Featured Speakers

‌Kenneth B. Morris, Jr.

Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. descends from two of the most influential names in American history: he is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. His mother, Nettie Washington Douglass, is the daughter of Nettie Hancock Washington (granddaughter of Booker T. Washington) and Dr. Frederick Douglass III (great-grandson of Frederick Douglass). Morris' life until the year 2007 could be described as distinguished yet decisively disengaged from his lineage until Providence called.

Morris continues his family's legacy of anti-slavery and educational work as co-founder and president of the Rochester, NY-based nonprofit Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (FDFI). His career and life path are driven by a clear focus on FDFI's mission "To Build Strong Children and to end systems of exploitation and oppression." He could not have predicted that one day he would so fully embrace and be defined by the characteristics that so closely defined his famous ancestors.

FDFI brings the guidance of history to the fight against modern forms of slavery. As part of the present-day abolitionist movement, FDFI educates young people about all forms of forced servitude and inspires them to action. Current FDFI projects include PROTECT, a partnership with two California-based nonprofit organizations, 3Strands Global and Love Never Fails, to provide grade-level appropriate human trafficking prevention education to students from grade school to high school and the One Million Abolitionists project, which with a wide range of partners including the National Park Service, History Channel, educational institutions, community organizations, and individuals, will print and distribute one million copies of a special Bicentennial edition of Frederick Douglass's first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, to young people domestically and internationally.

An accomplished and prolific public speaker, Morris regularly appears before charitable organizations, local, state and federal government agencies, civic organizations, and presents to students across the country and internationally. He has lectured at universities including New Castle University in England, Columbia University, Morehouse College, UNLV, Tuskegee University, Loyola University Chicago, and Yale University. He has appeared on CNN, Democracy Now!, PBS, NPR, Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, and the CBS Evening News. Morris is honored to have been a keynote speaker at the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's annual conference in Vienna and Luxembourg.

He appeared in the 2022 documentaries Abraham Lincoln and The American Presidency with Bill Clinton on the History Channel, Frederick Douglass in Five Speeches on HBO and HBO Max, Becoming Frederick Douglass on PBS (October 2022), and 1000 Years of Slavery on the Smithsonian Channel. Previously, he appeared in the documentaries Civil Warriors and Rise Up: The Legacy of Nat Turner on National Geographic and Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color on the History Channel.

He contributed the preface to Isaac Julien's Lessons of the Hour published in 2022, the afterword to Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American published in 2015, and the foreword to a bicentennial edition of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, published in January 2017.

Morris received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of La Verne in California in January 2012. In June 2012, he received the inaugural National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom's Frederick Douglass Underground Railroad Legacy Award in recognition of his commitment to promoting social change through activism that addresses contemporary social issues. In January 2014, Ken was the first man to be awarded the Women's E-News 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism. In April 2016, he received the Anne Frank Change the World Award from the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights. In November 2017, he received the National Association of African American Honors Programs Legacy Keeper Award. In 2018, Morris received awards, including the Award for Excellence from Washington College, Wind Beneath My Wings from the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and the Frederick Douglass Medal from the Douglass Institute for African & African American Studies at the University of Rochester.

He has been a member of the board of directors for Kaleidoscope Arts Factory, a nonprofit youth performing arts organization, and the Dean's Advisory Committee at the University of La Verne. He currently sits on the board of directors for the Frederick Douglass Ireland Project, the nonprofit Globe Lane, and serves as board president at The Young Americans performing arts organization. He is a former ambassador for the nonprofit organization Human Rights First. In November 2017, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi named him to the federal Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission, serving as Commission Chair.

Morris received a Bachelor of Arts in religion degree from the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies at the University of La Verne. As did Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, he firmly believes that education is the pathway to freedom.

For more information on Morris, visit www.theobsvgroup.com.

‌Iheoma U. Iruka, PhD

Iheoma U. Iruka, PhD, (from the University of Miami) is a research professor in the Department of Public Policy and the founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is leading projects and initiatives focused on ensuring that minoritized children and children from low-income households are thriving through the intersection of anti-bias, anti-racist, culturally grounded research, program, and policy. She serves on numerous national and local boards and committees, including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the American Psychological Association’s Board of Educational Affairs, and the Brady Education Foundation. In addition to being on the National Advisory Committee for the U.S. Census Bureau and a Census Advisor for the National Urban League, Iruka is the recipient of the 2022 American Psychological Association Mid-Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Benefit Children, Youth, and Families. Her website is: https://equity-coalition.fpg.unc.edu

‌Gwendolyn McMillon, PhD

Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon, PhD, is professor of literacy and doctoral program coordinator in the Department of Reading & Language Arts at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Her research, which focuses on examining literacy experiences of African American students at school and church to improve literacy teaching and learning, has received funding from multiple sources and is published widely. She serves in many leadership capacities, including project director for the I Read, I Lead, I Succeed Statewide Literacy Initiative, and past president of the Literacy Research Association. McMillon and her son, Joshua, are co-owners of ROOTEDin, a publisher of authentic, culturally relevant eVideos and eBooks that center Black culture, and ROOTEDin HOPE, a non-profit organization established to increase students’ access to engaging online literature. Married to Rev. Dr. Vincent McMillon for 36 years with five sons, Gwen shares that she has been called by God into the teaching ministry and is joyfully fulfilling her Divine purpose.

‌Choyo Wilson-Daniel

Money Mindset expert, Choyo Wilson-Daniel, is the founder of Loveshift Coaching. She created Loveshift Coaching with the belief that women can be spiritually guided and materially minded: leading rich lives full of purpose, passion, profit and positivity! Choyo Wilson-Daniel, LPC, is one of their premiere Mindset Coaches for Christian women, and an international best-selling author. She founded Loveshift Coaching in 2018 to support women who long to run their own business, on their own terms, so that they can make a powerful difference in the world. A seasoned entrepreneur, Wilson-Daniel recalls her own struggles as a business owner, "I longed to be an entrepreneur who made an impact. But every time I’d try to move forward, I felt blocked. I’d go full force toward a new business idea, and then – as quickly as it began – it would fizzle out." The breakthrough came when she started loving, appreciating, and being herself. Now, she has supported and empowered hundreds of women by showing them how to be a richer person inside and out while still maintaining their connections to God and their families. "My most important work is helping women stay true to their own purpose so that they can create limitless prosperity." A licensed clinical therapist by trade, and author, Wilson-Daniel travels around the country speaking to women and girls about nurturing a healthy money mindset. She resides in Waterloo, Iowa, with her husband Charles and daughters Hannah and Olivia.

‌Sarah Montgomery, PhD

Sarah Montgomery, PhD, is professor of elementary education and an administrative fellow in the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at the University of Northern Iowa. She is a Certified Mindfulness Educator who helps lead the new social and emotional learning (SEL) minor for undergraduate teacher education majors at UNI. She recently published a book titled, Mindfulness & Wide-Awakeness in Higher Education, that features her research on teaching SEL and mindfulness practices to college students.

She will be sharing: Trauma-Sensitive Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Practices for Racial Justice

‌Lawrence Daniel

Lawrence Daniel is a Juvenile Court Officer Supervisor for the 1st Judicial District State of Iowa Department of Juvenile Court Services. Serving within the juvenile court system as a supervisor for the past year, and eight years prior as a Juvenile Court Officer. He is responsible for Juvenile Court Officers that cover Black Hawk, Grundy, and Buchanan counties. He serves on several committees within the Juvenile Court Services organization: He was appointed to the Training and Governance committee, he is the Iowa Juvenile Court Services Association 1st District Rep. Education and Training Chair, 1st District Youth and Family Youth Engagement Committee chair. He also serves as a representative in collaboration with other community organizations and agencies with the mission to help reduce the over-representation of minorities in the juvenile justice system and in Child Welfare Emergency Services. To name a few: Black Hawk Equity Team, Breakthrough Collaborative Services, Waterloo Community School District Equity Team and Iowa SAFE (Safe Areas For Everyone). Most importantly he is a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, an uncle, and a mentor. He is also a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

He saw a need in 2003 to use his knowledge and skills to work with at-risk youth at Logan Middle School and Waterloo East High School, both in Waterloo, Iowa. He volunteered to strengthen and condition the high school football team and facilitated the after school recreational activities for Logan middle school and the Boys and Girls Club. From 2005-2009 he worked in Gary, Indiana, as the Gary Indiana School District Activities Coordinator, Tolleston middle school PE teacher and Tolleston 7th grade girls’ basketball coach. He also co founded NERD (Nurturing, Educating and Rewarding Determination) Youth Services, where he organized and facilitated recreational activities for at-risk youth in the Gary/ Hammond Indiana area. In 2011, he returned to Waterloo to continue mentoring and working with at-risk youth as an intervention specialist and as a behavioral health intervention specialist.

He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa where he received his Bachelor’s degree in physical education and master's in exercise science.

‌Rev. Belinda Creighton-Smith, EdD

Rev. Belinda Creighton-Smith, EdD, is bi-vocational and has served as senior pastor of Faith Temple Church since 1999. She has devoted her life of service to social justice activism and confronting the power structures that perpetuate disparity and harmful life outcomes for the marginalized of society or the “least of these.” A few examples of this work in addition to the pastorate include program coordinator and national faculty for American Red Cross culturally competent HIV/AIDS initiatives, program manager for the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) task force for Black Hawk County, innovator of Northeast Council on Substance Abuse culturally competent prevention services for African American families, and numerous other initiatives addressing disparate life challenges and outcomes of people of color.

The Dr. Rev. Creighton-Smith joined the University of Northern Iowa in 2015 as adjunct faculty in Social Work and Women’s and Gender Studies, is a consultant with RISE Advocacy, providing diversity and cultural competency instruction, and serves on the President’s Council for Inclusion, Transformative Social Justice & Advocacy at the University. Her dissertation focused on the challenges African American college students face in predominantly white institutions of higher learning.

‌Patriann Smith, PhD

Patriann Smith, PhD, is associate professor at the University of South Florida. Smith's research considers how literacy teaching, research, assessment and policy are influenced by the intersection of race, language and (im)migration. She draws from the Black Englishes of Afro-Caribbean immigrants, other Black immigrants in the United States (i.e., African), and Black American students (i.e., African American) to propose solutions that advance racial and linguistic justice in literacy. She also explores the Englishes of Black populations in their English-speaking Caribbean locales to make recommendations for advancing literacy teaching across local, national and international borders. Smith's research is published in journals such as The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, American Educational Research Journal, International Multilingual Research Journal, and Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

‌Denisha Jones, PhD

Denisha Jones, PhD, is the executive director of Defending the Early Years. She is a former kindergarten teacher and preschool director who spent the past 19 years in teacher education. Jones is an education justice advocate and activist working with various grassroots organizations protect public education as a human right. She is a part-time faculty member in the Art of Teaching program at Sarah Lawrence College and the School of Education at Howard University. Since 2017, she served on the steering committee for the national Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Her first co-edited book, Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, was published in December 2020 by Haymarket Books. Her current research interest include exploring play as liberatory early childhood education, Black cultural citizenship for Black liberation and the impact of COVID-19 on teachers.

‌Shuaib Meacham, PhD

Shuaib Meacham, PhD, is an associate professor of literacy education at the University of Northern Iowa. In 2003, while at the University of Delaware, he was awarded the National Academy of Education postdoc fellowship for The Hip Hop Literacy Project.

When he moved with his wife Soh Meacham, PhD, and their children to the Cedar Valley to take positions at UNI, he established Hip-Hop Literacy in collaboration with The North End Cultural Center Incorporated in the summer of 2014. For the past five years he has published research and taught at UNI and for the past two years has co-directed the Hip Hop Summer school program with author and hip hop artist Lamont Muhammad in collaboration with the Waterloo Community School District. He is presently a proud resident of the City of Waterloo with his wife and their two children Sabina and James Jr.

‌Hiawatha Smith, PhD

Hiawatha Smith, PhD, is an assistant professor of literacy education at the University of Wisconsin River Falls. There he primarily teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in children’s and adolescent literature as well as English language arts methods. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he is the director of the graduate elementary education program and supervises pre-service teachers.

Smith attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in elementary education. He earned his PhD at the University of North Carolina Greensboro in educational studies with an emphasis in literacy education. In addition to his work in higher education, Smith was a classroom teacher at multiple grade levels as well as a curriculum facilitator. His scholarly activities include research, publications and presentations crossing multiple areas of literacy (and teacher education), including pre-service teachers in practicum experiences, reading motivation, non-proficient readers, developmental word study instruction and diverse perspectives in children’s and adolescent literature.

He is a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the University of Michigan, a 2022 NCTE Early Career Educator of Color award recipient and has membership in various professional literacy related organizations.

‌L. Trenton S. Marsh, PhD

L. Trenton S. Marsh, PhD, is an assistant professor of urban education in the Learning Sciences and Educational Research department and a program liaison for the Public Affairs’ Ph.D. program in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida. Centering on equity and diversity, his research interests have intersecting commitments: 1) understanding the experience of historically marginalized student learners and families within various settings, particularly in urban schools and out-of-school settings; 2) engaging the multivocality of youth/student learners, families, communities, and school personnel; and 3) informing equitable practices and micro-level policies.

Marsh uses participatory research methods and qualitative approaches to support the co-construction of knowledge in the service of lifting and unearthing insight that could cultivate interest, understanding, and partnerships with participants and their communities. He has presented his scholarship at local, national, and international conferences and his work has been published in Teachers College Record, Urban Review; Boyhood Studies; Urban Education, GSE Perspectives on Urban Education; Teachers and Teaching Theory and Practice; Florida Journal of Educational Research; and Education Week.

Marsh earned his PhD at New York University's Steinhardt School in the Teaching and Learning department, concentrating in urban education. His dissertation, “Success at a Price,” received the 2015 Mitchell Leaska Dissertation Research Award and the 2016 Phi Delta Kappa Doctoral Dissertation Award. Previously, Marsh served as a facilitator for the Youth Leadership Academy, a partnership with CORO Leadership Center NY and the NYC Department of Education. Marsh also served as an associate research scientist at NYU Steinhardt’s Metro Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools where he evaluated longitudinal special education and disciplinary data for various NY districts. Prior to academia, Marsh was a Managing Business Consultant at IBM Corporation, leading international, cross-sectional teams implementing user-informed data and technology.