Human & Civil Rights • Women in Education • Urban ... · Whitaker, Jr. Thomas “TJ” Whitaker, Jr., an English language arts teacher and community advocate at Columbia High

Equity AllianceHuman & Civil Rights • Women in Education • Urban Education • Exceptional Children

Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity • Minority Leadership & Recruitment

Human & Civil Rights • Women in Education • Urban Education • Exceptional Children Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity • Minority Leadership & Recruitment

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2021Welcome Session & Keynote Speaker• Welcome (Dr. Tiffanie ThrBak, MLR Chair)

• Leadership Address: President, Marie Blistan; Vice President, Sean Spiller; Secretary Treasurer, Steve Beatty

• Keynote Introduction (Fatimah Hayes, WIE Chair)

• Keynote Speaker- Principal Baruti Kafele

BreakWORKSHOP SESSION 1Unity Jam Session with BURNSIDE musical performance

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2021WORKSHOP SESSION 2BreakWORKSHOP SESSION 3BreakHCR CELEBRATION & AWARDS CEREMONY• Invocation• Song-Lift Every Voice and Sing• Welcome (Kim Scott, HCR Chair) • NJEA President Remarks• Awards • Keynote Introduction• Keynote Address by Damon Lee• Farewell Video Montage

2021NJEA EQUITY ALLIANCEC O N F E R E N C E 01.15.21

6 - 6:45pm

6:45 - 7pm 7 - 8:30pm

8:30 - 9:30pm

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

9 - 10:30am10:30 - 10:45am

10:45am - 12:15pm 12:15 - 12:30pm

12:30 - pm

Amistad Implementation Learn how to infuse the Amistad Curriculum into your lessons.

Antiracist Teaching This workshop will cover what it means to be an anti-racist person in your circle and how to be an anti-racist teacher in the classroom.

Building Resilience in Educators due to Secondary Traumatic Stress in a Pandemic: Explore the science behind secondary toxic stress and provide strategies for educators to build resilience during a Pandemic.

Finding Your Voice: The Importance of Self-Advocacy and Empowerment in Professional Spaces: It is not always easy or convenient being a POC at work; es-pecially for women. In this workshop we will explore, finding a clear and confident voice, building support systems, assess-ing your strengths and weaknesses, knowing your individual professional rights and responsibilities, building your own professional growth plan, and using your union muscle to support your path.

Stop School Pushout: Stopping the pushout of students of color who are dispro-portionately receiving punitive discipline that removes them from schools.

Asian & Pacific Islanders: Debunking the Model Minority Myth — Parts 1 & 2 Reflect with colleagues on issues that impact our practice as we strive for more inclusive and liberated classrooms with a focus on debunking the Model Minority Myth for Asian and Pacific Island people.

Decolonizing Curriculum: Indigenous, Latinx & Hispanic — Parts 1 & 2 Join this learning lab conversation, reflecting with colleagues on a range of issues that impact our practice as we strive for more inclusive and liberated classrooms. This discussion will focus on decolonizing curriculum from indigenous, Latinx & Hispanic perspectives.

Making Black Lives Matter in Schools & Racial Equity — Parts 1 & 2 Join this learning lab conversation, reflecting with colleagues on a range of issues that impact our practice as we strive for more inclusive and liberated classrooms. This discussion will focus on making Black Lives Matter in schools and racial equity.

Transforming White Privilege — Parts 1 & 2 Learn to understand whiteness as a social construct, why it matters, and how it manifests itself in organizations.

White Allies: Aspiring Antiracist Teaching & Advocacy — Parts 1 & 2 Reflecting with colleagues on a range of issues that impact our practice as we strive for more inclusive and liberated classrooms. This discussion will focus on antiracist teaching and advocacy for White aspiring allies.

LGBTIQ+ Curricular Inclusion Workshop on ways to use picture books and NJSLS to enhance literacy skills, SEL, and LGBTIQ+ inclusion in ELA- related middle school classrooms.

Cultural Competence: Creating a welcoming school community for LGBTQIA students How can the entire school staff help all students foster a community that respects one another regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression? Join us to learn basics of LGBTQIA inclusion and hear varied voices of the LGBTQIA community: an athlete, a journalist, a legislator, an historian and more. These leaders give insights into the challenges they faced growing up and the inspiration they had to become who they are today.

Disability Curriculum Inclusion This workshop will provide concrete techniques and exam-ples of how to ensure equity of our students with disabilities.

Make Money Matter: Financial Literacy is Social Justice Learn to dismantle the system racism by giving the students tools to become financially literate and secure.

Understanding and Building REAL Power What is power? How does it work? How can we create power for racial equity, affirmation and literacy in our public schools?

WORKSHOPS OFFERED




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Baruti Kafele A highly-regarded urban educator in New Jersey for over twenty years, Principal Baruti Kafele distin-guished himself as a master teacher and a transformational school leader. As an elementary school teacher in East Orange, NJ, he was selected as the East Orange School District and Essex County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, he was a New Jersey State Teacher of the

Year finalist, and a recipient of the New Jersey Education Association Award of Excellence.

As a middle and high school principal, Kafele led the turnaround of four different New Jersey urban schools, including “The Mighty” Newark Tech, which went from a low-performing school in need of improvement to national recognition, which included U.S. News and World Report Magazine recognizing it three times as one of Ameri-ca’s best high schools.

One of the most sought-after school leadership experts and educa-tion speakers in America, Kafele is impacting America’s schools! He has delivered over two thousand conference and program keynotes, professional development workshops, parenting seminars and stu-dent assemblies over his 34 years of public speaking. An expert in the area of “attitude transformation,” Kafele is the leading authority for providing effective classroom and school leadership strategies toward closing what he coined, the “Attitude Gap.”

A prolific writer, Kafele has written extensively on professional devel-opment strategies for creating a positive school climate and culture, transforming the attitudes of at-risk students, motivating Black males to excel in the classroom, and school leadership practices for inspir-ing schoolwide excellence. In addition to writing several professional articles for popular education journals, he has authored 10 books, including his six ASCD best sellers - The ASPIRING Principal 50, Is My School a Better School BECAUSE I Lead It?, The Principal 50, The Teacher 50, Closing the Attitude Gap, and Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life. His next book – The ASSIS-TANT Principal 50 will be released in Summer, 2020.

Principal Kafele is married to his wife Kimberley, and is the father of their three children, Baruti, Jabari and Kibriya. He earned his B.S. degree in Management Science/Marketing from Kean University and his M.A. degree in Educational Administration from New Jersey City University. He is the recipient of over 150 educational, profes-sional and community awards which include the prestigious Milken National Educator Award, the National Alliance of Black School Educators Hall of Fame Award, induction into the East Orange, New Jersey Hall of Fame, and the City of Dickinson, Texas proclaiming February 8, 1998 as Baruti Kafele Day.

Damon LeeDamon Lee is a passionate filmmaker, businessman, and ed-ucator. He was raised by a family that taught generations of New Jersey students. His grandmother, Lumitia Summons, taught in the East Orange School District. His mother, Carolyn Lee, was an elementary school teacher in Gal-loway Township. His father, Israel Lee, was an adjunct professor at

Atlantic Community College. Through his family, Damon learned the immense role that education plays in shaping not only individu-als, but shaping entire communities.

After graduating from Absegami High School in Galloway Town-ship, Damon completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Brandeis University. He moved to Los Angeles and received a Master of Fine Arts fellowship through the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. In the years since, Damon has worked in a principal role on hundreds of entertainment projects in film, television, and online content. Most notably, Damon was an Executive Producer on two of the top twenty highest-grossing African American movies of the 2000’s: Obsessed (2009) and This Christmas(2007). He also received an NAACP Image Award in 2011 for his work on the Lifetime movie Sins of the Mother. More recent-ly, Damon directed his first feature film Envy, which will premiere on Lifetime in 2021. In the last 15 years, Damon has collaborated on projects with iconic talents that include Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Idris Elba, Regina King, John Legend, and many more.

Throughout his career, Damon has sought to inspire younger gener-ations, leveraging his own upbringing, education, and professional experience, to provide a unique voice as an educator. Damon’s first teaching experience came as a language arts teacher for middle school students in the Inglewood Unified School District. He went on to teach undergraduate film courses at his alma mater Brandeis University, and also taught a graduate film course at UCLA. Damon believes that teaching is the most noble and most important profes-sion in the world. As a Black educator and professional, he wants to help ensure that Black inclusion efforts don’t simply check off boxes for demographics, but truly aid Black youth in their pursuit of happiness, education, and success.

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Thomas “TJ” Whitaker, Jr.Thomas “TJ” Whitaker, Jr., an English language arts teacher and community advocate at Columbia High School (CHS) in Maplewood, N.J. Whitaker has taught at CHS for the past 15 years. During his years of service, he has used his varied responsibilities, including serving as the district’s affirmative

action officer, to empower and inspire his students, colleagues, and the community at large.

Well-liked and respected by his students, Whitaker serves as the fac-ulty advisor of CHS’ newly formed Black Student Union (BSU). The BSU provides students with a platform to share – with their teachers and the student body – their experiences with racism and ways to better serve all students in the population. Despite some obstacles, within less of a year of BSU’s inception, students were able to lead an engaging and thought-provoking assembly discussion on institution-al racism and bias in the school and community, educating staff and students about ways of working to overcome it.

Most recently Whitaker established a Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) group, in which students can work to find and present statistical data and best practices in working to achieve social justice in schools. Additionally, Whitaker was one of the founders of the MapSO Freedom School, which serves to provide professional development for members in working to create social justice- orient-ed classrooms and anti-racism curricula.

Following events of implicit and explicit racism in the U.S., the MapSO Freedom School hosted events, including a “Charlottesville Teach-In” to discuss ways of being allies to students and propo-nents of social justice in the classroom. Additionally, the MapSO Freedom School will host a variety of teacher professional develop-ment programs on social justice lesson design across content areas throughout the school year. The MapSo Freedom School has worked in conjunction with various organizations including the South Orange-Maplewood Education Association (SOMEA), the South Or-ange-Maplewood Board of Education, the South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition On Race, and the Black Parents Workshop.

TJ Whitaker is a fearless advocate for his students, working to close achievement gaps, to modify leveling and discipline practices, and to bring in professional development opportunities to ensure racial and social justice.

Shirley SatterfieldShirley Satterfield, a retired Princeton High School guidance counselor and local historian,was raised in Princeton, repre-senting the sixth generation of her family to live in the community. She experienced the town’s racial evolution firsthand, attending the Witherspoon School for Colored Children when segregation still

existed in Princeton. When Princeton’s schools started to become integrated in 1947, she transferred to Nassau Street School and later was graduated from Princeton High School. She continued her studies at Bennett College, a women’s junior college in Millbrook, N.Y., and later earned a master’s degree in guidance and counseling at Trenton State College, now called The College of New Jersey. Prior to teaching and serving as a school counselor at Princeton High School, Satterfield worked in East Windsor. While at Princeton High School, she founded the historic high school female leadership group, P.U.L.S.E, which stands for Pride, Unity, Leadership, Sisterhood, and Esteem and works to further understanding about and respect for individuals, regardless of their ethnicity, race, or gender.She led the fight to have her neighborhood –now known as With-erspoon-Jackson – declared as Princeton’s 20th historic district. She serves as president of the Board of Trustees of Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society, which is dedicated to researching, preserving, understanding, and celebrating the history of Afri-can-Americans in Princeton. Under her leadership, 26 plaques are being placed around the neighborhood’s Heritage Trail. She also established the Albert E. Hinds Memorial Walking Tour, which seeks further to expand awareness of Princeton’s Afri-can-American history and honors the late Princeton history enthusi-ast and social justice, community, and civil rights activist. Satterfield has been involved with many organizations during her ongoing career as a teacher, school counselor, researcher, historian, and tour guide. In addition to the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society, they include but are not limited to Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, the Historical Society of Princeton, Princeton Borough Council, Princeton’s Historical Commission, the Paul Robeson House, and the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice. Satterfield treasures the stories of James (Jimmy) Collins Johnson, an escaped slave arrested in Princeton under suspicion of being a fugitive slave, and Paul Robeson, known for his political activism, amazing baritone voice, and athletic ability. However, she is deter-mined to remember the past, not recreate it. The Princeton commu-nity “will never remain the same,” she says. She just wants “people to respect each other and get along.”




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A W A R D R E C I P I E N T S




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Philip McCormickPhilip McCormick is a school social worker and case manager at South Orange-Maplewood’s Co-lumbia High School. His involve-ment in LGBTQ+ advocacy spans local, county, state, and national contexts.

He served on the NJEA SOGI Committee as Essex County rep-resentative from 2014 to 2019 and on the Essex County Education

Association LGBTQ+ Committee from 2016 to 2020, including as its co-chairperson from 2016 to 2019 and from 2019 to 2020.

McCormick helped re-establish the Northern N.J. chapter of GLSEN, which champions K-12 LBGTQ issues in K-12 education. He was the chapter’s co-chairperson from 2016 to 2018 and an Executive Board member from 2018 to 2020. He appeared in a segment of “One-on-one with Steve Adubato” at the 2018 NJEA Convention to discuss his work. That work has included leading a number of workshops promoting LGBTQ+ awareness on the local, county, state, and national levels, engaging teachers and ESPs on ways to improve conditions and opportunities for LGBTQ+ individuals in school environments.

McCormick participated in training for the National S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equality and Diversity) Project in 2013. After being trained, he led a S.E.E.D. cohort during the 2013-2014 school year, in which teachers and ESPs met monthly to expose implications of privilege and oppression related to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, age, and physical and mental ability. Through this, participants were able to expose ways of making their classrooms safer and more repre-sentative of LGBTQ+ students. Additionally, this enabled them to explore ways of fighting against bullying and promoting inclusivity and acceptance.

Part of GLSEN’s work involves promoting inclusive policies, which McCormick helped support in his work with his chapter. Philip also participated in the NJEA LGBTQ+ Curriculum Cohort, in response to legislation calling for an LGBTQ+ inclusive curricu-lum, to help teachers prepare more inclusive lessons for LGBTQ+ students and students of color.

Assemblywoman Linda Carter Linda Carter, affectionately known as “New Jersey’s Wonder Woman” has spent her entire career fighting for the underprivileged and middle-class communities. She has served locally for nearly two decades, as a member of the Plainfield City Council and as a member of the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders – earn-

ing a reputation as a bold progressive, and pragmatic trailblazer willing to take on a wide array of challenges that affect her communities.

On May 24, 2018, Carter, a lifelong resident of the City of Plainfield, was appointed to serve as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 22nd Legislative District, comprised of Union, Middle-sex & Somerset Counties to fill the vacancy caused by the late Assembly-man Gerald B. Green. Shortly thereafter, Carter was elected at a special election held on November 6, 2018, to fill the unexpired term. She currently serves on the Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee, the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee, the Law & Public Safety Committee and was recently selected to serve on the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus 2020 Census Reapportion Policy Committee.

Assemblywoman Carter is an NJEA member who works as a struc-tured learning experience teacher coordinator for the Passaic Public Schools in Passaic City, and she serves on NJEA’s Minority Leader-ship and Recruitment Committee.

While serving in the Assembly, she has worked to help support wom-en, schools, and people of color, specifically:

• supporting a bill that directs the N.J. Department of Education to develop an outreach program to encourage young women and minorities to pursue postsecondary degrees and careers in STEM;

• sponsoring a bill that authorizes the Secretary of Higher Educa-tion to impose a fine against an institution of higher education that fails to appropriately respond to a student’s allegation of sexual assault by another student;

• sponsoring a bill that requires institutions of higher education to report any allegation of sexual misconduct by health care profes-sionals to the licensing board for investigation.

• sponsoring “Emma’s Law,” which requires school buses that transport students with special needs to be equipped with certain safety fea-tures, a move to help those that can’t always advocate for themselves.

Assemblywoman Carter has been leading the way to help women succeed both in and out of the classroom and been a trailblazer in the New Jersey Legislature.

She graduated from the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, with a B.S. in business administration. She also holds an M.S. degree in infor-mation management from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken.

A W A R D R E C I P I E N T S

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Human & Civil Rights • Women in Education • Urban ... · Whitaker, Jr. Thomas “TJ” Whitaker, Jr., an English language arts teacher and community advocate at Columbia High