Join NAEHCY
Interested in becoming a NAEHCY member?
Learn
more.
Annual Conference
Houston, TX
November 2010
Learn more about
the 2010 NAEHCY Annual Conference.
Support NAEHCY
|
2010 NAEHCY Annual Conference Keynote Speakers
Keving Jennings
William "Bill" Steele
Mischa P. Toland
 Kevin Jennings was appointed as Assistant Deputy Secretary by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in July 2009 to head the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Kevin is the first career educator to hold this position and brings to this role 25 years of experience as a teacher, a writer, and a leader in the fields of K-12 education and civil rights. Jennings' keynote address, Safe and Supportive Schools: Creating an Environment Where Everyone Can Learn, to be presented on Monday, November 8, is based on the simple premise that kids can't learn if they don't feel safe and secure. The address will focus on how to create truly safe schools: ones where every student feels a sense of belonging, feels secure, and feels valued.
A native of Winston-Salem, N.C., Jennings became the first member of his family to graduate from college when he received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University. He taught high school history for ten years, during which he served as faculty advisor for the nation's first Gay-Straight Alliance Student Club. He also founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in 1990, launching his life's dedication to seeking to ensure that schools are safe places where every young person can focus on learning. In 1995 he left teaching to become GLSEN's founding Executive Director, a position he held for 14 years before stepping down in late 2008.
In 1997, Jennings was named to Newsweek magazine's Century Club as one of 100 people to watch in the new century. He received his master's degree in interdisciplinary studies in education in 1994 from Columbia University and earned an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1999. He has authored six books, the latest of which, Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son, was named a Book of Honor by the American Library Association in 2006. He was also a writer and producer of the documentary Out of the Past, winner of the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Documentary. Among his many honors, Jennings has received the Distinguished Service Award of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Human and Civil Rights Award of the National Education Association, and the Diversity Leadership Award of the National Association of Independent Schools.
 William “Bill” Steele, Founder and Director of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC), will present an interactive workshop for the NAEHCY closing general session on Tuesday, November 9, 2010. Children who have experienced trauma listen implicitly and learn from what we do, not from what we say. Their brains are in a chronic state of readiness, not to learn, but to survive. Steele's keynote will demonstrate the value of sensory-based interventions in “deactivating” this survival response while "reactivating” the use of everyday primary cognitive learning processes. The presentation will involve audience participation, case examples, and video segments.
Steele has produced various training and education videos and is the author of many articles; book chapters; and books and manuals on trauma, suicide prevention, resilience, and interventions for use with children and youth who have suffered trauma. Steele has developed, researched, and field-tested intervention programs used with children 3-18 years of age, adults, and parents.
TLC is a program of Starr Commonwealth, an agency serving children and adolescents throughout Michigan and Ohio. Starr Commonwealth is a leader in providing strengths-based practices for youth in residential and community based programs. All programs are based on the premise that there is “something good in every child.” Bill received a doctorate in psychology from California Coast University, a master’s degree in social work from Wayne State University, and a master of arts in Guidance/Counseling from the University of Detroit.
 Mischa P. Toland, entrepreneur, author, and inspirational speaker, is a 20-year veteran of the human service profession in public and private entities, including the juvenile justice system and the educational system. Over the course of her 20 years in the field, Mischa’s notable work with countless children, youth, and families has won her allies both locally in the Baltimore area and nationally. Toland's keynote address, Healing Children Stricken with the Disease of Poverty, will be presented on Sunday, November 7, 2010.
Toland asserts that she has “relentless resolve to see women and girls, in particular, and families in general, become emotionally stable and psychologically whole.” She refers to “recklessly irresponsible decisions” she often made as a result of not understanding her own value. She was a teenage mother who often wondered if she and her sons would overcome negative stereotypes that accompany such a beginning.
Toland launched Greatness Now®, a multi-dimensional human development company, in 2004 with the mission of moving individuals in the direction of their greatness by developing their lives in three spheres: professional, personal, and interpersonal. Toland serves as a consultant, trainer, and collaborative partner to more than 40 organizations, agencies, and school jurisdictions. To meet the needs of a growing and diverse constituency, She developed three subsidiary companies of Greatness Now®: Morals and Values Press®, a publishing company; Black Love Talk®, a national organization that seeks to improve the quality of relating among men and women of African Descent; and She Ain’t Angry for Nothin’®, an intervention and behavior modification program designed to identify, confront, and eradicate causal factors associated with anger and aggression in girls.
Toland was the lead organizer of the first ever Youth Empowerment Summit held inside the Baltimore City Detention Center and the co-coordinator of the Great Girls (GG) Project, a collaboration between Greatness Now®, Towson University’s Women’s Center, and Baltimore City Women’s Detention Center. GG engages female college students to serve as mentor-pen pals to incarcerated teen girls. She has written articles for Jubilee Magazine and The Baltimore Sun’s Unisun Magazine and is the author of thirteen books, including Sacred: 100 Affirmations for Girls and Wounded Voices Unwise Choices.
|
