Among his many awards, CEO Gordon received the Green-Garner Award of the Council of the Great City Schools in 2016, distinguishing him as the top Urban Educator of the Year, and the Mary Utne O'Brien Social Emotional Learning Leader Lifetime Achievement Award from CASEL.

Queena Kim is the Principal of UCLA Community School, a TK–12 public school in Los Angeles operated in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. In this role, she provides instructional and organizational leadership for a diverse, multilingual school community serving students and families in the Koreatown area, with a focus on academic excellence, equity, and community-centered schooling. Previously, Ms. Kim served UCLA Community School in multiple leadership capacities, including founding teacher, instructional leader, and assistant principal. Under her leadership, UCLA Community School has expanded from an initial elementary program to a full secondary pathway, with strong outcomes in student engagement, bilingualism, and college readiness. The school is widely recognized for its distributed leadership model, often described as "leading from every chair." Ms. Kim was honored with the Teacher-Powered Schools Extraordinary Achievement Award.

Louis Gomez, Ph.D., is the Helen S. Faison Professor of Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. He is also a senior partner at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he helped develop improvement science methods for education. His work focuses on networked improvement communities and continuous improvement in schools. Gomez co-authored the influential book on improvement science in education and has been instrumental in bridging research and practice to address persistent inequities in educational outcomes.

Episode 25: Strengths-based and Asset-based Approaches

Description

This podcast will explore how strengths-based and asset-based approaches build on students' assets, strengths, and goals to support well-being, equity, and thriving. Listeners will learn about a variety of strengths-based and asset-based approaches, understand why these practices are essential for promoting equity and thriving, and explore principles of application across schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Michael Ungar, Eugene Roehlkepartain

Commentators

Allison Lourash, Cormac Russell

Bios

Michael Ungar is a Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University in Canada, where he founded and directs the Resilience Research Centre. An internationally recognized expert on resilience across cultures and contexts, he has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and 17 books, including Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success. Ungar's research focuses on how families, schools, and communities can create enabling environments that nurture resilience and well-being among children and youth facing adversity. In 2022, Dr. Ungar was ranked the number one Social Work scholar in the world in recognition of his groundbreaking work as a family therapist and resilience researcher. That work has influenced the way human development and organizational processes are understood and studied globally, with much of Dr. Ungar's clinical work and scholarship focused on the resilience of marginalized children and families, and adult populations experiencing mental health challenges at home and in the workplace. In addition to providing consultation to international NGOs like the Red Cross and Save the Children, government agencies in more than a dozen low, middle, and high income countries, and educational institutions at all levels of study, Dr. Ungar's research has also influenced the HR and corporate social responsibility initiatives of Fortune 500 companies like Unilever, DHL, and Cigna.

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Ph.D., was vice president of research and development at Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization that partners with schools, youth programs, community coalitions, and other organizations to conduct and apply research that promotes positive youth development and advances equity. He is widely recognized for his expertise in positive youth development, international youth development, spiritual development, and family strengths and engagement. He was responsible for designing and leading major applied research initiatives and leading major innovation projects that seek to apply the findings from research in real-world contexts. Since joining Search Institute in 1991, Roehlkepartain has contributed to the organization's groundbreaking work on developmental relationships, Developmental Assets, spiritual development, youth thriving, and community-wide approaches to child, youth, and family well-being. He is author, co-author, or named editor of numerous books, reports, articles, and other resources, including The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence (Sage, 2006), Keep Connected: Strengthening Families by Strengthening Relationships (Search Institute, 2017), and Relationships First: Creating Connections that Help Young People Thrive (Search Institute, 2017).

Allison Lourash, Ph.D., is a disabled community scholar-practitioner interested in social capital, people with disabilities, and community-based approaches. She has spent her career in the human services and education sectors facilitating programs and projects supporting people with disabilities. Allison is a Steward with the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University. Her dissertation focused on Asset-Based Community Development in relation to the inclusion of people with disabilities and social capital. Other research interests include the intersection of disability and other marginalized groups, the implications of the social model of disability on public policy, and the effectiveness of systems change projects on policy changes.

Cormac Russell is a social explorer, Founding Director of Nurture Development, and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at DePaul University, Chicago. Over the last 25 years, Cormac's work has had an enduring impact in 35 countries worldwide. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs, and governments in ABCD and other community-based approaches in Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, and North America. His most recent books are The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods (coauthor John McKnight) and Rekindling Democracy: A Professional's Guide to Working in Citizen Space.

Episode 26: Multi-tiered Approaches, Interventions, and Service Arrays

Description

This podcast will explore how multi-tiered approaches, interventions, and service arrays can build conditions for learning, well-being, and thriving. Listeners will learn about a variety of approaches, understand why these practices are essential for promoting equity and effectiveness, and explore principles of application across schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Catherine Bradshaw, Mark Greenberg

Commentators

Jane Quinn, Hedy Chang

Bios

Catherine P. Bradshaw, Ph.D., M.Ed., is a University professor and the senior associate dean for research and is a faculty fellow with the University's vice president of research. She was previously an associate professor and the associate chair of the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her primary research interests focus on the development of aggressive behavior and school-based prevention of behavioral and mental health problems. Her research focuses on bullying and school climate; emotional and behavioral disorders; and the design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools. She has led more than 10 federally funded randomized trials of school-based prevention programs. She has published more than 335 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. She is currently the editor of the journal Prevention Science and senior associate editor for Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Education.

Mark T. Greenberg, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor in the College of Health and Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University, where he is also Founding Director of the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center. A developmental psychologist, Dr. Greenberg is the author of over 350 journal articles and book chapters on the development of well-being, learning, and the effects of prevention efforts on children and families. He is a Founding Board Member of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Dr. Greenberg is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society from the American Psychological Association. One of his current interests is how to help nurture awareness and compassion in our society. He is Chairperson of the Board of CREATE, a nonprofit devoted to improving the quality of schooling and the lives of teachers and students.

Jane Quinn, Ph.D., is a social worker and youth worker with over five decades of professional experience, including direct service with children and families, program development, fundraising, grantmaking, research, and advocacy. From 2000 through 2018, she served as the Vice President for Community Schools at Children's Aid, where she directed the National Center for Community Schools. She was the principal author of the 1992 Carnegie study entitled A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours and the co-author of three books on community schools, including the 2023 volume entitled The Community Schools Revolution: Building Partnerships, Transforming Lives, Advancing Democracy. Jane has a master's in social work from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in urban education from the City University of New York.

Hedy Chang is Executive Director of Attendance Works, which she founded to raise awareness and advance policies addressing chronic absence in schools. The initiative grew from research Chang conducted that was commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and published in 2008 in the groundbreaking report, Present, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades. The research revealed the detrimental effects of chronic absence—defined as missing 10 percent of school—on academic performance. Moreover, it reported that one in ten kindergarten and first-grade students nationwide were missing nearly a month of school each year, with even higher rates in urban areas and among some student groups. Recognizing the need to nationally elevate this critical issue, Chang founded Attendance Works in 2010. She is credited with coining the term "chronic absence" to encompass all types of absences, both excused and unexcused, and to differentiate it from truancy. She also played a pivotal role in identifying the relationship between conditions for learning at a universal level and chronic absenteeism. Previously, Chang spent more than three decades working in family support, family economic success, education, and child development. Her efforts have been recognized with multiple accolades, including being named a 2013 White House Champion of Change for her commitment to advancing African American education. In 2023, she received the Martin C. Ushkow Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on School Health. In 2024, Chang participated in the White House Every Day Counts Summit: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism and Increasing Student Engagement and was named Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State Boards of Education.

Episode 27: Eliminating Harmful and Ineffective Policies and Practices and Adding Helpful and Supportive Ones

Description

This podcast will explore why eliminating harmful and ineffective policies and practices—and replacing them with supportive ones—is essential for learning, well-being, thriving, and equity. Listeners will learn about how practices such as punitive discipline, deficit labeling, and exclusionary policies undermine equity; understand why eliminating harm must be paired with adding evidence-based, relational, culturally responsive, and equity-centered practices; and explore principles of redesigning policies and practices so they align with the science of learning and development. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Dorothy Espelage, Jal Mehta, John Hattie

Commentators

Pedro Noguera

Bios

Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., is William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina. She is the recipient of the APA Lifetime Achievement Award in Prevention Science, the 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy, and the 2023 Bully Research Network Lifetime Achievement Award in Bully Prevention. She is a Fellow of APS, APA, and AERA and an elected member of the National Academy of Education. She was awarded the SPR Prevention Science Award in 2020 and received a lifetime mentoring award from the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence. She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University in 1997. Over the last 30 years, she has authored over 300 peer-reviewed articles, eight edited books, and 80 chapters on bullying, homophobic teasing, sexual harassment, dating violence, social-emotional learning interventions, and adolescent suicide. Her research focuses on translating empirical findings into prevention and intervention programming, and she has secured over 20 million dollars of external funding. She advises members of Congress and Senate on bully prevention legislation. She has conducted randomized clinical trials to evaluate K-12 social-emotional learning programs to reduce youth aggression, peer-led interventions to address sexual violence and suicidal behaviors, and virtual reality-based bully prevention programs. Her research findings are guiding state, national, and international efforts to prevent youth violence and promote positive school climates.

Jal Mehta is the Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A sociologist by training, his work focuses on how to remake the industrial-era school system into a modern learning organization that creates passion and purpose for both students and adults. He is the author, most recently with Sarah Fine, of In Search of Deeper Learning: Inside the Effort to Remake the American High School, which won the Grawemeyer Award for excellent public writing on education. Mehta is also a leading scholar on the need to professionalize education, explored most thoroughly in his 2013 book The Allure of Order. Mehta is the faculty director of the Deeper Learning Institute, which works with schools, districts, states, and provinces across the United States and around the world to transform schools and remake systems in support of deep and powerful learning. He is also the proud recipient of the Morningstar Teaching Award and is the co-host of Free Range Humans, a podcast about "making schools fit for human consumption."

John Hattie is Emeritus Laureate Professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leaders, and director of the Hattie Family Foundation. His Visible Learning research is based on a quarter billion students, and he continues to update this research. He has published and presented over 1,000 papers, supervised 200 thesis students, and authored 60 books—including 24 on Visible Learning.

Pedro A. Noguera is the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the Rossier School of Education and a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. A sociologist, Noguera's research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional, and global contexts. He is the author of 15 books. He has published over 250 research articles in academic journals, book chapters in edited volumes, research reports, and editorials in major newspapers. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Education, and in 2020, Noguera was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023, he was ranked 1st nationally in influence and impact in education by Education Week.

Episode 28: The Science of Learning and Development and Its Implications for Learning and Teaching

Description

This podcast will examine the science of learning and development and its implications for learning and teaching. Listeners will learn about the key concepts and principles of SoLD, understand why it matters for equity, thriving, and robust learning, and explore principles of application across schools and communities. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Linda Darling-Hammond

Commentators

Carol Lee, Na'ilah Nasir, Vivian Gadsden

Bios

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, created to provide high-quality research for policies that enable equitable and empowering education for each and every child. At Stanford she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped to redesign. Darling-Hammond is the past president of the American Educational Research Association and a recipient of its awards for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, Research Review, and Research-to-Policy. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education. In 2008, she directed President Barack Obama's Education Policy Transition Team. She is currently President of the California State Board of Education. In 2022, she was awarded the Yidan Prize, considered the top global education award. Her extensive work unpacking the science of learning and development for practice include and frequently cited “ The implication for Educational Practice of the Science of Learning and Development,” along with “Educating Teachers to Enact the Science of Learning and Development,” Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development Into Action,” “Educator Learning to Enact the Science of Learning and Development,” “Design Principles for Teacher Preparation: Enacting the Science of Learning and Development,” and “Using the Science of Learning and Development to Transform Educational Practice.”

Carol D. Lee, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University and past president of both the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association. Her research focuses on cultural supports for learning, with particular emphasis on literacy and the intersection of culture, cognition, and human development. She developed Cultural Modeling, a framework for designing instruction that leverages students' everyday knowledge as scaffolds for academic learning. Her influential books include Culture, Literacy, and Learning: Taking Bloom in the Midst of the Whirlwind. Lee co-edited the Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning with Na'ilah Nasir and Roy Pea. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education.

Na'ilah Suad Nasir is President of the Spencer Foundation, former AERA President, and a member of the National Academy of Education. She co-edited the Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning (with Carol Lee and Roy Pea) and co-edited the 2023 and 2025 Review of Research in Education volumes on SoLD and equity (with Vivian Gadsden and David Osher). She co-authored the 2025 book Thriving, Robust Equity, and Transformative Learning and Development with Linda Darling-Hammond. Nasir's scholarship emphasizes how identity, culture, and learning intersect to foster belonging and thriving across diverse educational contexts.

Vivian L. Gadsden, Ph.D., is the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and Co-Faculty Director of the Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center. She is also Director of the National Center on Fathers and Families at Penn. Gadsden is an elected member and Vice President of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an AERA Fellow, and an inductee of the Reading Hall of Fame. She is a past President of AERA and serves as Co-General Editor of the 2023 and 2025 volumes of the Review of Research in Education.

Episode 29: It's a Marathon Where Every Moment Matters, and Everyone Can Play a Role

Description

This podcast will explore how to build and sustain a culture of continuous improvement in schools and learning ecosystems, where every moment matters and everyone can play a role. Listeners will learn about how to engage in cycles of inquiry, understand why a focus on continuous improvement advances equity and effectiveness, and explore principles of application at the individual, team, and system levels. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

David Osher, Alfredo Artiles

Commentators

Karen Pittman, Shawn Ginwright

Bios

David Osher focuses his scholarship and practice on equity, conditions for deeper learning and engagement, supporting social and emotional well-being and thriving, safety, connectedness, and disparity reduction. He has authored or co-authored over 350 books, monographs, chapters, articles, and reports including Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools; Keeping Students Safe and Helping Them Thrive; The Science of Learning and Development; and Thriving, Robust Equity, and Transformative Learning. With Vivian Gadsden, he is co-lead editor of the 2023 and 2025 volumes of Review of Research in Education, which focus on the science of learning and development and Equitable Educational Systems that Cultivate Thriving. Osher recently concluded 32 years of work at the American Institutes for Research where he was an Institute Fellow and Vice President.

Alfredo J. Artiles is Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University and Director of the Research Institute at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity. He is President of the National Academy of Education and an AERA Fellow. Artiles co-edited the 2025 volume Equitable Educational Systems that Cultivate Thriving (with Megan Bang and Na'ilah Nasir) and has focused his work on equity in special education and inclusive learning systems. He demonstrates how SoLD principles inform inclusive design and transformative learning opportunities for diverse learners.

Karen Pittman, Ph.D., is co-founder of the Forum for Youth Investment, where she co-directs the Building Capacity for Positive Youth Development Center for Innovation. A member of the National Academy of Education, her work focuses on the intersection of youth development, education, and social policy. She is best known for her pioneering work in the youth development field, including seminal articles like "A New Vision for Youth Development" and "The Future of Youth: The Role of Communities in Promoting Thriving." Pittman's scholarship and leadership reflect a lifelong commitment to ensuring all young people have access to high-quality learning environments and opportunities to thrive.

Shawn Ginwright, Ph.D., is the Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where his work focuses on trauma, healing, and empowering African American youth. With an acute focus on the challenges faced by urban youth in navigating poverty and striving for equality and justice, and his introduction of the concept of "healing-centered engagement," Ginwright's research has been instrumental in reshaping the discourse surrounding youth development. He has authored several influential books, including The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves (2022) and Black Youth Rising: Activism and Radical Healing in Urban America (2009). His work highlights how trauma-informed, culturally sustaining, and healing-centered practices can be embedded into educational systems to cultivate belonging, equity, and transformative learning.

Last updated: January 4, 2026