Presentation Topics

Penn will work with your school, district, or organization to personalize your 

experience and deliver content that is tailored and meaningful to your community. 

Areas of expertise and sample presentations include:

• After the Diversity Training: Supporting and Sustaining Instructional Fidelity in the Culturally Responsive Classroom

Designed for instructional leaders and advanced practitioners, this workshop offers concrete, actionable strategies that help bridge the gap between DEI-focused professional development offerings and the meaningful, ongoing translation of theory and research into innovative curriculum planning and inclusive pedagogy.

• Allyship in Action: Understanding and Disrupting the Cycle of Oppression

Terms like stereotypes, prejudice, marginalization, and privilege are increasingly prevalent in mainstream conversations about social inequity. But what do these words really mean? How are they different? Where do they overlap? And how do we translate this knowledge into meaningful action? In this session, participants will explore key concepts in social justice, connecting these ideas to their own identities and experiences.

• Gender and Sexuality Diversity in the Classroom

An “LGBTQIA+ 101” for educators, this is a comprehensive and intersectional introduction to the subject of gender and sexuality diversity in K-12 schools.

• Sexuality and Gender Equity (SAGE) for Educators 

For professionals with a solid foundational knowledge of LGBTQ+ diversity who are ready to transform their classrooms and communities, this workshop helps educators and administrators assess their strengths and areas of need, engage in vision setting, and begin to collaboratively craft a plan for strategic action.

• Building Brave Spaces and Communicating Across Difference

This discussion will help assemble a toolkit for collaborating with colleagues and students to actively cultivate classrooms where community members can engage in challenging conversations, honor multiple perspectives, center and uplift marginalized voices, and navigate conflict with emotional intelligence and resilience. Affective engagement frameworks, including Non-Violent Communication, Intergroup Dialogue, and Empathic Listening are introduced and experienced through hands-on practice.

• Equitable and Inclusive Classroom Experiences: Curriculum Planning with a DEI Lens

Many educators are increasingly adept at employing a meaningfully reactive approach to equity-related missteps through accountability and adjustment. How might we couple this responsive action with a proactive planning routine that injects transformative justice-oriented reflection into the lesson creation process? This session introduces five critical components of inclusive instruction and leads participants through an interactive critical examination of their own lesson content, identifying opportunities to deepen diversity and equity in their course offerings and learning activities.

• Hot Topics: Navigating Challenging Conversations and Building Brave Spaces

In this highly interactive workshop, participants collaborate in small groups to explore real-life case studies of challenging experiences and charged conversations in schools. Scenarios will be unpacked and examined from multiple perspectives, with a goal of helping teachers to identify their own network of co-practitioners, and feel better equipped to engage in "incidental" instruction around potentially sensitive topics.

• Queering Educational Praxis

What can teachers, especially straight/cisgender ones, learn from the academic realm(s) of queer theory? How does applying this theoretical lens expand our collective pedagogical imagination and transform our teaching practice? Explore these questions and more in an accessible workshop that seeks to shorten the ever-present theory-to-practice gap.

• Inclusive School Culture for Trans and Non-Binary Community Members

In this workshop, we will focus on building background knowledge, deepening vocabulary, and developing capacity to understand and support students, staff, and families of diverse gender identity and expression. Learn how to assess practices, both personal and institutional, for inclusivity and develop meaningful strategies to support non-cisgender community members.