The Education Speaker Series (ESS) returns for the 2022-2023 school year with an exciting mix of programs related to raising healthy children and young adults and promoting collaboration between parents and educators. ESS is run by PEF and proceeds benefit PUSD.

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A series membership, for all 6 events is $125 per person. To purchase your ticket, visit PiedmontStore.org.

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Tuesday, September 13, 2022, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Kim Turner

PURSUIT OF EQUITY: WHY TITLE IX MATTERS

What does Title IX mean today in athletics to advance gender equity in youth sports, schools, and society? Audience members will get hands-on basics to understand Title IX in its 50th anniversary year, learn why all of us advancing gender equity in athletics strengthens our communities, and what practical, easy actions can further Title IX’s promise for everyone. In 1972, just 300,000 girls played high school sports, and now, post-Title IX, over 3.4 million girls play! Yet, we have more work to do to level the playing field for girls, women, and all, and to engage boys, men, and everyone as allies and partners in the gender equity pursuit. The dialogue will further provide information on getting more girls into the game and women into coaching to support more gender equitable youth sports cultures, along with proven tools, resources, and next steps.

Kim Turner serves as the Director of the Gender Equity Initiative at Positive Coaching Alliance advancing sports-based gender equity for girls, coaches, schools, and community programs. Kim has a decade of experience as a nonprofit Title IX attorney including with Legal Aid at Work’s Fair Play for Girls in Sports project. She presents for diverse audiences on Title IX and related law, advocates for equity-spurring legislation, provides technical assistance and writes on gender equity youth sports issues. Before law school in New York, she worked in the U.S. Senate and for the National League of Cities in Washington D.C. Kim coaches youth sports, played Division 1 college volleyball for Brown University, and enjoys any and all pick-up games with family, friends, and colleagues in California’s Bay Area.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2022, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Kasley Killam, MPH

SOCIAL HEALTH: THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS

A recent study of over one million teenagers around the world found that feelings of loneliness at school nearly doubled between 2012 and 2018. In turn, lonely children and adolescents are more likely to experience stress, anxiety, and depression. So what is causing this crisis of disconnection? And how can we address it? In this talk, Harvard-trained social scientist and nonprofit leader Kasley Killam will share evidence-based strategies and real-world examples of how to strengthen youth relationships to improve their health, well-being, and academic success. She will illuminate the underappreciated social dimension of health, while equipping parents to help their beloved kids to thrive at school and at home through connection and community.

Kasley Killam, MPH, is a leading expert in social health. Drawing from over a decade of studying, sharing, and applying the science of human connection, Kasley helps individuals, communities, and organizations alleviate loneliness and enhance social health as a writer, speaker, and consultant. After studying solutions for loneliness at the Harvard School of Public Health, she founded the nonprofit Social Health Labs to improve well-being through connection and community. Kasley’s expertise is regularly featured in outlets like the New York Times, Scientific American, Washington Post, and Boston Globe, and she writes the Social Health Blog for Psychology Today. Read her full bio at kasleykillam.com.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 7:00 – 8:30 pm

Dr. Shakti Butler

UNCONSCIOUS BIAS THROUGH STRATEGIC QUESTIONING: A STRATEGY FOR BUILDING EQUITY INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY

Strategic questioning is a technique that awakens possibilities for enhanced communication.  This process is an exciting tool that generates personal and social change.  Asking a question that leads to a strategy for action is a powerful contribution to resolving challenges or opposing points of view. As a practice, strategic questioning builds the skill of asking the types of questions that release blocks to ideas while facilitating new ideas towards future change. People who engage strategic questioning find that not only may challenges be resolved, but also new visions for the future can emerge. Strategies for action are more likely to be developed. During this session we will briefly review unconscious bias and “try on” the use of strategic questioning to engender more thoughtful and heartfelt conversations.Often, what is revealed lends itself to more interesting alternatives and possibilities through transformative reflection and subsequent action.

Shakti Butler, PhD, filmmaker and Founder & Creative Director of World Trust, is a dynamic educator in the field of racial equity. Dr. Butler engages her audience with participatory keynotes and seminars, often using clips from her films. She is frequently hired by organizations seeking a catalyst for change.

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Thursday, February 9, 2023, Lunchtime Zoom
Renee Jain

TRANSFORMING ANXIETY INTO COURAGE, CONFIDENCE AND RESILIENCE

Are your students struggling with pressure from school, friends, or the uncertainty of the world in general? Renee Jain wants to take you on a journey with her where you’ll find strategies, science, and more than a few mind-blowing facts to help you teach your students to transform stress into courage, worry into confidence, and anxiety into resilience! Please join Renee Jain on the topic of Transforming Anxiety into Courage, Confidence and Resilience. She will focus on how to transform anxious feelings, navigate through and grow from challenges, transform big feelings and emotions, kick procrastination to the curb and talk about how to create meaningful long term goals for your students. You will come away with a handful of “life” skills to use with your students to help them become more resilient.

Renee Jain is the founder and Chief Storyteller of GoZen! She has been recognized as a pioneer in marrying technology and child psychology in a unique approach that nurtures the hearts and minds of kids. Through her writing, product invention and development, masterclasses for parents, and children’s advocacy, she works to build the emotional intelligence of kids. Originally a tech entrepreneur who suffered with her own anxiety, Renee founded GoZen! to help a new generation of kids, parents and therapists. Renee earned her Master’s degree in Positive Psychology — the scientific study of optimal human functioning — from the University of Pennsylvania and is the NYT bestselling co-author of Superpowered: Transform Anxiety into Courage, Confidence, and Resilience.

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Tuesday, March 28, 2023, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Rebecca Trobe, Psy.D

HOW, WHEN AND WHY TO TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT MONEY AND GIVING

As a community with strong financial resources, it is often expected of us not only to care and provide for our families, but also our friends, neighbors, townspeople, fellow citizens, and the wider world. Those with means have the opportunity to impact the lives of others and share their resources. An important question for us to consider together: Why is it that decision-making around money, privilege, power, philanthropy and our values are not discussed regularly at the dinner table or other favorite contexts for important family discussions?  How can we have meaningful conversations with our kids about what we have, what’s important to us, and how that translates into our giving?  Rebecca will go beyond the cursory look at charitable giving and delve into the heart of the matter around money, meaning and family, including mission, thesis and core values. Her training as a psychologist will help foster insight and the translation of insight into action.

Rebecca Trobe, Psy.D. has been a consultant, advisor and executive coach to c-suite, startup, family enterprise, and family foundation/family office leaders for 20+ years. Her coaching is tailored to each organization and leader’s unique circumstance and context and is designed to help clients meet and exceed their leadership and organizational goals. Rebecca’s work often focuses on vision, strategy formulation and implementation, performance improvement, communication, teamwork, and the development and management of others. At the heart of the matter is often an ongoing discussion and inquiry around money, power, leadership, mission and core values. Her training as a psychologist helps accelerate deep insight and the translation of insight into action.

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https://www.piedmontedfoundation.org/connect/education-speaker-series/

Questions? Contact Piedmont Education Foundation at info@piedmontedfoundation.org