You're Invited | 2014 MMEP Conference: Education Equity in Action!

If the price tag is too much, consider requesting one last holiday gift in order to attend the 2014 MMEP Conference: Education Equity in Action! For educators, learners, and community leaders alike, this year's event features two stellar keynote speakers and session topics ranging from race equity and excellence policies and plans, how to end student discipline disparities in schools, and collective impact initiatives. Save the date for the premier multicultural multi-sectored gathering around education equity policy and practice!

A Conference Bringing together Educators, Community leaders, Students, and Advocates around Education Equity and Practice in Minnesota

MMEP’s statewide conference will be held at Coffman Union, at the University of Minnesota on Thursday, February 13, 2014– past MMEP conferences have attracted over 400 educators, policymakers, and community leaders, and students and garnered media attention from MPR and local media outlets to highlight the phenomenal keynote speakers, presentations, and community of collaborative leaders in addressing education equity and excellence in Minnesota.

The theme this year is “Education Equity in Action: A Conference for Educators, Community leaders, Students, and Advocates” – and will highlight emerging education equity work in Minnesota.

There will be plenary sessions throughout the day focusing on:

• School and Community Race Equity and Excellence Policies and Plans

• How and Why to End Student Discipline Disparities in Schools:

• Collective Impact Initiatives for Aligning “cradle to career” School & Community Action

• Pathways for Teachers of Color

Keynote Speakers

Dr. David Stovall

“Organizing Youth and Families to Address the Discipline Gap”

David Stovall is an Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His scholarship investigates four areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) concepts of social justice in education, 3) the relationship between housing and education, and 4) the relationship between schools and community stakeholders. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he has spent the last ten years working with community organizations and schools to develop curriculum that address issues of social justice. His current work has led him to become a member of the Greater Lawndale/Little Village School of Social Justice High School design team, which opened in the Fall of 2005 where he also serves as a volunteer social studies teacher.

Furthering his work with communities, students, and teachers, Dr. Stovall works with a collective of college professors in California, Arizona, and New York who teach high school courses in addition to their duties and responsibilities as university faculty. “I’ve been working with this group for eight years. The idea is to provide historically underserved schools with college access through their interactions with us. We've been enrolling the students that take classes with us in our respective universities to get early college credit.”

Dr. Stovall, a native of Chicago graduated from Luther HS South in 1990. He received his undergraduate degree and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His motivation for going into the field was the combination of family members, neighbors, and members of community organizations that supported him in doing educational justice work without fear of persecution. Dr. Stovall is a very powerful speaker and champion of social justice.

Maria Hinojosa

“Demographic Shift and its Impact on US Education Policy”

Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning trailblazer in news and investigative journalism. Her over 25-year history reporting on critical issues and focusing on the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad have won her the highest levels of recognition in journalism, including: four Emmys; the 2012 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism; the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Reporting on the Disadvantaged; the Studs Terkel Community Media Award; and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for best documentary for “Child Brides: Stolen Lives,” among other awards.

In April 2010, Hinojosa took her mission of reporting on stories ignored or overlooked by mainstream media to another level by creating the Futuro Media Group, a multimedia nonprofit production company based in Harlem with the mission of giving voice to the social and civic justice issues facing a more diverse America. In addition to producing Latino USA, Futuro Media is also developing America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa, a series for public television to be distributed spring 2014. America by the Numbers will be the first national programming dedicated to documenting and demystifying the dramatic demographic changes that are occurring in the U.S. and examining the new American mainstream – the growing numbers of Asians, Latinos, African Americans, mixed race, immigrants, women, youth and LGBTs who are increasingly determining the outcomes of elections and influencing arts, culture, and commerce. Futuro Media is also committed to training the next generation of journalists to become reporters, filmmakers, and multimedia producers, and using its media products to expand public space, staging civic engagement events to further democracy and enlarge the national conversation about policy and priorities.

Hinojosa has worked as an anchor and reporter for PBS’ Need To Know series and the talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One from WGBH/La Plaza, as senior correspondent at Now on PBS and for NPR, and for eight years as CNN's urban affairs correspondent. In October 2011, she was the first Latina to anchor a Frontline report, “Lost in Detention,” exploring abuse at immigrant detention facilities. Hinojosa has documented hundreds of important stories - from immigrant work camps in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to teen girl victims of on-the-job sexual harassment, to the poor in Alabama, and youth violence in urban communities.

She is currently the anchor and executive producer of NPR’s long-running weekly program, Latino USA, celebrating its 20 year anniversary and considered the program of record for Latino news, culture and issues of critical importance to the Latino community and that impact the US population.

Hinojosa has been a weekly syndicated columnist for King Features/Hearst and is the author of two books. She was born in Mexico City, raised in Chicago, and received her BA from Barnard College. She is currently the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Chair of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, and lives with her husband, artist German Perez, and their son and daughter in New York.

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