Facilitator Team cont.

Kim Barnum

Kim Barnum is currently a professional development consultant for the Public Schools of Brookline. In this role, she oversees the district mentoring program, which involves meeting with building-based mentor facilitators and supporting them with a structured sequence of induction topics and recommended readings for new educators. Prior to this role, Ms. Barnum spent 27 years teaching in the district as a first, second, and third-grade classroom teacher and math specialist. Additionally, the PSB offers mentored professional learning opportunities through learning groups. Ms. Barnum, along with a team of educators and coaches, plans and facilitates meetings for small groups of novice educators. These meetings focus on building reflective practice by examining professional dilemmas and ethical challenges, helping educators develop an “ethical repertoire” to address justice issues alongside their pedagogical skills. Ms. Barnum has received facilitation training in ethical dilemmas from the Justice In Schools organization, affiliated with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Rachel Waltz

Rachel Waltz is currently a doctoral student at North Carolina State University in the Teacher Education and Learning Sciences department, concentrating in social studies education. Her research interests include democratic education, discussion of controversial issues in the classroom, teacher political disclosure, inquiry-based learning, and the impact of the sociopolitical climate and policy on educators and students. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Rachel was a middle school and high school social studies teacher for six years. She has experience teaching abroad and domestically, as well as in private, public, and charter school settings. Rachel lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and in her free time, she enjoys reading, crafting, hiking, traveling, and spending time with her loved ones.

Dominique Herard

Dominique Herard is an elementary school teacher in Brookline, Massachusetts. She is an educator strongly committed to social justice and educational equity. She is also co-leader of her school’s Equity Team, bringing professional development opportunities to teachers to discuss how racial equity impacts academic and personal growth for both teachers and students. She is the Associate Director of the Boston Writing Project, a professional development network which allows teachers to teach each other. This position also allows her to serve as a teacher-consultant, meaning she travels to schools in Boston and surrounding areas to lead professional development workshops for teachers of varying grade levels (K-12). She has presented research in Stockholm, Sweden and Matsuyama, Japan in front of international communities for work related to building the capacity for elementary students to use imaginative thinking for writing and communicating with a justice lens.. She has published a chapter in an anthology about this topic, as well as co-authored a paper about imagination in the literary arts. She is also a Board Member of Contemporary Arts International, a museum/creative space with a mission to promote the creation, understanding, and appreciation of contemporary art in the global context.

Kierstan Kaushal-Carter

Kierstan Kaushal-Carter is a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, appointed at Penn Carey Law. She earned her PhD in African and African American Studies and an MA in Government from Harvard University, and a BA in English and American Culture Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. Her dissertation, “A New Ethical Foundation for Policing,” provides a normative account of policing, redefining their roles and ethical obligations. Her research interests include political theory, African American political thought, legal philosophy, and urban sociology, focusing on how these fields can shape just political institutions. Kierstan’s writings, published in The St. Louis Anthology and The New Republic Magazine, reflect her engagement with justice, community, and ethical governance. Her work aims to influence policy and practice and contribute to the development of equitable and just political structures.

Justin Hauver

My name is Justin Hauver and I’m a former teacher and current PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where I hope to use research to support liberatory pedagogies, study how teachers and students give life to their values in every decision, and explore how our ways of being are shaped by school. I have conducted ethnographic research in the US and Colombia to explore how schools and educators cultivate democracy, learning, and joy. I have also facilitated Youth Participatory Action Research with middle schoolers in Boston. Currently, I’m working on projects that study how teacher education programs cultivate a teaching ethos as well as how teachers build relationships and culture in the first weeks of school. Prior to my doctoral studies, I taught history for eight years in Louisiana and California. Alongside teaching, I served in a variety of leadership roles, including instructional coach, cooperating teacher, curriculum developer, and professional development facilitator. In 2020, I earned a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Fellowship. I hold a BA in philosophy and German from UC Berkeley and an Ed.M in Specialized Studies from HGSE.

The Democratic Knowledge Project (DKP) at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics is offering this institute in partnership with Project Zero, a research group based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). The Center for Ethics seeks to strengthen teaching and research about pressing ethical issues; to foster sound norms of ethical reasoning and civic discussion; and to share the work of our community in the public interest. An initiative of the Center for Ethics, the DKP seeks to identify, strengthen, and disseminate the knowledge, dispositions, capacities, and skills civic participants need to sustain healthy democratic life. The DKP partners with Project Zero to design, deliver, and conduct research on civics learning and civics-focused professional learning opportunities. Project Zero’s mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity for individuals and groups.

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