Lift and Lead Conference

Equipping and elevating Latino and Black male educators

March 3-4

TIAA Bank Field

Thank you all who attended the inaugural 1,000 Lift and Lead Conference! We had great participation and look forward to seeing all of you next year!

***

The 1,000 Lift and Lead Conference is designed to elevate and equip Black and Latino male educators with the tools necessary to strengthen the educational pipeline from instructional best practices to career mobility. This convening is in response to the voices that have expressed a need for community, support, and opportunities to demonstrate leadership and expertise in the field of education.

This is the inauguration of a Regional Brotherhood. The stage is now set for us to come together and craft a fresh script for the future vitality of our community's pedagogical excellence. And when a barricade blocks our path, we can only rise by lifting each other.

Edwin Mayorga, Ph.D. (he/him/his) is a parent-educator-activist-scholar, who is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Studies at Swarthmore College. He is also affiliated with Swarthmore’s Latin American/Latino Studies Program. Edwin applies a cultural political economic perspective to questions concerning racial capitalist urbanism and urban educational policy, Latinx education, racial/ethnic studies, digital social science, and abolitionist and sanctuary teaching praxes. He is the director and co-researcher of three major projects: the #BarrioEdProject, a youth participatory action research (PAR) collaborative and sanctuary-focused after school club; the Cultivating Community Together study which is an examination of community+school partnerships in the Philadelphia; and the #EthnicStudiesPHL education network and curricular project, which examines historical and contemporary approaches to racial and ethnic studies pedagogies in the Philadelphia region. While committed to research, teaching and activism, Edwin strives to prioritize his family, and as a result is often found at local parks with his spouse, Jen, and their sons Teo and Julian (Juju).

James E. Ford, PhD is an award-winning educator and consultant on issues of equity in education. Dr. Ford is the Executive Director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) and the Principal Consultant at Filling the Gap Educational Consultants, LLC. James currently serves on the North Carolina State Board of Education, serving as an at large member. Dr. Ford writes and speaks regularly on the issues of race, equity, and social change. His research centers on the history of Black education in the South, Black teachers, and racial disparities in the education system. He is a former North Carolina Teacher of the Year and has garnered a national reputation as a skilled orator, practitioner, and education policy mind. He is a husband and father of four children and lives in Charlotte, NC.