Dr. Sawsan Jaber is a global educator, presenter, equity strategist, curriculum designer, community activist and keynote speaker of 20+ years. She has held a variety of leadership positions both in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. Jaber is currently a high school English Department Chair, District Equity Leader, and teacher at Maine West High School in Park Ridge, IL. Dr. Jaber founded Education Unfiltered Consulting and works with schools nationally and internationally.

She completed her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on inclusion and belonging of students from marginalized communities, with a focus on Arab American students in historically homogenous communities.

Sawsan was one of the ten finalists for Illinois State Teacher of the year. She was awarded the Cook County Teacher of the year in 2023, ISTE 20 to Watch Award for 2023, the CEL Teacher-Leader of Excellence Award in 2023, and IDEA Teacher of the Year in 2022.

Dr. Jaber is a Board Director of Our Voice Alliance (OVA) charged with amplifying the voices of teachers of color to create more equity for students of color. Additionally, Sawsan is one of the founders of the Arab American Education Network (AAEN). She is a member of the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) Community Leader Network. She is a member of NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. Dr. Jaber is a National Board Certified teacher and focuses most of her research on engaging all students in equity work and advocating for Arab and Muslim students.

Among other projects, she has worked on national and international equity centered projects with Google and the National Board Association. Sawsan is a Pulitzer Teacher Fellow and a state TeachPlus Policy Fellow. She has been featured in several conferences and podcasts, and written several blogs, journals, and newsletter publications with the hopes to continue working with educators to empower students to work towards global equity and justice.

She has published several scholarly works and a chapter in the book Navigating Precarity in Educational Contexts: Reflection, Pedagogy, and Activism for Change and a chapter in the book The Intersections of Critical Pedagogy, Critical Literacy, and Social Justice: Toward Empowerment, Equity, and Education for Liberation. She is co-writing part 2 of the book Street Data with author Shane Safir. Sawsan has several other publications. However, her favorite work is being an Activist Scholar and co-conspirator for justice alongside her students.

Sawsan brings the perspective of being the daughter of refugees from Deir Yasin, Palestine.

Yasin Kakande is an international journalist, TED Global Fellow, and the author of several critically acclaimed non-fiction books, including Why We Are Coming and Slave States, which offer fresh perspectives on immigration and geopolitics. His debut novel, A Murder of Hate, was published this summer. Throughout his journalism career, Yasin has contributed to outlets such as The New York Times, Thomson Reuters, Al Jazeera, The National, and The Boston Globe. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and currently resides outside Boston.

De'Shawn C. Washington teaches a fourth grade inclusion classroom at Maria Hastings Elementary School in Lexington. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and he also holds a Master of Education in Elementary Education and a Master of Education in Special Education from the same university. He is working on a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University. In addition to teaching, Washington is a member of his district's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Community Input Team; Elementary Schedule Review Committee; and Student Success Team. He is also a member of the School Site Council. Prior to his work in Lexington, he taught in Boston Public Schools. Outside of school, he runs workshops at UMass Boston to help pre-service teachers pass the Massachusetts Tests for Education Licensure, has presented and published on the subject of culturally responsive instruction, and volunteers at his church and as a Big Brother. He received Lexington Public Schools' Core Values Award in April 2021 for building and sustaining a sense of community in his classroom, and as part of his practice, he develops his students' ability to work together and resolve disagreements. Washington believes his role is to cultivate changemakers, and his students have successfully advocated for policies such as a different recess structure.

He is passionate to serve the MassCUE community in an encouraging word of excellence this fall.

Jo is a first-generation California girl who relocated to Boston five years ago. Above all, Jo is a learner and a lover of life. Although Jo is a nurse by trade, education is her passion and consequently her purpose. For nearly a decade, Jo has worked as an educator — five years in BPS classrooms, three years teaching abroad in Barcelona and a year teaching as a K-8 English Language Arts Coordinator.

While integrating her learnings from her graduate program at UMass, she became keenly aware of the relationship between learning and teaching and its disrepair. With the encouragement of a good friend, Jo applied and was accepted to the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Learning and Teaching Instructional Leadership program, graduating in 2021 as the recipient of the Intellectual Contribution Award.

In the world, you’ll likely find Jo with a smile on her face, a cup of strong coffee, or her newfound love: homemade chai, with a book tucked in her bag, googling the nearest taqueria, moments away from engaging with a stranger soon to be turned friend!