About the Presenters

Kamilah Drummond-Forrester is a nationally recognized thought leader, speaker, consultant, and workshop presenter on SEL and social justice. As the founder and Principal Consultant at KDRUMM Consulting LLC, she leverages her expertise in transformative social and emotional learning (tSEL) and equity to partner with school districts, out-of-school-time organizations, and NGOs to support strategic thinking, program development, and implementation. Kamilah was recently recognized by CASEL as a Social Emotional Leader of 2023, awarding her the Mary Utne O’Brien Award for Excellence in Expanding Evidence-Based Practice of Social and Emotional Learning. She is the board chair of SEL4MA, a state social and emotional learning advocacy organization. Kamilah has a BA in psychology and African American studies from Brandeis University and a master’s and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) in vocational rehabilitation counseling from Assumption College.

Colleen Martin is a dedicated educational leader with over three decades of experience at Shoreline Middle School in the Live Oak School District. For 14 years, she served as the Assistant Principal, and for the past decade, she has held the position of Principal. Under Colleen’s leadership, Shoreline Middle School has achieved remarkable accolades, solidifying its reputation as a beacon of educational excellence and equity. In 2023, the school was honored with both California and National School to Watch designations. Building on this success, Shoreline was further recognized as a California Distinguished School in 2024. Central to Shoreline’s success are its signature practices, which include its restorative discipline practices with “bookmarks,” which promote positive behavior and foster a supportive school climate.

Dr. Soundhari Balaguru is a clinical psychologist and founder of Integrated SEL, a coaching, training, and consulting business that supports educators to center social-emotional wellness and belonging to shift school culture and climate. She helps schools integrate social-emotional learning, restorative discipline, culturally affirming practices, and educator wellness so that a restorative lens is not a theory, but lives dynamically throughout the school day. Her child-centered approach, paired with a systems perspective, provides educators with practical tools for engagement and implementation. After working in schools for 18+ years, she believes that for students to meet their full potential, schools need to prioritize relationships, validate and affirm their students’ identities, and support students and adults to grow and learn from their mistakes.

About the Moderator

Jessica Berlinski is the Director of PreK-12 Education for Ripple Effects, an innovative social-change enterprise focused on leveraging personalized SEL to improve students’ behavior and academics and achieve educational equity. She brings over a decade of experience leading organizations dedicated to supporting the “whole child” through academic and SEL tools and programs to her work. Jessica co-founded and served as Chief Impact Officer of SEL tech start-ups, If You Can and Centervention (formerly Personalized Learning Games). In these roles, she commercialized the first evidence-based SEL assessment and learning game for K-12, and the first SEL iPad game for the consumer marketplace. Previously, she served as Managing Director of GameDesk, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded non-profit focused on innovative learning models, and as National Director of Character Counts. Jessica speaks on technology and SEL at education and social-change conferences nationally, and her work has been featured on National Public Radio, and in Forbes and Newsweek. She graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in philosophy.