2025 Speakers Coming Soon
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CEO of Continental Drift, LLC and Adjunct Professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development
Afrika Afeni Mills, MEd, is the CEO of Continental Drift, LLC, an author, Education Consultant, and Adjunct Professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She has been an educator since 1999 with a background as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, teacher developer, and school administrator.
Afrika works with teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators to develop and sustain culturally responsive and sustaining, antibias, anti-racist, pro-human instructional practices. Afrika has been featured on podcasts, blogs, delivered keynote addresses, and facilitated sessions at conferences across the United States.
Afrika is the author of Open Windows, Open Minds: Developing Antiracist, Pro-Human Students, as well as the viral blog post, A Letter to White Teachers of My Black Children. Her TED-Ed Talk, Four Ways to Have Healthy Conversations About Race was released in Spring 2023. Her talk has over 1 million views and over 32K likes. Afrika was chosen as one of Brightbeam’s Top 22 Education Influencers of 2022, inducted into Who’s Who in Black Charlotte in 2023, and is a member of Learning Forward.
Afrika has an M.Ed. in Elementary Teaching from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development, where she graduated first in her class.
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CTTL Facilitators
Lorraine Martinez Hanley
Lorraine Martinez Hanley has been a diversity practitioner, an activist, and an educator for over 30 years. She is the Director of Professional Growth and Studies at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland and the Lead Researcher for Diversity, Equity, and Belonging at the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL). Lorraine is a founding principal consultant for The Glasgow Group, where she integrates the strategies and principles of Mind, Brain, and Education and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging. She is a think tank member of the Turnaround Arts-Kennedy Center on the integration of belonging in arts programming. Lorraine is a certified All Kinds of Minds (AKOM) trainer and a 16-year veteran faculty member of the National Association of Independent School’s Student Diversity Leadership Conference. Born in Los Angeles, California, she attended the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland University College and has a B.A. in Humanities.
Ian Kelleher
Dr. Ian Kelleher is the Dreyfuss Family Chair of Research at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and co-author of Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education. He grew up in the UK, got a Ph.D. at Cambridge, then moved to the U.S., where he has spent the last twenty-nine years teaching Chemistry, Physics and Robotics and coaching soccer. Ian’s work for the CTTL focuses on helping teachers translate Mind, Brain, and Education research into classroom practices, and measuring the impact. Ian has presented at Learning & the Brain, SXSWedu, the UK’s Festival of Education, ResearchED, and the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference, and written for publications including ASCD, Edutopia, EdSurge, Impact, and Mind, Brain and Education. Ian likes to read, write, and run. Talk to him about English Premier League soccer, F1 and rugby.
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Previous Speakers
2024 Speakers
Afrika Afeni Mills
CEO of Continental Drift, LLC and Adjunct Professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development
Sara Staley
Assistant Professor of Teacher Learning, Research, and Practice at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education and Co-Director of A Queer Endeavor
Bethy Leonardi
Associate Professor in Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice at the University of Colorado Boulder
Kade Friedman
Director of Education at PINE, the Program for Inclusion and Neurodiversity Education and Adjunct Professor at New York University
2023 Speakers
Tanji Reed Marshall, Ph.D
Vanessa Rodriguez, EdD
2022 Speakers
Elena Aguilar
Founder and President, Bright Morning
Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Director, USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (CANDLE)
