Dr. Julie Nicholson (she/her) is Professor of Practice in the School of Education at Mills College and Co-Founder/Co-Director of the Center for Equity in Early Childhood Education, a non-profit organization working to improve racial equity and intersectional justice for young children and families and the early childhood workforce serving them. She is the author of 12 books and dozens of peer reviewed articles addressing social justice and equity in early childhood.

Laura Rivas M.A., (she/her) is the Community Schools Manager for Oakland Unifed School District (OUSD) and recently served as a Family Engagement Specialist for two elementary schools in Berkeley public schools. Laura has 20 years experience working with youth and families directly impacted by systematic and institutional racism in the context of schools, community, workplace and the prison-industrial complex. Laura earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and Social Transformation from California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. After earning her master’s degree, Laura became immersed in the immigrant rights movement in the Bay Area and nationally through her work leading a human rights abuse documentation project with the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. She trained dozens of grassroots organizations throughout the country on abuse documentation and organizing. Trained in Freirían pedagogy of popular education, Laura believes in the innate capacity of people directly impacted by oppression to come up with the solutions to their own problems in the context of supportive community. Laura is the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents who were undocumented for most of her childhood, and were dealing with their own unresolved trauma. As a survivor of child abuse, she has experienced first-hand the impacts of trauma on every aspect of one’s life, especially parenting. In her work with families and staff in Berkeley public schools, Laura understands the challenges to building meaningful partnerships between home and school. Laura works closely with African American, Latinx and diverse immigrant families to build trust, and draw on their innate capacity to lead and find their voice in a system that does not always see their strength and resilience.  

Dr. Lawanda Wesley serves as Oakland Unified School District's Director of Quality Enhancement and Professional Development of Early Education. She supports a cadre of 200 plus teachers and a dynamic early learning leadership team. She completed her doctorate in educational leadership with a concentration in higher education and since have co-published in the Journal of African American Males in Education. The December 2017 publication addressed preschool expulsion and suspension and a call to action for policymakers, administrators and teachers to challenge implicit bias that fuels this dilemma. Additionally, Wesley had the esteem privilege of co-designing a national leadership fellowship piloted in Alameda County, California, titled Emerging Leaders for Racial Equity in Early Care and Education. This project focused on disrupting social inequities that create barriers for early childhood leaders of color in pursuing and obtaining leadership positions. Wesley has held numerous positions in the field of early care and education to include, but not limited to preschool and school-age teacher, site administrator, Director of California's Prekindergarten and Development and Guidelines Project (impacting 52,000 children statewide) early care and education planning council coordinator, WestEd Consultant on the topic of trauma, resilience and healing, Assistant Adjunct professor at Mills College in Oakland, California. Most recently (June 2018), Wesley was appointed by the California State Advisory Council on Early Care and Education, an appointed advisory body by Governor Brown, to co-chair the preschool and expulsion task force. Wesley is an author of two books with Routledge Press, Culturally Responsive Self-Care Practices for Early Childhood Educators (2019) and Trauma-responsive practices for early childhood leaders: Creating and sustaining healing engaged organizations (2021). Wesley continues to directly teach preschoolers at her local church in her spare time and hopes to influence change by remaining close to children and the dedicated practitioners who teach, guide and inspire our youngest learners and citizens. 

​​In this session, the presenters discuss intersections of trauma-responsive and anti-racist approaches in programs, schools and systems serving children and families. Drawing on their research, daily professional work and content from their four books—Trauma Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators, Culturally Responsive Self-Care, Trauma-Responsive Practices for Early Childhood Leaders and Trauma-Responsive Family Engagement—they discuss trauma-sensitive practices that educators can implement within classrooms and school communities to address sociocultural trauma, especially racial trauma. They will share many examples of culturally responsive practices including self-care and organizational care routines educators are using to create regulated, safe and affirming environments that reduce stress, strengthen resilience and support healing for educators, students and parents/families.