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APRIL 11, 2025 | 8:30-12PM PST | VIRTUAL
Learn from industry leaders who are pioneering equitable education.
Gain practical strategies to create inclusive classrooms and engage all learners and collaborate with peers and share innovative practices.
Be part of a movement that seeks to amplify underrepresented voices and foster holistic, equitable education.
Generations Connected: Harnessing Wisdom and Innovation,” emphasizes the power of blending traditional wisdom with modern innovation to create a more cohesive and effective learning environment.
Bridging Perspectives
You’ve done some incredible work thus far. Now it’s time to reflect on your journey and take action. How do you want to make an impact? What’s the change you want to create or foster? What steps can you begin to take today? Presentations in this strand will focus on fostering collaboration between generations within the educational community.
Academic Engagement for All Learners
Academic Engagement helps create and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners. Presentations in this strand will focus on developing innovative approaches to empower all students.
Amplifying Voices
When we amplify voices, we are advocating for the voices that have been systematically silenced in the past. Meaningful amplification of voices can provide a foundation for advocacy and create safe classrooms where everyone feels heard, respected and part of a community. Presentations in this strand focus on how we can use equitable practices to create safe and inclusive classrooms
Strengthening Equity in Your Community
Effective partnerships require educators, families, and communities to deepen collaboration and authentically engage in meaningful ways. Presentations in this strand will focus on leveraging inclusive practices to engage families and communities.
Leveraging Your Leadership
What practices, structures, and supports empower teachers to develop their craft? Presentations in this strand will empower educators to grow and advocate for equity including exploring topics such as growing leaders within schools and regions, establishing and supporting professional learning communities, leveraging positions to advocate for all our students, and developing pedagogical knowledge.
Equity in Technology
Moving from “you” and “me” to “us” is an essential component of equity-focused work. Teams of educators build trust and safety through their differences and explore the emotions that come up in the process. Presentations in this strand provide practical and applicable support to address imbalances in technology opportunities and outcomes.
We are proud to feature a distinguished lineup of thought leaders, change-makers, and advocates who are dedicated to creating inclusive, equitable educational environments.
Keynote: PASSION FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE: Hope & Healing for The Next Generation
Dr. Julia Garcia
Dr. Julia is a preeminent voice for the next generation. She helps schools, universities, and organizations build a culture where students are genuinely seen and valued.
As a doctor of psychology and TEDx Speaker, Dr. J (as she is known to students) helps audiences get honest with how they feel and move forward together. Dr.J is unparalleled in her ability to connect with audiences across any demographic through her spoken word poetry and highly engaging approach. Specializing in campus culture, diversity, and mental health, Dr. Julia reminds us all to keep showing up for ourselves and each other.
Dr. Julia has over a decade of experience working with hundreds of campuses, conferences, universities, and non-profit organizations, bringing interactive experiences that shape culture and improve outcomes for all students.
THE CONNECTION CHALLENGE: Strengthen Community. Transform Culture
Dr. Julia Garcia
Dr. Julia is a preeminent voice for the next generation. She helps schools, universities, and organizations build a culture where students are genuinely seen and valued.
As a doctor of psychology and TEDx Speaker, Dr. J (as she is known to students) helps audiences get honest with how they feel and move forward together. Dr.J is unparalleled in her ability to connect with audiences across any demographic through her spoken word poetry and highly engaging approach. Specializing in campus culture, diversity, and mental health, Dr. Julia reminds us all to keep showing up for ourselves and each other.
Dr. Julia has over a decade of experience working with hundreds of campuses, conferences, universities, and non-profit organizations, bringing interactive experiences that shape culture and improve outcomes for all students.
Connecting Generations Through Shared Narratives 🌈
Paul Iarrobino
Paul Iarrobino (he/his) is one of the founding members of Elder Pride Services and received their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 for providing leadership during their formative years. Paul is the proud recipient of Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest’s 2021 Queer Hero Award for his groundbreaking work engaging and inspiring community dialogues during the pandemic. His recent anthology, Defining Voices, received lots of praise. His follow up book Defiant Voices is scheduled for release in May 2025.
Empower, Engage, Transform: The Influence of Technology on Learning Environments
Julienne Cunningham
Julienne Cunningham is the blue haired, liberal, Californian teacher everyone warned you about. She has been teaching in various positions for almost 20 years and has been with Options for Youth for eight years. Julienne is a fierce social justice advocate and has been active in the community since she was 14 years old. She wants to see the face of education change to make sure all students receive an equitable education.
Belonging to Belong: Why Emotional Courage is Required to Support People and Change Systems
Tre Cabrera
Tre Cabrera, MRP, MSW, is founder & principal of Cabrera Advisory Group, LLC, a Black woman-owned management consulting firm based in Annapolis, Maryland. She helps audiences ignite transformational leadership to build better workplaces. Tre has 20+ years’ experience as an economic development planner, and her graduate degrees in urban and regional planning and macro social work are strong foundations for how she leads Cabrera Advisory Group, with a people-first approach to consulting. Her partnerships with bold leaders in social impact and innovative problem-solving fuel her belief that strategic work is equity work, and equity work is strategic work.
Elevating Non-Traditional Students by Collaborating with Families and Communities
Randy Olson
Randy Olson has been researching how to improve achievement, access, equity and college and career readiness for more than 15 years. He speaks regularly on these topics at a variety of regional, state and national conferences and has published articles in Leadership Magazine and American School Board Journal. He provided staff professional development for San Bernardino City USD for six and a half years as a program specialist and he is the owner of Veritas Educational LLC, an education consulting company based in Southern California.
M.Ed. S.P.E. & M.A. SEL Special Education Teacher
Mayela Paniagua
Mayela Paniagua is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and a Special Education teacher at Options for Youth VV3 in Victorville. She has worked at OFY since 2016. She has earned a masters in Special Education and a masters in Social Emotional Learning from National University. Since being in the SEL masters program, one of her goals has been to spread SEL as far and wide as possible in order to help as many students and educators as possible.
