The Lansing Schools Education Association in partnership with Michigan Education Association invite you to attend the one evening and one day conference that will definitely change the way you look at events within your community. The Power of You: Impacting Social Justice brings together the leading scholars and voices on the topics of gender, race, ethnicity and current event topics shaping our schools, communities and politics.

Take part in sessions from leading presenters from California, Illinois, Michigan, Washington D.C. and other points across the United States that will surely have you thinking introspectively and action oriented as you leave the conference. Be sure to not miss the opening conversation with Dr. Chezare Warren, Michigan State University, on Friday evening as he starts the conference off on a powerful note. He will also be on hand to sign copies of his newest book and to have intimate conversations with attendees. After the powerful breakout sessions, Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews, Michigan State University, brings the conference to a close with a no holds barred closing keynote sending conference attendees off full of energy and ready to take on the challenges back in their communities. Dr. Carter Andrews will also lead a breakout session within the conference.

We hope all that attend come ready to network, learn, be challenged and to challenge others with the topics covered over the duration of the conference. Attendees will also have the opportunity to earn SCECHs for Teacher Certification renewal.

Dr. Chezare Warren Biography:

Dr. Chezare A. Warren is a native Chicagoan and career educator. He spent almost a decade as a mathematics teacher and school administrator in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In 2006, he helped establish the Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, and later led school turnaround efforts at Fulton Elementary School and Dodge Renaissance Academy in CPS. While pursuing his doctoral degree at the University of lllinois-Chicago, Chezare was selected to receive both the Abraham Lincoln Fellowship and Diversifying Faculty in Illinois Fellowship before leaving CPS to enter the professoriate.

In 2012, after completing his PhD in Urban Education, Dr. Warren began a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). While at Penn, he was a lecturer in the division of Education, Culture, and Society and protégé to Dr. Howard Stevenson in the division of Applied Psychology and Human Development. A highlight of his experience at Penn included co-leading a team of 11 graduate students to conduct the New York City Black and Latino Male High School Achievement Study alongside Dr. Shaun Harper. The team interviewed over 400 high achieving Black and Latino male high school and college students. This project remains one of the largest qualitative research studies ever completed on this population. In 2014, Dr. Warren joined the faculty at Michigan State University where he continues to conduct research in the areas of urban (teacher) education, culturally responsive teaching, and critical race theory in education.

Dr. Warren is a widely-respected author and intellectual. His work is anchored by an enduring concern for the quality of young Black men and boys’ schooling experiences. This led him to create and co-convene Making Relationships Work: A Summit on Black Male Success and Inclusion with Drs. Dorinda Carter Andrews and Terry Flennaugh. Moreover, his reputation as a scholar of race and culturally responsive teaching earns him numerous invitations to speak and consult with urban schools, school districts, conferences, seminars, and universities around the country. His first book White Women’s Work: Examining the Intersectionality of Teaching, Identity, and Race was published in spring 2017. His second book, Urban Preparation: Young Black Men Moving from Chicago’s South Side to Success in Higher Education is set for release on Harvard Education Press in fall 2017. Chezare keeps a busy schedule. Nonetheless, he makes time for regular community service with his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., which includes providing mentorship to several local Black male high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. In his free time, he enjoys reality television, karaoke, and $5 Tuesdays at the local movie theater.

Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews Biography:

Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews will be leading two sessions during the conference and delivering the closing keynote discussion on Saturday. We are so pleased to announce the participation of such a respected voice in this field.

Dorinda Carter Andrews is Assistant Dean of Equity Outreach Initiatives for the College of Education and an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University where she teaches courses …on racial identity development, urban education, critical multiculturalism, and critical race theory. She holds a B.S.I.E. from Georgia Tech, M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University, and an Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Carter Andrews is a Core Faculty member in the African American and African Studies program and Co-Director of the Graduate Urban Education Certificate Program. Her research is broadly focused on race, culture, and educational equity. She studies issues of racial justice in P-12 learning contexts and on college campuses, and urban teacher preparation and identity development. Her scholarship examines these issues by illuminating voices of youth and adults who have been historically and traditionally marginalized in schools and society.