Dr. Mariel Novas supports the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership, where she manages partner recruitment and engagement, drives coalition operations, and helps establish the strategy and vision for impact. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was both a student and later a teacher in the Boston Public Schools, Mariel launched the Homegrown Program at Teach For America-Massachusetts — a recruitment and leadership development engine that supports aspiring educators from low-income communities in order to increase the number of homegrown leaders in the local education ecosystem. Before that, she served as a middle school ESL math teacher and an instructional coach. Mariel co-founded the Boston Education Action Network (BEAN) and organized hundreds of educators, community members, students, and parents. Mariel holds a doctorate in Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a master’s in Curriculum & Teaching from Boston University, and a bachelor’s in History & Ethnicity, Race, and Migration from Yale University.

Pedro A. Regalado (Ph.D. 2019, American Studies, Yale University) is a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He researches the history of race, immigration, and capitalism in American cities. Regalado’s book project, Latinx Gotham: Work and the Origins of Modern New York, examines the history of 20th century New York City through the lens of Latinx workers in the city’s rapidly-evolving industries, recuperating Latinx residents as active agents in the remaking of the city’s economy and landscape. In 2019, his dissertation was a finalist for the American Studies Association’s Ralph Gabriel Henry Prize for best dissertation. Regalado was previously a National Fellow at the Jefferson Scholars National Foundation during the 2018-2019 academic year. In 2017, the Society for American City & Regional Planning History (SACRPH) awarded his paper, “Fixed Capital: Building Transition and Drug Capitalism in New York City, 1961-1997,” Best Student Research Paper at the 17th National Conference on Planning History. Regalado’s work has been featured in The Journal of Urban History, Planning Perspectives, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Boston Review. Born in the Dominican Republic, Regalado grew up in New York’s Washington Heights.

The first two sets of “letters” after my name most people know to mean I am an educator and also a licensed therapist. The rest of my alphabet soup always needs some explaining so here goes :) An EMP is an energy medicine practitioner, someone who has learned how to work with the energy present in all of us humans being (no typo :) in order to optimize physical and mental health. A PC is a pastoral counselor, a mental health professional that provides psychological therapy and spiritual guidance to individuals, couples, families, and groups in various settings and is especially useful for helping individuals who are experiencing mental distress or dysfunction because of rigid religious beliefs or issues with their faith. And a CME is a certified mindful educator or a person trained to teach others how to use mindfulness in their daily life both professionally and personally.

All of my education and experience combines to create a skilled and compassionate listener and facilitator of space where people feel safe to examine their current unconscious beliefs and practices and to curate new conscious connections within themselves and with others.

Derek Hall is a dynamic anti-racist inter-group dialogue facilitator, public speaker, and activist committed to challenging beliefs and institutional culture rooted in systemic racism and other forms of oppression. Derek has worked in the diversity, equity, and inclusion field for over ten years, partnering with public and private school systems, for profit and non-profit organizations both locally and nationally. His passion for decolonized education, human connection, and implementation of racial equity strategies has led him to presenting to crowds of 500+ as well as facilitating groups as small as 5-15. Derek is proud to have served as a full time Program Director at RE-CENTER: Race & Equity in Education from 2016 – 2019, where he helped the organization develop into the force for equitable systemic change that it is today. In 2019, Derek transitioned into his current role as Racial Equity Consultant & Coach where, believing that “Changed people, change systems”, he uses his gifts of facilitation, storytelling and community building to increase the racial & social consciousness of individuals and organizations.