Featured speakers & facilitators

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Margery Ginsberg profile photo

Margery Ginsberg is a scholar-practitioner, educational author and consultant. Her current work with colleges and universities builds on experience as a university professor and, for nearly a decade, director of the University of Washington–Seattle doctoral program for aspiring educational leaders. Earlier in her career she was a teacher on the Menominee and Southern Ute reservations. As her educational work continued, she became U.S. Dept. of Education Title I technical assistance provider to state education agencies, and coordinator of migrant education in a nine-state region in the Southwest United States. In 2013, she was honored with the American Educational Research Association “Relating Research to Practice Award” for her application of interdisciplinary research focused on intrinsic motivation and cultural diversity in schools, community colleges, and universities.

In addition to research publications, Margery’s books include Excited to Learn: Motivation & Culturally Responsive Teaching (Corwin Press, 2015), Transformative Professional Learning (Corwin Press, 2011), Teaching Intensive & Accelerated Courses in College (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2009), and Diversity and Motivation in Higher Education: Culturally Responsive Teaching, 2nd edition (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2009), which won the 2011 Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education.

Margery has a Ph.D. in Bilingual/Multicultural/Social Foundations of Education from the University of Colorado-Boulder.  She currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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Stephen John Quaye profile photo

Stephen John Quaye is an Associate Professor in the Student Affairs in Higher Education Program at Miami University. He is a 2009 ACPA: College Student Educators International Emerging Scholar and was awarded the 2009 Melvene D. Hardee Dissertation of the Year Award from NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. Stephen’s research and teaching broadly focus on understanding how to enable undergraduate and graduate students to engage difficult issues (e.g., privilege, oppression, power) civilly and honestly, as well as how storytelling is used as an educational tool to foster reflection and learning across differences. He also is interested in the strategies educators use to facilitate these dialogues and what they learn about themselves in the process. His work is published in different venues, including The Review of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, Journal of College Student Development, and Equity & Excellence in Education. He is co-editor (with Shaun R. Harper) of the second edition of Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Diverse Populations. He holds degrees from The Pennsylvania State University (Ph.D.), Miami University (M.S.), and James Madison University (B.S.).

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Jackie Smith profile photo
Jacqueline S. Smith is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research examines how stereotypes and social categorization influence both person perception and self-perception, including the impact of gender and race stereotypes on women and adolescent girls’ self-identity and aspirations in math and science. She is particularly interested in the intersections of social categories and the experiences of non-prototypical members of different social groups. Jackie received her PhD in social psychology from Yale University. Her research has been recognized by several organizations, including the National Science Foundation, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.
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Buffy Aries profile photo
Elizabeth (Buffy) Aries is Clarence Francis 1910 Professor in Social Sciences (Psychology) at Amherst College, where she joined the faculty in 1975 as one of the first women professors at the College. Until the mid-1990s her research centered on gender and communication, i.e. on differences in the interaction styles of men and women, and on how the sex composition of a group influences men’s and women’s use of language and the things they talk about. Her interests then shifted to race and social class. Her critically acclaimed 2008 book Race and Class Matters at an Elite College described the results of a longitudinal interview study that followed four distinct groups of students through their first year at Amherst College: (1) affluent white; (2) affluent black; (3) lower-income white; and (4) lower-income black. Drawing heavily on the voices of the students themselves, the book describes the challenges faced by black and white students from different class backgrounds and the educational benefits students derived from living in a diverse community. More recently, with Prof. Allen Hart, she has worked on the crosscultural pedagogical possibilities generated by using intergroup dialogue in the classroom.
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Christopher Bjork profile photo

Christopher Bjork is Professor of Education on the Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Chair and the Coordinator of Tecaher Education at Vassar College. He earned his B.A. and his M.A. in liberal studies from Wesleyan University.  He completed his Ph.D. in educational anthropology at Stanford University. Certified to teach both elementary and secondary school, he has worked as a classroom teacher in Japan and the United States. His research interests include international comparative education, educational reform, teacher education, and youth sports.  He is the author of the book Indonesian Education, and editor or coeditor of many other books, including Japanese Education in an Era of Globalization, Education and Training in Japan, Educational Decentralization, and Taking Teaching Seriously. His most recent book, High Stakes Schooling, was published in December 2015 by the University of Chicago Press.