Teaching with Hope and Courage
A Conversation with Dr. Luvelle Brown
and Dr. Sheldon Berman
Thursday, March 27, 2025, via Zoom, 6:30pM-8:00PM EST
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In today’s challenging educational landscape, how can educators rise to the moment with both courage and hope? How can they stand up for their students, their profession, and the values that shape meaningful learning?
Join the Academy for Human Rights for an inspiring and thought-provoking webinar featuring Dr. Luvelle Brown and Dr. Sheldon Berman, authors of The Call to Courage: Standing Up and Speaking Out Against the Assaults on Democracy, Educators, and Students in America’s Schools. This essential conversation will explore what it means to teach with conviction in an era of increasing challenges and pressures on education. Following the conversation with Dr. Brown and Dr. Berman, a panel of dedicated educators for the US and around the world will share how they embrace courage in their classrooms, offering practical strategies and personal insights to empower and equip participants to do the same.
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Sponsored by
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Don’t miss this opportunity to engage, reflect, and gain tools to lead with confidence in your educational space.
While this webinar will be tailored to educators, community members are more than welcome to join. Due to the topics that will be discussed, this webinar will NOT be recorded.
While this webinar will be tailored to educators, community members are more than welcome to join. Due to the topics that will be discussed, this webinar will NOT be recorded.
Register now and be part of the movement for courageous teaching!
Purchase The Call to Courage from your local bookstore or through the link below.
presenters
Dr. Luvelle Brown is an experienced educator who has held positions as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, school CIO, and Superintendent of Schools. Currently, Dr. Brown is serving as the Superintendent of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) in Ithaca, New York.
Dr. Brown has received various awards and recognitions including being listed as one of the nation’s top educators and thought leaders in the 2017 New York State Superintendent of the Year. In 2022, he received the prestigious Dr. Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award. He was selected by the US Department of Education as one of the nation’s top 100 Innovative Superintendents. Along with that distinction, Dr. Brown was invited to be a featured speaker at President Barack Obama’s 1st National Superintendent Summit at the White House. Additionally, Dr. Brown has served on the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCOSS) Executive Committee, The School Superintendents Association (AASA) Digital Consortium, The Center for Digital Education Advisory Council, and CoSN’s Empowered Superintendent Advisory Panel.
Dr. Brown serves as an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Cortland and St. John Fisher College in New York. Dr. Brown actively serves his community. Dr. Brown is a highly regarded speaker and workshop facilitator addressing a range of topics for local, regional, and national audiences. Recently Dr. Brown has facilitated Discovery Education’s Equity Talks, a live webinar series that has attracted thousands of global educators seeking to cultivate equity and excellence. He also served as a Commissioner and co-producer of a groundbreaking report from the Learning 2025: National Commission on Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education. He has published numerous articles, the author of Culture of Love: Cultivating a Transformative and Positive Organizational Culture and the co-author of ThinkTweets: 100 Transformative Tweets for Educators.
Dr. Brown has received various awards and recognitions including being listed as one of the nation’s top educators and thought leaders in the 2017 New York State Superintendent of the Year. In 2022, he received the prestigious Dr. Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award. He was selected by the US Department of Education as one of the nation’s top 100 Innovative Superintendents. Along with that distinction, Dr. Brown was invited to be a featured speaker at President Barack Obama’s 1st National Superintendent Summit at the White House. Additionally, Dr. Brown has served on the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCOSS) Executive Committee, The School Superintendents Association (AASA) Digital Consortium, The Center for Digital Education Advisory Council, and CoSN’s Empowered Superintendent Advisory Panel.
Dr. Brown serves as an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Cortland and St. John Fisher College in New York. Dr. Brown actively serves his community. Dr. Brown is a highly regarded speaker and workshop facilitator addressing a range of topics for local, regional, and national audiences. Recently Dr. Brown has facilitated Discovery Education’s Equity Talks, a live webinar series that has attracted thousands of global educators seeking to cultivate equity and excellence. He also served as a Commissioner and co-producer of a groundbreaking report from the Learning 2025: National Commission on Student-Centered, Equity-Focused Education. He has published numerous articles, the author of Culture of Love: Cultivating a Transformative and Positive Organizational Culture and the co-author of ThinkTweets: 100 Transformative Tweets for Educators.
Dr. Sheldon H. Berman served as superintendent of the Andover Public Schools in Massachusetts from July 1, 2015 to December 31, 2020. During his tenure in Andover, he launched a new strategic plan focused on innovation and authentic learning. The district instituted innovative programs in authentic learning such as capstone projects for 5th, 8th and 12th graders, innovation labs and maker spaces, and a high school global network focused on the United Nations Sustainability Goals. Building on prior work in Hudson and Jefferson County, he and his staff continued the development of an innovative elementary social studies program, One Community, One Nation, that integrates social studies, literacy and the arts and is focused on the themes of community, culture and civics K through 5. The district also pursued major initiatives in the areas of social-emotional learning, cultural proficiency, universal design for learning, and inquiry-based approaches to instruction. In addition, he initiated a major effort to address dyslexia and other reading challenges through early identification, progress monitoring, intervention programming, and comprehensive professional development in reading for all regular and special education teachers. This resulted in significant reading gains on the state assessment. He also initiated the development of a long-range facilities plan to address longstanding facilities issues that resulted in state collaboration in the replacement of an elementary school and a preschool.
On January 1, 2021, Dr. Berman was appointed AASA’s Lead Superintendent for Social-Emotional Learning after serving 28 years as superintendent in four districts—Hudson, MA; Jefferson County (Louisville), KY; Eugene, OR; and Andover, MA. In this role, Dr. Berman is leading AASA’s SEL Cohort of school districts and providing direct consultation and support to districts intent on deepening their SEL implementation.
On January 1, 2021, Dr. Berman was appointed AASA’s Lead Superintendent for Social-Emotional Learning after serving 28 years as superintendent in four districts—Hudson, MA; Jefferson County (Louisville), KY; Eugene, OR; and Andover, MA. In this role, Dr. Berman is leading AASA’s SEL Cohort of school districts and providing direct consultation and support to districts intent on deepening their SEL implementation.