Healing-Centered Education Summit: Hope & Healing in Practice

Healing-Centered Education Summit:

Hope & Healing in Practice

Hosted by Dr. Angel Acosta

In collaboration with the Acosta Institute, we are thrilled to present “Hope & Healing in Practice,” a multi-day Healing-Centered Education Summit. This summit calls upon educators, leaders, and practitioners from diverse fields to explore healing-centered approaches to learning, development and community empowerment with a focus on actionable strategies for systemic change.

Throughout this immersive event, participants will engage in enriching panel discussions, be inspired by keynote addresses, and partake in collaborative workshops. These activities are designed to transform hope into practical applications within educational institutions and beyond, contributing to significant societal shifts.

Held at the serene Garrison Institute, the summit promises a conducive environment for deep reflection and meaningful networking, encouraging participants to move from theoretical frameworks to actionable healing-centered practices that can be implemented in classrooms, organizations and business.

Themes to Explore

• Translating Hope into Action: Discover how healing-centered approaches can be effectively grounded in practices and frameworks that drive systemic change within organizations and schools.
• Building Resilient Communities: Develop resilience through actionable healing practices that support thriving communities in the face of adversities.
• Innovations in Child & Adult Education: Experience cutting-edge and research-backed practices to support learners from across the lifespan.

Why Attend?

• Engage in robust discussions and workshops that bridge theory with practice, offering tangible strategies for integrating healing and hope in your work.
• Connect with thought leaders and innovators across various disciplines, creating opportunities for future collaboration and community building.
• Learn from cutting-edge research and case studies that showcase successful implementation of healing-centered practices in diverse settings.
• Recharge in a restful setting that encourages deep personal and professional renewal, allowing you to return to your communities with renewed vigor and actionable insights.

Tentative Agenda

Getting Here

The Garrison Institute is located directly off Route 9D in Garrison, New York, approximately 50 miles north of New York City. Major highways nearby include Interstate 84, Route 9, the Palisades Parkway and the Taconic State Parkway. We offer on-site parking for those who will arrive by car. We also provide a shuttle from the Garrison Metro North Station for those arriving by train within a wide, yet specified timeframe. To learn more about how to get to the Institute and how to prepare for your retreat, please visit this page.

Speakers

Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz is an award-winning Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on racial literacy in teacher education, Black girl literacies, and Black and Latinx male high school students. A sought-after speaker on issues of race, culturally responsive pedagogy, and diversity, Sealey-Ruiz works with K-12 and higher education school communities to increase their racial literacy knowledge and move toward more equitable school experiences for their Black and Latinx students. Sealey-Ruiz appeared in Spike Lee’s “2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright”, a documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement and the campus protests at Mizzou. Her co-authored book [with Dr. Detra Price-Dennis] Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Toward Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces will be published in April 2021. Her first full-length collection of poetry Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (Kalediscope Vibrations LLC) was published in March, 2020, and her sophomore book of poetry, The Peace Chronicles was released in July 2021.

Minna Salami is a Nigerian, Finnish, and Swedish feminist author and social critic currently at The New Institute. Her research focuses on Black feminist theory, contemporary African thought, and the politics of knowledge production. Minna is the author of Can Feminism Be African? (forthcoming Harper Collins 2024) which explores key themes of African feminism; Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone (Bloomsbury 2020) which reimagines universal concepts through a black feminist framework, and The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it, and Why? The Politics of Provocation (Ivy Kids, 2019), a co-authored children’s book. She has written for the Guardian, Project Syndicate, Al Jazeera, and The Philosopher, among others, and is the founder of the multi-award-winning blog MsAfropolitan which has drawn over a million readers. Minna frequently speaks at international platforms including TEDx, Oxford University, Yale University, Oxford Union, Cambridge Union, the European Parliament, and the Singularity University at NASA. Minna’s academic background is in Political Science and Gender Studies with a specialization in feminist theory from SOAS, University of London. She sits on the council of The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the boards of The African Feminist Initiative at Pennsylvania State University, The Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Sahel, the Emerge network, and is an associate with Perspectiva. Her books are translated into multiple languages.

Amy Elizabeth Fox is a senior leadership strategist with experience consulting to senior leadership on issues related to human capital, organizational health, and leadership development. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Mobius Executive Leadership, a premier leadership development firm with offices in Boston and Switzerland. Over the past decade and a half, she has spoken at numerous national industry gatherings and led workshops for corporate executives across the country. Amy is also a psychotherapist and an executive coach.

Dr. Angel Acosta has worked to bridge the fields of leadership, social justice, and mindfulness for over a decade. He holds a doctorate degree in curriculum and teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. Acosta has supported more than educational leaders and their students by facilitating leadership trainings, creating pathways to higher education, and designing dynamic learning experiences. His dissertation explored healing-centered education as a promising framework for educational leadership development. After participating in the Mind and Life Institute’s Academy for Contemplative Leadership, Acosta began consulting and developing learning experiences that weave leadership development with conversations about inequality and healing, to support educational leaders through contemplative and restorative practices. As a former trustee for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, he participated as a speaker and discussant at the Asia Pacific Forum on Holistic Education in Kyoto, Japan. He continues to consult for organizations like the NYC Department of Education, UNICEF, Columbia University and others. Over the last couple of years, he has designed the Contemplating 400 Years of Inequality Experience–a contemplative journey to understand structural inequality. He’s a proud member of the 400 Years of Inequality Project, based at the New School. He is currently the Director of the Garrison Institute Fellowship Program and the Chief Curator at the Acosta Institute.

Drisana McDaniel, a healing-centered facilitator, educator, writer, and transformation activist, operates under the banner The Alchemy of Now. Her work delves into both individual and collective experiences, examining them through the lenses of embodiment, the social self, and psychospirituality, with a vision centered on achieving transformational justice through contemplation and meaningful action.

As a co-founder of the Transformative Teaching Collective, Drisana offers guidance to organizations and communities, emphasizing generative conflict resolution, social justice education, empathy, non-violence practice, and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of radiating freedom and vitality through liberation and awakening. She curates workshops, seminars, and events exploring the potential unlocked through radical interconnectedness.

With a Bachelor of Arts in Women and Gender Studies and Sociology, a Master of Arts in Women, Gender, Social Justice, and Spirituality, and a pursuit of a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Drisana’s expertise extends to her role as a senior researcher at the Acosta Institute.

Maria Tan is a first generation Filipino-American, educator, facilitator and consultant committed to serving communities through healing-centered education.

She is a former Bronx high school science teacher where her direct experience of healing from teacher burnout inspired her to launch the Thriving Teacher Project in 2020, creating restorative spaces for educators during the height of the pandemic. She is now the founder of House of Thriving where she works closely with healing-centered thought leaders to help nurture their vision and bring their ideas to life.

Her expertise includes designing and delivering courses and summits, producing and hosting podcasts, creative and strategic visioning, and curriculum/program research, analysis and evaluation. Some of her training includes restorative circle facilitation, trauma-informed mindfulness and somatic healing practices. As a passion project, she collaborates with her two older brothers to create offerings centered on intergenerational healing.

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*The Acosta Institute is a learning and research hub fostering innovation at the intersection of healing-centered education, contemplative social science and slow work through the facilitation of online courses, lectures, trainings, workshops, and summits.

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For questions, please contact us at: events@garrisoninstitute.org

COVID-19

The health and safety of our guests and staff is a top priority for the Garrison Institute. To attend a retreat or event all guests, teachers, and staff are required to self-test (at home antigen test is acceptable) within the 48-hour window prior to arriving for a retreat on site, and to bring a 2nd self-test kit when coming on site. We encourage everyone to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 and other illnesses before your visit. If you experience symptoms or have a positive diagnosis, please notify us immediately at events@garrisoninstitute.org We will continue to follow any COVID-19 guidelines set forth by our local officials, New York State and the CDC. Please visit this page for more information about the safety protocols in place as well as answers to frequently asked questions.