Presented by Darbie Valenti, Curriculum Coach, St. Joseph School District (MO); and Stephanie Williams, Executive Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Norman Public Schools (OK)

Sponsored by EVERFI

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Students’ well-being and social development are inseparably interwoven with their understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion. By centering equity in your work as an educator, you are not only ensuring that students have equal access to opportunities, but also investing in students’ social-emotional skills—the very foundation from which emotional intelligence and social IQ are born.

If we hope to impart social-emotional skills to our students, we have to first have a conversation that includes the whole person each of our students is, and that includes their understanding of and relationship with diversity. Too often, our discomfort with a topic translates to avoidance, but we can’t expect our colleagues who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color to be the only educators in the building willing to have these conversations—the burden is too great to bear, and the stakes for all students are just too high.

In this edWebinar, educators Stephanie Williams from Norman Public Schools (OK) and Darbie Valenti from St. Joseph School District (MO)  illustrate what it means to center your work in equity, and the far-reaching impact that can have.

This recorded edWebinar will be of interest to K-12 teachers, librarians, school and district leaders, and counselors.

About the Presenters

Representing the St. Joseph School District in Missouri, Darbie Valenti loves first and teaches second. Her 19 years of teaching spans elementary and middle school and also includes serving as an adjunct professor. Darbie has received numerous teaching honors, including being named 2017 Missouri Teacher of the Year, which have afforded her the opportunity to serve as an ambassador for STEM education as well as trauma-informed education in her state, nation, and around the globe.

Stephanie Williams serves as the executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for Norman Public Schools in Oklahoma. In her position, she oversees the DEI commitment for the district. This includes providing professional development in the areas of equity, bias, and culturally responsive teaching for all staff along with reviewing current and future district policies with an equity and inclusive lens. In addition, Stephanie centers her work in the areas of marketing and recruitment to engage and retain a diverse teaching and administrative staff. For over 17 years, she has been a noteworthy leader in the education profession. Prior to her current role, she has been a classroom teacher, assistant principal, and head principal at the secondary level. Stephanie was selected as the State of Oklahoma’s Assistant Principal of the Year in 2018 by The Cooperative Council of Oklahoma Secondary Administrators’ (CCOSA) organization. She has also written an article titled Moving Your School Towards Restorative and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support in the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) School of Thought Blog.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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