Welcome to the complete breakout session guide for emPWR 2026. Use this schedule to plan your conference experience, locate room assignments, and select sessions aligned with your professional development goals.
Location: Garfield 1
Speaker: Annie Peterschick | D49
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Work-Based Learning Professionals, Special Populations
Overview: Work-Based Learning does not have to depend only on off-campus internships. Learn how to transform everyday school operations into a complete career-connected learning ecosystem using student-run businesses, career development instruction, industry credentials, and documented WBL experiences.
Key Takeaways: Practical frameworks and ready-to-use resources for building inclusive, school-based enterprises on campus.
Location: Garfield 2
Speaker: Stephanie Kline & Jon Anderson | Estes Park High School
Target Audience: Counselors, ACE Teachers, Administrators, WBL & PWR Professionals, CTE
Overview: Discover how Estes Park High School transformed ICAP into a whole-school "ICAP Day"—a student-designed, staff-supported model that connects students directly to local workforce opportunities, postsecondary paths, and career exploration.
Key Takeaways: Step-by-step blueprint to plan an ICAP Day, engage community partners, and empower student ownership.
Location: Garfield 3
Speaker: Christy Biedron | Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain
Target Audience: Teachers, WBL Coordinators, Community Engagement Teams
Overview: As AI reshapes the workforce, students need essential human skills machines can't replicate. Explores how experiential, career-connected learning and employer partnerships prepare students for an AI-driven economy.
Key Takeaways: Actionable strategies for integrating human-centered essential skills and business partnerships into career exploration.
Location: Delaplane
Speaker: Mitch Peritz | Youth Rising-Up Initiative
Target Audience: Counseling & Career Development, Special Populations, Human Services
Overview: Uses live scenario read-throughs of real trafficker transcripts to identify digital red flags in real time. Covers how predators exploit AI and social media, alongside practical digital safety tools for families.
Key Takeaways: 5-stage grooming matrix, family digital safety templates, and conversation starters for at-risk youth.
Location: Library Room
Speaker: Marty Goldberg & Craig Weathers | Colorado Community College System
Target Audience: Special Education Educators, PWR Specialists, Postsecondary Transition Coordinators
Overview: Interactive session exploring transition challenges students with disabilities face in concurrent enrollment. Examines disability service solutions and accommodation differences between K-12 and higher education.
Key Takeaways: Concrete transition strategies to help students build skills for successful postsecondary transitions.
Location: Garfield 1
Speaker: Jill Brogdon | Colorado Department of Public Safety
Target Audience: School Administrators, Teachers, Counselors, Frontline Staff
Overview: Presented by the CDPS Human Trafficking Program Coordinator, this session goes beyond checklists to deliver real-world examples of youth exploitation in Colorado, equipping staff to notice and respond to potential human trafficking.
Key Takeaways: Practical protocols and indicators for identifying and responding to human trafficking in school environments.
Location: Garfield 2
Speaker: Brenda Pomeroy, Ayten Therriault, Stephanie LaCount, Scott Toovey & Student Panel | Grand Junction High School
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, WBL Professionals, At-Risk Student Specialists
Overview: Hear directly from educators and a panel of students on how a dropout prevention program leverages "The Big Three" (WBL, concurrent enrollment, credentials) to re-engage struggling students and build career direction.
Key Takeaways: Practical ideas for creating accessible, flexible pathways that connect learning to future goals.
Location: Garfield 3
Speaker: Martha Patton, Leslie Tufano, Dina Klancir, Suzanne Ellis | Warren Tech (JeffCo)
Target Audience: Counselors, WBL Coordinators, CTE Teachers, School Administrators
Overview: Examines how Warren Tech North Sports Medicine shifted from job shadowing to student-driven, 60-hour internships where students initiate employer contact and manage their placement experience.
Key Takeaways: Actionable preparation tools and industry engagement strategies that foster student ownership.
Location: Delaplane
Speaker: Mirna Villa Linares | Upskilling U Consulting and Training
Target Audience: Administrators, CTE Directors, WBL Coordinators, State Agency Partners
Overview: Introduces a practical "Gap Map" diagnostic tool to help educational institutions identify operational gaps and partner with local entrepreneurs and small businesses to fill workforce pipeline needs.
Key Takeaways: Completed institutional gap-mapping audit and models for entrepreneur-led workforce partnerships.
Location: Library Room
Speaker: Danny Combs | CDOO
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, WBL Specialists, CTE Instructors
Overview: Taps into the strengths of neurodivergent learners—the largest untapped talent pool in the workforce. Delivers universal design and instructional strategies to prepare neurodiverse students for skilled trade careers.
Key Takeaways: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) frameworks and trade-focused differentiation techniques.
Location: Garfield 1
Speaker: Melissa Nieber (Celebrate EDU) & Rosie O'Dea Britt (Manual High School)
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, WBL Professionals, Special Populations, PWR Coordinators
Overview: Demonstrates how a year-long school-based enterprise can simultaneously serve as an ACE Capstone project and an approved Work-Based Learning experience aligned with Big Three expectations.
Key Takeaways: Structural frameworks to document WBL hours, build student portfolios, and adapt tasks for all learning needs.
Location: Garfield 2
Speaker: Terra Thiebaut | CCCS CTE
Target Audience: WBL Professionals, CTE Educators, Classroom Teachers
Overview: A fast-paced, practical session delivering blueprints for launching high-impact WBL experiences that engage hard-to-reach students while meeting state CTE and CDE reporting guidelines.
Key Takeaways: Ready-to-use social capital curriculum, template toolkits, and state compliance resources.
Location: Garfield 3
Speaker: Alexa Green | District 11 (Palmer High School)
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, Special Education Staff, MTSS Teams
Overview: Uses Palmer High School as a real-world case study to examine how CTE, WBL, and ACE programming can be structured into Tier I, II, and III MTSS interventions for student retention.
Key Takeaways: Data-backed MTSS strategy matrix connecting career development to high school graduation rates.
Location: Delaplane
Speaker: Gretchen Haptonstall | MCVSD51 (Fruita Monument High School)
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, WBL Professionals, CTE Directors
Overview: Introduces "The Applied Middle"—a framework ensuring credit recovery students also receive career exploration, credentials, and WBL rather than sole academic remediation.
Key Takeaways: Applied Middle Pathway Map, Pathway Gap Audit tool, and student readiness rubrics.
Location: Garfield 1
Speaker: Neesha Lenzini & Sonya Teigen | CSSD11 / Project ROOTS
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, WBL Professionals, Special Populations, Administrators
Overview: Analyzes Project ROOTS data to highlight communication gaps and structural barriers affecting special populations in CTE programs, offering concrete fixes to expand equitable access.
Key Takeaways: Data-driven diagnostic patterns and communication strategies to increase special population participation.
Location: Garfield 2
Speaker: Leilani Mullins | Colorado Springs School District 11
Target Audience: Counselors, Administrators, PWR Directors
Overview: Details how D11 built "Future Ready"—a vertically aligned 6–12 Tier 1 advisory curriculum that satisfies ICAP, Capstone, and Graduation Guidelines while driving Big 3 outcomes.
Key Takeaways: Sample monthly advisory curriculum map connecting schoolwide activities to measurable Big 3 metrics.
Location: Garfield 3
Speaker: Chris Hughes | College Board
Target Audience: WBL Professionals, ACE Teachers, Counselors, District Leadership
Overview: Addresses WBL barriers such as employer capacity and rural transportation. Introduces Teamship—a 60-hour in-school model where student teams solve real, unscripted business problems without relying on family networks.
Key Takeaways: Low-lift employer partnership model (<5 hours per business partner) and alignment with Colorado's Big Three.
Location: Delaplane
Speaker: Junior Reina Toc | Red Rocks Community College
Target Audience: Administrators, Postsecondary Partners, Adult Education Educators
Overview: Explores cross-sector alignment between postsecondary institutions, workforce boards, and adult education to transform adult completion programs into sustainable economic mobility pathways.
Key Takeaways: Partnership-mapping framework to connect adult high school completion with workforce and college pathways.
Location: Library Room
Speaker: Parker Kennedy | Glenwood Springs High School
Target Audience: Special Education Teachers, Counselors, Administrators, PWR
Overview: Introduces "The Web of Ed"—a free, open-access platform containing 660+ career profiles, 150+ visual career webs, and interest inventories created specifically for struggling and neurodivergent students.
Key Takeaways: Direct access to free visual career mapping tools requiring no student logins or IT setup.
Location: Garfield 1
Speaker: Brandon Chrostowski | EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute
Target Audience: Counselors, WBL Specialists, Special Populations, CTE Directors, Corrections Staff
Overview: Draws on two decades of workforce development with justice-impacted individuals to demonstrate how high expectations, skills training, and systemic barrier removal create true economic mobility.
Key Takeaways: The "Skills + Support + Standards + Opportunity" framework for high-stakes workforce preparation.
Location: Garfield 2
Speaker: Kacy Little Owl | Colorado Department of Education
Target Audience: All Educators & Partners Serving Students with IEPs
Overview: Uses Colorado's ICAP/IEP Crosswalk tool to align special education transition planning with CTE/ACE coursework, WBL, and graduation guidelines into one unified student pathway.
Key Takeaways: Practical CDE crosswalk frameworks to eliminate siloed planning between SPED, ACE, and general education.
Location: Garfield 3
Speaker: Lisa Hollingsworth | Mapleton Public Schools
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, WBL Professionals, CTE Leaders
Overview: Explores avenues for educator growth, leadership, grant opportunities, and national engagement through CACTE and ACTE, showing how to build a sustainable professional journey in CTE.
Key Takeaways: Direct resources for getting involved in state and national CTE advocacy and division leadership.
Location: Delaplane
Speaker: Jenn Sanders, Tori Barker, James Hindman | Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, Counselors, WBL Professionals, Rural Educators, Special Populations
Overview: Highlights Colorado's Map My Path initiative and Montrose School District’s partnership with DVR to build inclusive WBL, apprenticeships, and employment in smaller and rural communities.
Key Takeaways: Rural-specific WBL strategies and methods for leveraging DVR resources to expand employer access.
Location: Library Room
Speaker: Elizabeth Lynch & Student Presenters | Thomas Jefferson High School
Target Audience: ACE Teachers, WBL Specialists, Special Populations, Student Leaders
Overview: High school student entrepreneurs present their school-based enterprise experiences, demonstrating how student leadership, business operations, and customer service develop in school environments.
Key Takeaways: First-hand student perspectives on building and operating successful school businesses.