Our Advisory Board
Our Board brings a diverse set of experiences, expertise, and perspectives to our organization. It consists of parents, award-winning journalists, college professors, a high school teacher, a school board member, and a high school student. Most members have participated in at least one of our podcast episodes, and all are committed to helping us achieve our mission.
🎙️: Amanda Ripley was a guest on Episode 6 of our podcast, Taming the Culture Wars with Journalist Amanda Ripley. She and Monica Guzman also participated in Episode 11, a fascinating conversation we published with political opposites - Willie Carver, a gay high school teacher from Kentucky, and Dov Fischer, a conservative rabbi from California.
She is a New York Times bestselling author, a Washington Post contributor, and the co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict.
Amanda follows people who have been through a transformation to find out what the rest of us can learn. Her most recent book is High Conflict, which chronicles how people get trapped by conflicts of all kinds—and how they get out. Her previous books include The Unthinkable, which was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a New York Times bestseller which was also turned into a documentary film.
Amanda Ripley
🎙️: Monica Guzman was a guest on Episode 9 of our podcast, Calming the Culture Wars in our Schools with Journalist Monica Guzman. She and Amanda Ripley also participated in Episode 11, a fascinating conversation we published with political opposites - Willie Carver, a gay high school teacher from Kentucky, and Dov Fischer, a conservative rabbi from California.
Mónica Guzmán is Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, a nonprofit organization working to depolarize America; host of A Braver Way, a podcast that equips people with the tools they need to bridge the political divide in their everyday lives; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, an organization working to build a more curious world; and author of I Never Thought Of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.
Monica Guzman
🎙️: Erika Sanzi was a guest on Episode 1 of our podcast, Are Teachers Really Indoctrinating Students?
Erika Sanzi is a former teacher and dean of students. An education advocate. A blogger. A local newspaper columnist and the Director of Outreach at Parents Defending Education. She is a former educator and elected school board member and currently serves on the board of advisors for The Boys Initiative. She is the mother of three teenage sons.
Erika Sanzi
🎙️: Dr. Cohn will be featured in an upcoming series we are producing about Middletown, Ohio.
Dr. Cohn is professor emeritus at Claremont Graduate University. His 50-year career in education has included service as a Teacher, School Counselor, Central Office Administrator, Superintendent at both Long Beach and San Diego, and Federal Court Monitor in Los Angeles. In addition to Claremont, his higher education faculty service has included leadership preparation at Pittsburgh, CSULA, USC, Harvard, and George Washington University.
He currently serves on the boards of the Spencer Foundation, the Center for Assessment, TeachingWorks at the University of Michigan, CTA’s Institute for Teaching, and St. Mary’s Academy. In March, 2024, Dr. Cohn was among fourteen education leaders and scholars elected to the National Academy of Education.
Carl Cohn
🎙️: Chris Hasegawa was a guest on Episode 14 of our podcast, The Latest Culture War Dustup: Balancing Parent Rights with Student Rights?
Dr. Hasegawa, professor of education at California State University, Monterey Bay, also serves as the President of the Board of Trustees for the Spreckels Union School District and as President of the board for ALBA (Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association), which provides educational and business opportunities for farm workers and aspiring farmers to grow and sell crops grown on two organic farms in Monterey County, California and the Monterey Peninsula Choral Society.
Chris Hasegawa
🎙️: Jason Morgan was a guest on Episode 18 & 19 of our podcast, Breaking Through - A Compton High School Teacher Discovers a Way to Bridge Toxic Divides.
Jason Morgan is a Math/AVID Teacher at Dominguez High School in Compton, California and the founder of SEND (Student Empathy Network for Diversity), which is designed to strengthen relationships among students and parents in various regions of Los Angeles. He was also honored as Teacher of the Year in 2017 by the Above & Beyond, an organization that annually recognizes outstanding teachers in California.
Jason Lee Morgan
🎙️: Kenann McKenzie was a guest on Episode 17 of our podcast, Can Educators Prevent Racism in Schools? Diverse Perspectives, Lively Conversation.
Dr. McKenzie is the Founder of Aspiring Spirit, and hosts a podcast by the same name. Her background and expertise include civic engagement research and practice, organizational consulting, PreK-12 schools and higher education professional development on subjects such as educational practices, policy, administration, and leadership. She has authored papers and peer-reviewed publications. Dr. McKenzie also is noted as the inaugural Director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Center, Tufts University.
Dr. McKenzie is an Associate Professor of Education Practice at Gordon College in Massachusetts and has published the journal, Learning, Listening and Leading: Taking what you have learned to the next level. In 2022, she was recognized with the Heroine Award by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Commission on the Status.
Kenann McKenzie
🎙️: Christopher Kulesza was a guest on Episode 17 of our podcast, Can Educators Prevent Racism in Schools? Diverse Perspectives, Lively Conversation.
Christopher F. Kulesza, Ph.D., is a scholar for the Child Health Policy Program at Baker Institute, where he carries out research in child and community health policy. His research investigates the health needs of K-12 students, with the goal of expanding access to health and social services. Chris teaches undergraduate and graduate seminars in public policy and American government at Rice University, Purdue University, Indiana University Indianapolis, and Pennsylvania State University. He is also serving on the Texas Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights, on the Houston Food Insecurity Board, and is the National Committeeman for the Texas Young Republicans Federation.
Christopher Kulesza
🎙️: Yordanos Lemma was a guest on Episode 14 & Episode 17 of our podcast, The Latest Culture War Dustup: Balancing Parent Rights with Student Rights and Can Educators Prevent Racism in Schools? Diverse Perspectives, Lively Conversation.
Yordanos Lemma is a high school senior advocating for educational equity and civic engagement in the Greater Philadelphia area. As a first-generation Ethiopian American, Yordanos is passionate about helping traditionally overlooked students succeed. Through her involvement in Citizens University, Bezos Scholars, and Living Room Conversations, Yordanos has continued advocacy work. Alongside her passions, she plans to major in History and African-American Studies with a pre-law concentration.
Yordanos Lemma
Joan Blades is a co-founder of Living Room Conversations, an open-source resource designed to rebuild respectful discourse across ideological, cultural and party lines while embracing shared values. Joan is also a co-founder of MomsRising.org and MoveOn.org. She is the co-author of The Custom-Fit Workplace, winner of a Nautilus book award in 2011, and The Motherhood Manifesto, which won the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize in 2007. A mediator (attorney) by training and inclination, she is a nature lover, artist, and true believer in the power of citizens and our need to rebuild respectful civil discourse while embracing our core shared values. Joan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Joan Blades
🎙️: Peter T. Coleman was a guest on Episode 12 of our podcast, Overcoming Toxic Polarization in our Schools with Peter Coleman
Peter T. Coleman is Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University, where he holds a joint-appointment at Teachers College and The Earth Institute. Dr. Coleman directs the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (MD-ICCCR), is the founding director of the Institute for Psychological Science and Practice (IPSP), and is co-executive director of Columbia University’s Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4). Coleman is the author of The Way Out - How to Overcome Toxic Polarization.
Peter T. Coleman
Katy Anthes
🎙️: Katy Anthes will be a guest on an episode scheduled for release in fall, 2024.
Dr. Katy Anthes is the creator and director of the FORWARD initiative at the Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC) as well as a founder and partner of The Third Mile Group, a social policy consulting firm. The FORWARD Initiative — from polarization to progress— prepares leaders in public policy to prevent and manage political polarization in their communities and workplaces. Formerly, Anthes was the Commissioner of Education in Colorado from 2016- 2023 and is widely respected for her commitment to listening to diverse perspectives and to develop solutions that are founded on productive middle ground.