Exploring Organizational Equity and Impact: A Community Story and Conversation

Leticia Citizen, a 23-year educator, is a Samsung Education Coach interested in technology-enhanced teaching and global connections. As a result, she implements many applications available to teachers to help augment their students’ learning, modernizing traditional classroom methods. Leticia dedicates her life to social justice, teaching through an equity lens, and providing intentional and engaging PD. She is a co-founder of Equity In Action CA and Tech.Teach.Grow, LLC. Leticia is an ambassador and trainer for various digital tools including Nearpod, Wakelet, Newsela, and Flipgrid. She’s Google Certified and an MIE Expert.

Sawsan Jaber, Ph.D., NBCT, is a global educator, presenter, equity strategist, curriculum designer and keynote speaker of 20+ years. She has held a variety of education leadership positions in the U.S. and abroad. She’s currently a high school English teacher and a district equity leader at East Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois. Jaber founded Education Unfiltered Consulting and works with schools nationally and internationally. She completed her doctorate in curriculum and instruction, with a focus on inclusion and belonging for students from marginalized communities. She was awarded the Cook County Teacher of the year in 2023, the Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (IDEA) Teacher of the Year in 2022, and has been nominated as the 2023 Illinois Teacher of the Year and for the ISTE 20 to Watch Award for 2023. She’s a member of the board of directors for the Our Voice Alliance (OVA), which amplifies the voices of teachers of color to create more equity for students of color. She’s also one of the founders of the Arab American Education Network (AAEN) and is an ISTE Community Leader. Jaber is a National Board Certified Teacher and focuses much of her research on engaging students in equity work and advocating for Arab and Muslim students. Among other projects, she is currently working on national and international equity-centered projects with Google and the National Board Association. Jaber is a Pulitzer Teacher fellow and a WAMS fellow. She has been featured at several conferences and on many podcasts, and has written for a host of blogs, journals and newsletters with the goal of helping educators empower students to work toward global equity and justice. Jaber has published several scholarly works and is the co-author of Navigating Precarity in Educational Contexts: Reflection, Pedagogy, and Activism for Change. She’s passionate about her work as an activist scholar and co-conspirator for justice alongside her students. Jaber says her perspective as the daughter of refugees from Deir Yasin, Palestine, influences her work.

Valerie Lewis is regarded as an inspirational, skilled and masterful educator. She is proud in tooting her own horn in sharing that “the art and science of teaching comes naturally” and her 23 years of experience in education and impacting lives of youth in and out of the classroom contribute to that. Her ability to support teachers in her administrative role and help design learning experiences around students’ desires and interests is her superpower.