ECLC Summer Institute: Cultivating Belonging & Resilience in Uncertain Times

Dr. George M. Batsche is a Professor Emeritus and previous Professor and Coordinator of graduate programs in School Psychology at the University of South Florida. 

He was the Co-Director of the Institute for School Reform at USF.  The Institute houses grants and projects totaling $14 million annually and is focused on an integrated service delivery model to improve academic and behavioral/social-emotional outcomes for all students. The Institute houses grant projects that focus on statewide school improvement teams, student support services, Title I, statewide Title I technical assistance centers, HIV/AIDS education,  MTSS and MTSS Technology, 21st Century Community Schools.  

Bob Cunningham, Ed.M., is the Chief Executive Officer, International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

He also serves as senior advisor on learning and attention issues for Understood. Previously, he was head of school at the Robert Louis Stevenson School, head of school for the Gateway Schools in New York City, and a member of the leadership team at the Purnell School. He has also advised for the venture philanthropy firm New Profit. 

Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, M.A., C.A.G.S., is a speaker, consultant and workshop presenter on topics of educational equity, anti-racism, self-care and social and emotional learning.

She has written about these topics in the Women Change Worlds blog and in esteemed educational publications such as EdSurge, The 74million, and the Hechinger Report. Most recently, Kamilah was the Director of Open Circle a social and emotional learning program for children in elementary schools. She is a board member of the state social and emotional learning advocacy organization, SEL4MA and a steering committee member of the national SEL Providers Council. In all of her roles, Kamilah’s passion for social justice and the social and emotional wellbeing of children fuels her commitment to advocating for and educating others about the inextricable connections between social and emotional learning (SEL), social justice and anti-racism

Judy Elliott is the Founder/Principal of EduLead.

She is the former Chief Academic Officer of the Los Angeles Unified School District where she was responsible for curriculum and instruction from early childhood through adult, professional development, innovation, accountability, assessment, afterschool programs, state and federal programs, health and human services, magnet programs language acquisition for both English and Standard English learners, parent outreach, and intervention programs for all students. Before that she was the Chief of Teaching and Learning in the Portland Oregon Public Schools and prior to that an Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services in the Long Beach Unified School District in CA. Judy also worked as a Senior Researcher at the National Center on Educational Outcomes at the University of Minnesota. 

Jane Feinberg is the founder and principal of Full Frame Communications, LLC, a Boston area-based consulting practice that supports mission-driven organizations in developing their communications, engagement, and leadership capacities as a foundation for driving meaningful and sustained social change.

She provides key leadership and strategic overall project direction for the ECLC, and leads the Executive Planning Team. Feinberg is an award-winning communications and community engagement professional with several decades of experience in television broadcasting, as well as the non-profit, education, and public sectors. Feinberg has consulted to numerous non-profits, K-12 school districts, and governmental organizations. 

Aleah Floyd began singing at an early age in church choirs and school musicals.

She graduated from Boston University with a degree in Journalism and a degree in Film and Television, but kept her love of music. In college she was a part of a theater group called BU On Broadway and had the pleasure of performing in the productions of American Idiot, Anything Goes, Godspell, Cabaret and Pippin. She also had the opportunity to be cast as Mimi Marquez in Rent for a student group at Berklee College of Music. Currently she sings with a gospel collective in Billerica called Intimate Night of Worship (INOW) and with the praise team at Third Baptist Church in Lawrence. She is working on releasing music soon. She hopes to use her passion for music to encourage and inspire others.

Abiah Floyd is a vocalist and creative residing in the Merrimack Valley.

While she has been singing in multiple venues most of her life, in recent years she has taken to joining the gospel collective iNOW (Intimate Night of Worship) and being a featured vocalist in the Greater Boston area – including performing for the Black Cotton Club and reoccurring open mic nights. Singing gives her the opportunity to uplift her audience and share her gift with those who will listen. Inspired by the sounds of both gospel and R&B, her musical desires have led her to begin songwriting and collaborating with young artists to hone and develop her sound. Her hope is that as she is positively impacted by those who hear her sing, she will also positively impact them.

Rita works with the Quality Performance Assessment team at the Center for Collaborative Education to help educators develop performance assessments that serves the needs of their students and school communities.

She began her career in education as a Special Education teacher with the New York City Department of Education. Rita is passionate about developing and honing practices that help work towards educational equity and has worked with a range of student populations including those from low-income communities and students with disabilities. She has worked with adolescents in juvenile detention facilities as well as in alternative education programming. Rita earned a B.A in African-American Studies from Columbia University, a M.S.Ed. in Teacher Education from City College of New York, and a Ph.D. in Education, Culture, and Society from University of Pennsylvania.

Inspired by my own two-steps-forward, one-step-back journey away from racial innocence, I educate other white people confused and frustrated by racism by transforming anxiety and inaction into empowerment and action.

I’m a white woman, raised in Winchester, Massachusetts during the socially turbulent 1960s and ‘70s. After a blissfully sheltered, upper-middle-class suburban childhood, I found myself simultaneously intrigued and horrified by the racial divide I observed in Boston. From 1984 to 2009 my work in urban neighborhoods and schools left me feeling helpless. Why did people live so differently along racial lines? Why were student outcomes so divergent? Why did I get so jumpy when talking to a person of color? Where did the fear of saying something stupid or offensive come from, and why couldn’t I make it go away? The more I tried to understand racial dynamics, the more confused I became. I knew there was an elephant in the room, I just didn’t know it was me!

 Black; she/her/hers) is an experienced educator and facilitator living in Los Angeles on Tongva land. She began her career in education as a New York City public school teacher and has continued working in the field to build a future of school where Black, Indigenous, and young people of color are affirmed and can thrive. She works with Transcend as a School Design Partner and supports school communities in the early stages of their design journey to create bold new visions of school. Her approach to school design focuses on equity, imagination, relationships, joy, and abolitionist teaching practices. She is also a wife, adventurer, auntie, yogi, dog and plant mom.  

Dr. Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia.

Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy work meet at the intersection of education reform, anti-racism, carceral studies, abolition, and Black joy. The aim of her scholarship is twofold: firstly, to advance how the field of education understands and critiques the systemic and structural racism of public education within the U.S.; and secondly, to advocate for abolitionist approaches in the field of education that seek new possibilities for educational justice. In the pursuit of making her scholarship a reality, she works with activists, communities, youth, families, and school districts to build communal, civically-engaged schools rooted in the aspirations of abolitionist strategies that love and affirm Black and Brown children.

Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. has pursued and achieved success in academia, business, diversity, leadership and community service.

In 1996, he started America & MOORE, LLC to provide comprehensive diversity, privilege, leadership and #BecomingAntiRacist trainings/workshops. He is recognized as one of the nation’s top speakers and educators. His interview with Wisconsin Public Radio won the 2015 Wisconsin Broadcasters Association's Best Interview in Medium Market Radio, 1st Place, he is featured in the film “I’m not Racist….Am I?” and in the article 5 Clear Ways to Tell Whether You'll Be a Good Leader in 2021. Dr. Moore was recently named one of  Wisconsin's 51 Most Influential Black Leaders and he is also the Founder/Program Director for the global White Privilege Conference (WPC). 

Allison is Office Manager at CCE and provides administrative and technical support.

Prior to joining CCE, she was an office manager for an employee benefits consulting firm. Allison has also worked in administrative roles in multiple architecture firms and as a substitute elementary music and classroom teacher in New York State. She is a member of a small choral group that brings diverse music to the community and is a Notary Public for Massachusetts. Allison earned a B.S. in Communications with a major in Public Relations from Boston University.  

 

Soraya works with the QPA team helping build capacity in schools and districts to design and implement equity based quality performance assessments.

Before joining CCE, she served as an elementary school teacher in Chicago Public Schools working in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood, a primarily Latinx community in the Northwest side of the city. As a 4th grade teacher she merged her passion for social justice with her teaching practice by designing lessons around topics like immigration and world politics.

Oscar leads CCE’s program and strategic development, operations activities, district leader and superintendent communications, and the organization’s learning and culture.

A passion for social change drives his work within the organization to help schools and districts embrace educational equity and transformation through entrepreneurship and innovation. 

Dawn Shearer-Coren, Ed.M. provides coaching, design, and facilitation expertise to ECLC and serves as a member of the ECLC Project Management Team.

As a Senior Associate of District and School Design at CCE, she provides coaching, technical assistance, and professional development to schools and districts pursing personalized learning, competency-based instruction, and school redesign. Shearer-Coren's expertise in cultural proficiency, developing awareness of the significance of racial differences in schools and classrooms, and identity development are an asset to CCE as an equity minded organization, and to the ECLC.

Regis Anne Shields, Principal and co-Founder of Equity Journey Partners, has over 20 years of experience working to improve outcomes for all public education students.

EJP partners with small- to medium-size schools and districts and their communities to become culturally proficient and equitable ecosystems that ensure students of all cultures and social identities can achieve a future inspired by boundless dreams. Projects include equity audits, workshops and training, strategic equity planning, and the design and implementation of equitable systems including budgeting, hiring and retention, and performance management.

Laura Tota, Ed.M. provides coaching, design, and facilitation expertise to ECLC and serves as a member of the ECLC Project Management Team. 

At CCE, Tota is a senior associate on the District and School Design team, coordinating program work with the Essential Personalized Learning (EPL) cohort and network schools. Her work includes collaboration in planning, coaching, and facilitation of professional development. Tota also coordinates the documentation and codification of coaching kits and EPL resource kits, and she creates and maintains EPL's online learning platform. 

Dr. Emily J. Wilson is a public health practitioner, trainer, researcher, and certified health education specialist (CHES) with over ten years of experience working at the intersection of trauma, resilience, health, and learning.

As ECLC Project Manager, her portfolio includes professional development (PD) planning and design, communications, operations/logistics, development, and strategic planning; she helps to lead the Executive Planning and the Project Management Teams. Dr. Wilson completed her Ph.D.  in Health Professions Education at Simmons University, where she was a Hazel Dick Leonard Interdisciplinary Research Fellow on Gender and conducted her dissertation on trauma-informed teaching in Massachusetts. In recognition of this research, Dr. Wilson received a grant from the Northern New England Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (NNETESOL) to develop a trauma-informed ESOL teacher PD curriculum.