25 PD Speakers for Schools Los Angeles Principals Trust

Your last professional development speaker left the staff energised for about 36 hours, then nothing changed.

You know the pattern. The keynote lands well on the day. Teachers nod. A few take notes. The evaluation forms come back positive. Then Monday arrives and the same behaviours, the same friction points, the same gaps between what you need and what actually happens in classrooms show up exactly as they did before the session. You spent the budget, you gave the time, and the school looks identical three weeks later.

The problem is not that your staff resist growth. The problem is that most professional development speakers deliver inspiration without implementation, insight without infrastructure, ideas without the practical next step that turns a good session into sustained change. Los Angeles has no shortage of speakers who can fill a room and hold attention. It has far fewer who can leave a school different than they found it.

I put together this list of 25 professional development speakers for schools in Los Angeles who combine substance with delivery, frameworks with follow-through, and the kind of practical authority that makes teachers want to try something new the very next day.

SPEAKERS WHO FOCUS ON TEACHING PRACTICE AND PEDAGOGY

This group works directly on what happens inside the classroom. They address instructional design, differentiation, assessment for learning, and the daily mechanics of teaching that determine whether students actually learn. If your professional development goal is to shift classroom practice, these are the voices your teachers need to hear.

1. Dr. Zaretta Hammond

Dr. Zaretta Hammond built her reputation on culturally responsive teaching that goes deeper than surface-level diversity initiatives. Her work centres on the neuroscience of learning and how culture shapes the way students process, retain, and retrieve information. Teachers leave her sessions understanding why some students disengage and what specific moves re-engage them.

Her keynote on dependent learners versus independent learners names a pattern every teacher recognises but few know how to interrupt. She teaches the scaffolding strategies that build cognitive capacity rather than just accommodating its absence. Los Angeles schools working with diverse populations find her frameworks immediately applicable because she addresses the mechanics, not just the philosophy, of equity in the classroom.

2. Jennifer Gonzalez

Jennifer Gonzalez runs Cult of Pedagogy and has spent years translating research into classroom-ready teaching strategies. She specialises in making complex instructional concepts simple enough to use on Monday morning. Her sessions focus on evidence-based practices that do not require a curriculum overhaul or a staffing increase, just sharper execution of what teachers already do.

Signature topics include:

• Retrieval practice techniques that improve long-term retention without adding grading time

• Classroom discussion structures that increase participation across all student confidence levels

• Feedback methods that change student behaviour faster than traditional grading

• Differentiation strategies that work in classes with 30-plus students and wide ability ranges

Her content is podcast-tested and teacher-approved. Teachers trust her because she has been in the classroom, knows the constraints, and never suggests something that only works in ideal conditions. Los Angeles schools appreciate her no-nonsense approach to instructional improvement that respects the reality of public and independent school teaching.

3. Dr. Catlin Tucker

Dr. Catlin Tucker is the authority on blended learning models that actually improve outcomes rather than just digitising traditional instruction. She teaches teachers how to use technology to free up time for the high-value interactions that only a human can deliver, rather than replacing those interactions with software.

Her station rotation and flipped classroom models give teachers practical structures for differentiating without burning out. She addresses the infrastructure questions most blended learning advocates skip. What does the room setup look like. How do you manage transitions. What do you do when the tech fails mid-lesson. How do you assess learning that happens partly offline. Teachers leave her sessions with implementation plans, not just inspiration.

Los Angeles schools navigating hybrid models or trying to make better use of the devices already in student hands find her work indispensable. She writes for teachers who want better results from technology, not teachers who love technology for its own sake.

4. Doug Lemov

Doug Lemov wrote Teach Like a Champion and has spent two decades studying what the most effective teachers do differently in the moments that matter. His strength is breaking down complex teaching into specific, repeatable techniques that any teacher can learn. He does not talk in abstractions. He shows you the exact words, the exact positioning, the exact timing.

Key techniques schools adopt after his sessions:

• Cold Call to increase accountability and engagement without making students feel ambushed

• No Opt Out to ensure every student answers every question, building confidence and competence simultaneously

• Turn and Talk structures that maximize processing time without losing instructional momentum

• Strong Voice techniques that establish authority through calm consistency rather than volume

His work is evidence-based, video-supported, and relentlessly practical. Teachers see the technique demonstrated, understand why it works, and know exactly how to try it in their next class. Los Angeles schools focused on raising achievement through better instruction rather than more intervention find his methods transformative.

5. Dr. Robert Marzano

Dr. Robert Marzano has studied effective teaching longer than most current teachers have been alive. His research on high-yield instructional strategies gives schools a prioritised list of what actually moves student learning. He addresses the gap between what research says works and what teachers actually do in classrooms.

His professional development sessions focus on formative assessment, feedback, and the use of learning objectives that students can track themselves. He teaches the difference between activities that keep students busy and strategies that deepen understanding. Teachers appreciate that his work is not about adding more to an already overloaded day. It is about doing the right things with greater precision.

Los Angeles schools trying to improve without adopting a new programme every year rely on Marzano's research to guide decision-making. His frameworks help leadership teams evaluate which initiatives are worth the investment and which are distractions from the core work of teaching.

SPEAKERS WHO ADDRESS SCHOOL CULTURE, LEADERSHIP, AND STAFF WELLBEING

This group works on the conditions that make good teaching sustainable. They address culture, leadership coherence, staff retention, and the systems that determine whether talented teachers stay or burn out. If your professional development need is structural rather than instructional, these speakers belong on your shortlist.

6. Elena Aguilar

Elena Aguilar built her career on coaching teachers and leaders through the emotional and relational challenges that derail even the most skilled educators. Her work on resilience is not about working harder. It is about identifying the specific habits, boundaries, and mindsets that allow educators to sustain excellence without sacrificing their health.

Core frameworks she teaches:

The 12 Dispositions of Resilience: A self-assessment tool that helps educators identify which resilience skills they already have and which need development.

Transformational Coaching: A method for having difficult conversations that change behaviour rather than just documenting problems.

Bright Morning Team Habits: Weekly practices that build collective resilience in teams rather than leaving self-care as an individual responsibility.

Her sessions give school leaders language and structure for the conversations they have been avoiding. Teachers leave understanding that burnout is not a personal failure but a predictable outcome of working in systems that do not protect time, energy, or emotional boundaries. Los Angeles schools struggling with retention find her work essential.

7. Dr. Brene Brown

Dr. Brene Brown researches vulnerability, courage, and the conditions under which people do their best work. Her application to schools is powerful because teaching is inherently vulnerable work. You put yourself in front of students every day. You try new strategies that might fail. You give feedback that might land badly. You lead colleagues who might resist.

Her professional development work helps school staff understand that the discomfort they feel when trying something new is not a sign they are doing it wrong. It is evidence they are doing something that matters. She teaches the difference between shame and guilt, between accountability and blame, and between perfectionism and healthy striving.

Schools adopt her language quickly:

• Rumbling with vulnerability instead of pretending everything is fine when it is not

• Clear is kind when giving feedback that feels hard to deliver

• The story I am telling myself to surface assumptions before they become conflict

• Living into our values rather than just listing them on a website

Los Angeles schools that bring her in often do so at a turning point. A leadership transition. A failed initiative. A staff culture that has become quietly toxic. Her work creates the conditions for honest conversation, which is the necessary first step before anything structural can change.

8. Jon Gordon

Jon Gordon writes and speaks on positive culture, energy management, and the leadership habits that build teams rather than fracture them. His strength is translating big cultural ideas into daily behaviours that any leader can practice. He does not tell you to be more positive. He shows you the specific actions that shift energy in a room, a meeting, or a staff.

His Energy Bus framework is built around the idea that leaders set the emotional tone of their organisations. If the principal is anxious, the staff absorbs that anxiety. If the leadership team is fragmented, the faculty mirrors that fragmentation. He teaches practical techniques for managing your own energy so you can lift the energy of others.

Los Angeles schools use his work when morale is low, turnover is high, or the staff has started operating in silos. His content is not complex, which is precisely why it works. Teachers do not need another framework. They need permission and direction to act on what they already know builds connection and trust.

9. Todd Whitaker

Todd Whitaker has written more books on school leadership and teacher effectiveness than most educators will read in a career. His signature insight is simple and uncomfortable. In every school, the best teachers and the worst teachers do different things, and the principal either allows that gap to widen or works daily to close it.

Core principles from his sessions:

Great principals manage the variables they control: You cannot control student background or district mandates. You can control who you hire, who you retain, and which behaviours you reinforce.

The best teachers do not need your rules: Most school policies exist to control the weakest staff members, but they frustrate and constrain the strongest.

It is people, not programmes: A mediocre programme run by great teachers beats a great programme run by mediocre teachers every time.

His sessions make school leaders uncomfortable because he names the patterns they see but have not addressed. The staff member everyone works around. The policy that exists because one person cannot be trusted. The meeting that wastes time because the leader will not make a decision. Los Angeles principals value his directness because it gives them permission to act on what they already know needs to change.

10. Angela Watson

Angela Watson spent 11 years teaching in inner-city schools before becoming one of the most trusted voices for teacher wellbeing and sustainable practice. Her podcast, Truth for Teachers, addresses the daily realities teachers face but rarely discuss in staff meetings. The students who drain your energy. The parents who question every decision. The mandates that make no sense. The guilt of leaving at contract time.

Her professional development focuses on the mindset shifts and boundary-setting skills that allow teachers to care deeply about their work without sacrificing their mental health. She teaches time management strategies built for people who already have no time. Energy management practices for people who start the day depleted. And the permission structures teachers need to say no to things that do not serve students.

Teachers leave her sessions with tools they use immediately:

• The 40-hour teacher workweek framework that eliminates low-value tasks without lowering standards

• Scripts for parent conversations that stay professional when emotions run high

• Methods for reducing grading time without reducing feedback quality

• Strategies for protecting planning time from the constant interruptions schools normalise

Los Angeles schools bring her in when teacher burnout is becoming a retention crisis. Her work does not solve every problem, but it gives teachers the agency and tools to solve the ones within their control.

11. Jimmy Casas

Jimmy Casas served as a principal and district administrator before becoming a full-time speaker focused on school culture and student-centred leadership. His message is that culture is not what you say in a mission statement. It is what students and staff experience every single day in hallways, classrooms, and offices.

He challenges leaders to audit their schools from a student perspective. Do students feel known. Do they feel safe to fail. Do they see adults who genuinely like them and each other. Do school policies serve learning or simply make management easier. His sessions push leadership teams to close the gap between the culture they claim and the culture students actually experience.

Questions he makes leadership teams answer honestly:

• If students could redesign one school policy, which would they choose and why

• Which staff behaviours do we tolerate that we would never accept from students

• When was the last time a student told us we got something wrong and we actually changed it

• What do our most disengaged students say about why they are disengaged

Los Angeles schools working to rebuild culture after a difficult period or a leadership change find his approach both challenging and clarifying. He does not offer a culture playbook. He offers the questions that reveal whether the culture you have matches the culture you want.

12. Dr. Adolph Brown

Dr. Adolph Brown combines educational psychology, cultural competency, and high-energy delivery in sessions that leave staff laughing, crying, and ready to rethink how they show up for students. His work centres on the social and emotional dimensions of teaching that most teacher preparation programmes ignore. How do you connect with a student who does not trust adults. How do you de-escalate a situation that is already escalating. How do you teach students who have learned that trying and failing is more painful than not trying at all.

His sessions are part standup, part sermon, part graduate seminar. He uses storytelling to surface the biases, assumptions, and habits that educators carry unconsciously. Then he teaches the specific relational moves that rebuild trust, restore dignity, and re-engage students who have checked out.

Los Angeles schools with diverse student populations and staff teams that are still learning how to navigate cultural differences rely on his ability to make hard conversations feel safe. He does not shame people for what they do not know. He equips them to do better starting tomorrow.

SPEAKERS WHO SPECIALIZE IN STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING

This group addresses the non-academic barriers that prevent students from learning. They teach classroom management, social-emotional skill development, trauma-informed practice, and the strategies that help students regulate behaviour and emotions so they can access instruction.

13. Dr. Ross Greene

Dr. Ross Greene developed the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model, which flips traditional behaviour management on its head. His core thesis is that kids do well if they can. If they are not doing well, it is because they lack the skills, not because they lack the motivation. Punishment does not teach missing skills. Collaboration does.

His approach asks teachers to stop asking why a student is misbehaving and start asking what skill the student is missing. Is it flexibility. Is it frustration tolerance. Is it problem-solving. Is it communication. Once you identify the lagging skill, you teach it the same way you would teach reading or math, through instruction, practice, and feedback.

Key shifts schools make after adopting his model:

From consequences to conversations: Instead of sending a student to the office, the teacher has a problem-solving conversation that identifies the unmet need.

From compliance to competence: The goal is not obedience. The goal is skill development that generalizes to new situations.

From reactive to proactive: Teachers identify predictable patterns and teach the skill before the behaviour escalates.

Los Angeles schools struggling with high suspension rates, especially for students with trauma histories or neurodiverse learning profiles, find his model transformative. It is evidence-based, humane, and built for the students traditional behaviour systems fail.

14. Dr. Kristin Souers

Dr. Kristin Souers is a licensed mental health therapist who has spent her career teaching educators how to support students impacted by trauma. Her work is grounded in the reality that you cannot teach a student whose nervous system is in survival mode. Before you can teach content, you have to help the student feel safe enough to learn.

Her Compassionate Schools framework gives teachers practical strategies for recognizing trauma responses, de-escalating dysregulation, and building the relational safety that allows traumatized students to re-engage with learning. She teaches the neuroscience behind fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses so teachers stop taking student behaviour personally and start responding strategically.

Tools teachers use after her sessions:

• Scripts for grounding a student who is escalating without shaming or isolating them

• Classroom routines that create predictability for students whose home lives are chaotic

• Co-regulation techniques that help teachers stay calm when a student is not

• Language that validates a student's feelings while still holding boundaries

Los Angeles schools serving high-poverty communities or students in foster care find her training essential. She equips teachers to meet students where they are without lowering expectations or excusing harm.

15. Michael Bonner

Michael Bonner teaches in Houston and was named Texas Teacher of the Year, but his reach extends far beyond one state. His professional development focuses on building authentic relationships with students, especially students who have been marginalized, underestimated, or failed by adults in the past. He teaches teachers how to see past behaviour to the human underneath.

His sessions are deeply personal. He shares his own story of growing up in poverty, navigating systems that were not designed for him, and finding teachers who believed in him when he did not believe in himself. Then he translates those stories into actionable strategies teachers can use Monday morning.

Relationship-building practices he models:

Greeting every student at the door by name: A small act that communicates you see them, you are glad they are here, and today is a fresh start.

Asking questions that go deeper than "how was your weekend": Questions that show you remember what they told you last week and care about their answer.

Noticing effort, not just achievement: Celebrating growth in students who are still far from proficient but closer than they were last month.

Los Angeles teachers working with students who distrust school and adults leave his sessions recommitted to the relational work that makes academic work possible. He reminds teachers why they started and gives them the tools to reach the students who need them most.

16. Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg

Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg is a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist who has dedicated his career to building resilience in young people. His professional development for educators focuses on the protective factors that help students navigate stress, failure, and adversity without breaking. He teaches the 7 Cs of Resilience: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control.

His work is especially valuable for schools serving students facing chronic stress, whether from poverty, family instability, academic pressure, or social isolation. He shows teachers how to structure learning experiences that build each of the 7 Cs intentionally rather than hoping resilience develops on its own.

Applications to classroom practice include:

• Designing assignments that allow students to demonstrate competence in multiple ways

• Creating feedback loops that build confidence through earned success, not empty praise

• Structuring group work that strengthens peer connection rather than just dividing labor

• Teaching coping strategies explicitly, the way you would teach any other skill

Los Angeles schools concerned about student mental health and the rising rates of anxiety and depression among adolescents find his research-backed approach both hopeful and practical. He does not tell teachers to fix every problem. He shows them how to build the skills students need to face problems themselves.

17. Jessica Lahey

Jessica Lahey wrote The Gift of Failure and has become the leading voice on why overprotecting students from struggle, mistakes, and consequences undermines the very competence and resilience parents and teachers want to build. Her professional development helps educators distinguish between supportive scaffolding and counterproductive rescuing.

She teaches teachers and parents how to step back in ways that allow students to develop autonomy, problem-solving capacity, and intrinsic motivation. Her message is not about being harsh. It is about trusting students enough to let them struggle, fail, learn, and try again without an adult swooping in to fix it.

Mindset shifts schools make after her sessions:

From "how do I prevent failure" to "how do I make failure a learning experience": Designing assignments where mistakes reveal understanding rather than just costing points.

From "I will remind them" to "what system will they build to remind themselves": Teaching organizational skills rather than compensating for their absence.

From "they are not ready" to "they will not be ready until we let them try": Releasing responsibility incrementally rather than suddenly when they turn 18.

Los Angeles schools wrestling with overinvolved parents or students who lack basic life skills find her work clarifying. She gives teachers permission to hold students accountable and language to explain to parents why that accountability is an act of care, not cruelty.

18. Rachel Simmons

Rachel Simmons researches girls' social and emotional development and the relational aggression that often goes unnoticed in schools. Her work on friendship dynamics, peer conflict, and the pressure girls face to be liked, to be perfect, and to suppress anger has shaped how schools address bullying, mental health, and student leadership.

Her sessions for educators focus on recognizing the subtle forms of harm that happen below adult radar. The groupchat that excludes one girl. The rumor that destroys a reputation. The silent treatment that lasts for weeks. She teaches teachers how to intervene in these conflicts without making them worse and how to teach girls the direct communication skills that prevent relational aggression in the first place.

Tools for addressing girl-specific social dynamics:

• Scripts for naming exclusion and rumor-spreading as harm, not drama

• Structured conflict resolution processes that surface unspoken grievances

• Curriculum on healthy friendship, boundaries, and assertive communication

• Strategies for helping girls tolerate conflict and disagreement without ending the relationship

Los Angeles schools, especially all-girls schools or schools with strong female enrollment, rely on her research to build healthier peer cultures. Her work helps schools move from reacting to girl conflicts after they explode to teaching the skills that prevent escalation.

SPEAKERS WHO FOCUS ON INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND FUTURE-READY LEARNING

This group prepares schools for a rapidly changing world. They address technology integration, design thinking, student agency, and the shifts schools need to make to prepare students for careers and challenges that do not yet exist.

19. George Couros

George Couros wrote The Innovator's Mindset and has built a career challenging schools to move from compliance-based learning to innovation-driven learning. His central question is simple and uncomfortable. Are we preparing students for a world that rewards following instructions, or a world that rewards creating solutions to problems no one has solved yet.

His professional development pushes educators to rethink assessment, curriculum, and pedagogy. He asks what would change if the goal of school was not mastery of content but development of curious, adaptable, empathetic problem-solvers. Then he shows what that looks like in practice.

Core elements of an innovation-driven school:

• Student voice and choice in learning: Allowing students to pursue questions they genuinely care about rather than only answering questions the teacher asks.

• Design thinking processes: Teaching students to identify problems, prototype solutions, test them, fail, and iterate.

• Global collaboration: Connecting students with peers, experts, and communities beyond the classroom walls.

• Reflection as a core practice: Building time for students to think about their thinking, not just produce more work.

Los Angeles schools trying to move beyond test-prep culture or prepare students for technology-driven industries find his frameworks essential. He does not tell schools to abandon rigor. He tells them to redefine what rigor looks like when the world no longer rewards memorization and compliance.

20. Dr. Yong Zhao

Dr. Yong Zhao is one of the most provocative voices in education, arguing that the global obsession with standardized testing and PISA rankings is killing creativity, entrepreneurship, and the very skills economies need to thrive. His research compares education systems worldwide and challenges the assumption that higher test scores equal better preparation for life.

His professional development sessions are built around a central paradox. The countries that score highest on international tests often produce the least entrepreneurial, least innovative graduates. Meanwhile, countries like the United States, which perform lower on those tests, produce disproportionate numbers of entrepreneurs, artists, and innovators. His question is whether schools are optimizing for the wrong outcomes.

What he challenges schools to do differently:

• Stop treating all students as if they need the same knowledge at the same time in the same way

• Start treating talents, passions, and interests as the foundation of learning rather than distractions from it

• Measure success by what students create, not just what they can recall on demand

• Build systems that reward risk-taking, experimentation, and productive failure

Los Angeles schools frustrated by the gap between what standardized tests measure and what the world actually needs from graduates find his work both liberating and daunting. He does not offer easy answers. He offers better questions and evidence that the current path is not working.

21. A.J. Juliani

A.J. Juliani teaches educators how to design learning experiences that students find meaningful, challenging, and worth their full effort. His background in English teaching and instructional coaching gives him credibility with classroom teachers who are tired of innovation theater and want strategies that actually work with real students in real schools.

His signature framework is the Launch Cycle, a process that takes students from curiosity to creation. He teaches teachers how to structure open-ended projects that maintain rigor, build skills, and produce work students are genuinely proud of. His sessions address the fears teachers have about giving up control and show how structured freedom produces better learning than scripted lessons.

Components of student-driven learning he teaches:

• Look, Listen, Learn: Teaching students to observe the world, ask questions, and identify problems worth solving.

• Ask tons of questions: Building a culture where questioning is valued as much as answering.

• Navigate ideas: Helping students sort through possibilities and choose a direction worth pursuing.

• Create a prototype: Designing something real that can be tested, not just talked about.

• Highlight and fix: Teaching students to assess their own work, identify what works, and improve what does not.

Los Angeles schools wanting to increase student agency and engagement without abandoning standards find his approach practical and scalable. He shows how the same principles apply whether you teach kindergarten or AP Physics.

22. Dr. Ruben Puentedura

Dr. Ruben Puentedura created the SAMR model, which has become the dominant framework for evaluating technology integration in schools. SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. His model helps educators distinguish between using technology to do old things slightly better and using technology to do things that were previously impossible.

His professional development is essential for schools that have invested in devices but have not seen corresponding improvements in learning. He shows teachers how to move from substitution, using a laptop as an expensive pencil, to redefinition, where technology enables entirely new forms of learning, collaboration, and creation.

Examples he uses to illustrate each level:

Substitution: Students type an essay instead of handwriting it. No functional change.

Augmentation: Students use spell-check and grammar tools. Modest improvement.

Modification: Students collaborate on a shared document with peers in another country, giving and receiving real-time feedback. Significant task redesign.

Redefinition: Students create a multimedia documentary on a social issue, publish it globally, and engage with an authentic audience. Learning that was impossible without technology.

Los Angeles schools trying to justify technology spending to boards and parents use his framework to audit current practice and plan for deeper integration. His work gives teachers permission to slow down, reflect, and ask whether the technology is serving learning or just adding complexity.

23. Kasey Bell

Kasey Bell runs Shake Up Learning and has built a massive following among teachers looking for practical, immediately usable technology tips. Her strength is making tech tools accessible to teachers who are not naturally tech-savvy. She does not assume you know the jargon or have hours to learn a new platform. She gives you the three features that matter and the five-minute tutorial that gets you started.

Her professional development sessions are fast-paced, hands-on, and packed with tools teachers can try that afternoon. She covers Google Workspace, interactive platforms like Nearpod and Peardeck, formative assessment tools like Kahoot and Quizizz, and the ever-changing landscape of AI tools for education.

Teacher-favorite tools she demonstrates:

• Google Forms for quick checks for understanding that auto-grade and generate data

• Flipgrid for student video responses that build communication skills and accountability

• Book Creator for student-authored multimedia books that showcase learning

• Wakelet for curating and organizing digital resources students actually use

Los Angeles schools with mixed technology proficiency across staff appreciate her welcoming, judgment-free approach. She meets teachers where they are and gives them wins they can build on rather than overwhelming them with tools they will never use.

SPEAKERS WHO ADDRESS EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND SYSTEMIC CHANGE

This group works on the structural and cultural barriers that prevent all students from thriving. They address race, class, language, ability, and the systems that advantage some students while marginalizing others. If your school is serious about equity beyond the mission statement, these voices belong in the conversation.

24. Dr. Bettina Love

Dr. Bettina Love is a professor, abolitionist, and one of the most urgent voices calling schools to move beyond shallow diversity work and toward genuine justice. Her concept of abolitionist teaching challenges educators to stop asking how we can help marginalized students survive oppressive systems and start asking how we dismantle the systems doing the oppressing.

Her professional development is not comfortable. She names the ways schools reproduce inequality even when educators have good intentions. She exposes how discipline policies, curriculum choices, tracking systems, and gifted programmes often serve to sort students by race and class rather than genuinely develop every child's potential.

Questions she forces school leaders to answer:

• Who benefits from the way we currently do school and who is harmed

• Which policies exist to control Black and Brown students in ways we would never accept for white students

• What would we have to dismantle and rebuild if we genuinely believed every child has genius

• Are we preparing students to fit into an unjust world or to change it

Los Angeles schools ready to move beyond performative equity and willing to examine their own complicity in systemic harm need her voice. She does not offer a comfortable roadmap. She offers the truth and the challenge to act on it.

25. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi wrote How to Be an Antiracist and has become the leading voice on the distinction between not being racist and actively working against racism. His thesis is that there is no neutral. Every policy, practice, and decision either advances equity or maintains inequity. Schools that claim to be colorblind are often the most complicit in reproducing racial gaps.

His work with schools focuses on policy audits. He teaches leadership teams to examine every school policy, from admissions to discipline to course placement, and ask whether the policy is producing equitable outcomes. If advanced classes are disproportionately white and affluent, the policy is racist regardless of intent. If suspension rates are disproportionately Black and Latino, the policy is racist regardless of how neutrally it is written.

Shifts schools make after engaging his work:

From intent to impact: A policy is judged by its outcomes, not by whether the people who wrote it meant well.

From diversity to equity: The goal is not representation in the room. The goal is equal access to opportunity, resources, and outcomes.

From individual bias training to systemic policy change: Workshops on implicit bias do not change outcomes. Changing the policies that produce inequitable outcomes does.

Los Angeles schools serious about closing opportunity and achievement gaps use his framework to move from talking about equity to measuring it. His work is rigorous, uncomfortable, and necessary for schools that want outcomes to match their stated values.

26. Dr. Django Paris

Dr. Django Paris developed the concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy, which goes beyond culturally responsive teaching. Responsive teaching acknowledges and respects student culture. Sustaining pedagogy actively works to preserve, celebrate, and expand it. The goal is not just to help students succeed in the dominant culture. The goal is to ensure their home languages, traditions, and ways of knowing survive and thrive.

His professional development challenges schools that treat bilingualism as a deficit to overcome rather than an asset to build on. He teaches educators to see code-switching not as a student skill gap but as a linguistic strength. He pushes schools to ask whose knowledge counts, whose language is valued, and whose culture is centered in curriculum and instruction.

Practices he advocates for sustaining student cultures:

• Teaching literacy in students' home languages alongside English rather than replacing one with the other

• Incorporating student cultural practices, music, art, and storytelling traditions into curriculum

• Inviting families and community members as co-teachers and knowledge-holders, not just volunteers

• Designing assessments that allow students to demonstrate understanding in culturally grounded ways

Los Angeles schools serving multilingual communities and immigrant families find his work essential. It gives educators a vision of education that does not require students to lose their culture to gain academic success.

27. Cornelius Minor

Cornelius Minor is a literacy educator and equity advocate who teaches teachers how to choose books, design lessons, and facilitate conversations that reflect the full humanity of all students. His work focuses on windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. Every student needs books that mirror their own experience, windows into the experiences of others, and sliding glass doors that invite them into new worlds.

His sessions address the practical and political challenges of building inclusive classroom libraries. He teaches teachers how to evaluate books for representation, how to facilitate difficult conversations about race and identity, and how to respond when parents challenge a book as inappropriate.

Key guidance for building inclusive literacy instruction:

Representation alone is not enough: A book with a Black character is not necessarily a book that affirms Black students. Examine how the character is portrayed and whose perspective is centered.

Discomfort is part of learning: Books that challenge students to confront injustice, complicity, and their own biases are doing the work, not failing at it.

Choice matters: Give students agency in selecting what they read. A reluctant reader who chooses a graphic novel is learning more than a strong reader forced to read a classic they hate.

Los Angeles schools working to decolonize their curriculum and ensure every student sees themselves in the texts they read rely on his expertise. He combines literary knowledge with equity analysis in ways that make English teachers better and schools more just.

28. Zaretta Hammond (Second Mention for Additional Context)

Worth noting again in the equity section because Dr. Zaretta Hammond's culturally responsive teaching framework directly addresses the neurological reasons why students from marginalized communities often disengage. Her alliance-building strategies help teachers establish trust with students who have learned, often correctly, that school is not designed for them.

She teaches the difference between surface culture, shallow culture, and deep culture, showing educators why celebrating holidays and food is not the same as changing the power dynamics in a classroom. Her work is both scientific and deeply practical, giving teachers the research base to defend their practice and the techniques to implement it Monday morning.

Los Angeles schools committed to equity beyond slogans use her frameworks to train entire staffs in the pedagogy that actually closes gaps rather than just talking about closing them.

Your professional development budget is an investment in the conditions that make great teaching sustainable and poor teaching inexcusable. The speakers on this list do not just inspire. They equip. They leave teachers and leaders with frameworks, language, and tools they use long after the session ends.

If you are ready to move past professional development that entertains but does not change practice, reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org. I work with schools to design learning experiences that stick because they are built around what your staff actually needs, not what sounds good in a brochure.