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Fakhra, a San Francisco Bay Area native and high school teacher, teaches courses through the San Francisco Peer Resources Program at Mission High School. Shah works to educate and empower youth of diverse backgrounds to become critical thinkers who challenge systems of oppression and who take steps to create lasting institutional change. Over the past few years, Shah has developed curricula that challenge Islamophobia, racism and hate speech, seeking to further support marginalized students in her classes.

Gender Spectrum provides education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for all children and teens. We provide consultation, training and events designed to help families, educators, professionals and organizations understand and address the concepts of gender identity and expression. Our accessible, practical approach is based on research and experience, enabling our clients to gain a deeper understanding of gender all along the spectrum. For more information and downloadable resources, go to www.genderspectrum.org.

Dr. Mikki Shaw has worked in education for over 40 years, as a high school teacher and as a teacher educator. She has a deep commitment to public education and to students at risk.

Chris is a seventh-grade U.S. history teacher in the Washington, D.C., area. He is continuously working to design a curriculum that is anti-racist, anti-sexist and pro-social justice. In addition to teaching, Seeger is a doctoral student at George Mason University. His research is focused on how teachers adapt their curriculum and teaching to achieve equity-related goals in high-poverty schools.

Kim Westheimer is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Gender Spectrum. Her career has centered on generating opportunities for educators, students and parents to work together to create inclusive spaces for all students, including directing the launching of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Welcoming Schools Program, created in 2007 to foster LGBT inclusion in elementary schools.

Elisa Pollard teaches English and language arts an alternative school setting in North Carolina. For more than a decade, she has served on the State Superintendent's Ethic Advisory committee. As a single parent with two children of her own who have received free/reduced lunch, Pollard recognizes that students often don't come to school "ready to learn." She actively searches for literature and written material to meet her students where they are and to address their educational needs by way of their social issues.

Heather A. O'Connell is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, and a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her work contributes to understandings of race and racial inequalities in the United States by examining differences across places. This spatial lens has led to a focus on processes connected to racial composition, history, region, and migration.

Jill E. Thomas taught English at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience, a small public high school in Oakland, California, for nine years. In addition to teaching English, she had the opportunity to design and teach electives in outdoor education, mindfulness, world dance and food systems. She now works for the Oakland Unified School District coaching principals to provide meaningful, growth-oriented feedback to teachers. She holds a bachelor of arts in English and anthropology from Santa Clara University and a master of arts in education from the University of California at Berkeley.