Thursday, April 20th and Friday, April 21st

Pre-conference, Wednesday April 19th

2023 CTRL Conference Proceedings

Our conference has past, but you can still see information about our featured breakout sessions in the conference proceedings.

Hearts, Minds and Voices in Action: A Contemplative Journey

Conference features:

Two conference keynotes, workshops, and panels. Plan now to join your peers for a vibrant, informative discussion around Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. For educators and others whose work has a focus on culturally relevant pedagogy. Two and 4-year colleges and universities, K-12 schools, and students are welcome to attend.

Maritime Conference Center AuditoriumMaritime Conference Center Room Reservations: We are back at the Maritime and have reserved a block of rooms for guests at the Maritime Conference Center Hotel. Visit www.mccbwi.org or call the hotel at 410.859.5700 to make reservations. 

Contact:
Jadi Z. Omowale, Conference Chair
jomowale@ccbcmd.edu
443-840-3886

Or
Penny Sorrick, Conference Administrator
psorrick@ccbcmd.edu
443-840-2662

Keynotes:

 Laura Rendón

Linda Rendón

Friday, April 21st

Professor of Rhetoric and Composition
Arizona State University

Laura Rendón is nationally recognized as an education theorist, activist and researcher who specializes in college preparation, persistence and graduation of low-income, first-generation students.

A native of Laredo, Texas, Rendón’s passion is assisting students who, like her, grew up in poverty with hopes and dreams but not knowing how to realize them. Rendón is credited with developing the theory of validation, which colleges and researchers have employed as a framework for working with and affirming low-income students.

Rendón is a teaching and learning philosopher and thought leader. She developed a pedagogic framework called Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy that emphasizes intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual student development along with social activism.

Rendón is an active scholar whose research has been published in key education research journals. She is also the author of Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation. Moreover, she is co-editor of books and monographs including: Transforming the First Year of College for Students of Color; Educating a New Majority; Introduction to American Higher Education; and Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education ASHE Reader.

She is co-director of the Center for Research and Policy in Education in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas in San Antonio, which engages in research that informs the education community about critical factors that affect the academic success of key student groups.

She is also one of the founders and former Board Chair of the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (Washington, DC) focused on providing access to college for low-income students. She has served on the Board of Trustees for Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Further, Rendón has designed and coordinated the yearly Latino/a Student Success Institute for the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, the nation’s premier scholarly organization focusing on higher education issues impacting Latinos.

As a leader in the field of college access and achievement, Rendón’s research has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the PBS documentary, “The College Track.” Rendón is a frequent speaker at colleges and universities throughout the nation on topics related to improving persistence and completion.

Stephanie BriggsStephanie Briggs

Thursday, April 20th 

Stephanie Briggs (she/her/hers) is the owner of Be.Still.Move., a program of creative arts-based contemplative practices.  She is a facilitator of Dr. Angel Acosta’s 400 Years of Inequality Mindfulness training and is the 2019 Naropa University Lenz Residential Fellow for “Visioning the Eightfold Path: Liberatory Contemplative Practical Empowerment for African-American Faculty,” addressing inequities surrounding Black faculty through the creation of community-, movement-, and arts-based practices that incorporate Buddhist and African/African American spiritual wisdoms. As a contemplative consultant, she has created workshops for numerous organizations and colleges including AAC&U’s undergraduate STEM institutes -Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) and their Reframing Institutional Transformation for Non-Tenure Track Faculty – and programs of self-care for the STEM Women of Color Conclave.  Stephanie is also the LEAD Institute BIPOC coach for the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Social Work.  She has developed contemplative workshops for the US Geological Survey, University of Notre Dame, Colorado University, Collegiate Directions Inc, SUNY New Paltz, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Northern Kentucky University, Howard University Hospital, and others. In her TEDx, “Developing Empathy as Practice”, she shares her use of empathy in the classroom using a variety of contemplative practices. Stephanie is currently working on a visual/storytelling project, “Black Spots,” a travelogue focusing on the reclamation of memories connected to historic, almost forgotten Black communities across the country.