2009 Summit for Courageous Conversation Preliminary Keynotes and Distinguished Lectures
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Glenn E. SingletonWelcome and Summit Plenary: Answering the Call for Systemic Equity Transformation |
Glenn Eric Singleton is founder and president of Pacific Educational Group, Inc. (PEG). In 1992, he founded PEG to more closely support families in their transitions within and between K-12 and higher education. His company later grew into its intended mission of addressing systemic issues of educational inequity by providing guidance to districts on meeting the needs of underserved students of color.
Singleton and his associates design and deliver leadership training, coaching, and consulting for state departments, higher education and school districts. Working at all levels from superintendents to beginning teachers, PEG helps educators focus on heightening their awareness of institutional racism and developing effective strategies for eliminating racial educational disparities. In 1995, Singleton developed Beyond Diversity, a nationally recognized seminar aimed at helping educators identify, define and examine the powerful intersection of race and schooling. Today, thousands of seminar participants throughout the country practice the agreements and conditions of "Courageous Conversation" as they struggle to usher in culturally proficient curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Singleton is the co-author of Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools. He has appeared on television and written numerous articles for national journals, magazines, and newspapers on issues of equity and institutional racism.
Singleton is an adjunct professor of educational leadership at San Jose State University. He is a nationally recognized keynote speaker and consultant to a variety of school reform organizations and educational consortia.
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James LoewenKeynote Address: The Most Important Era in U.S. History That You Have Never Heard Of, and Why It Is So Important |
James Lowen’s gripping retelling of American history as it should, and could, be taught, Lies My Teacher Told Me, has sold more than 800,000 copies and continues to inspire K-16 teachers to get students to challenge, rather than memorize, their textbooks.
Loewen taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont. Previously, he taught at predominantly black Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He now lives in Washington D.C., continuing his research on how Americans remember their past. Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong came out in 1999. The Gustavus Myers Foundation named his latest book, Sundown Towns, a "Distinguished Book of 2005."
Loewen's other books include Mississippi: Conflict and Change (co-authored), which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction, but was rejected for public school text use by the State of Mississippi, leading to the path-breaking First Amendment lawsuit, Loewen et al. v. Turnipseed, et al. He also wrote The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White, Social Science in the Courtroom, and The Truth About Columbus.
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Dr. Eugene GarciaDistinguished Lecture |
Eugene Garcia holds the position of Vice President for Education Partnerships at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, where he coordinates teacher preparation across colleges and campuses in Arizona. Previously, he served as Dean of the college, and before that, he was Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Garcia has published extensively in the area of language teaching and bilingual development. He is presently conducting research in the areas of effective schooling for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations, funded by the National Science Foundation. He has served as a Senior Officer and Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in the U.S. Department of Education (1993-1995). He is currently chairing the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics, funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the Mailman Family Foundation.
