Transforming Lives That Transform America
Transforming Lives That Transform America
This three-day group relations conference offers a unique opportunity to study the conscious and unconscious dynamics involved in how groups organize themselves and interact with each other. This conference is not a passive learning event that relies upon lectures. Instead, the learning is experiential. Participants study how leadership, followership, authority, task, boundaries, and roles operate in the different group experiences they enter during the conference. The conference will weave art and other non-verbal forms of expression into the conference events to illuminate unconscious dynamics operating in the system of group interactions that members and staff will create together.
About the Keynote Speaker
Yesenia Fernandez, Ph.D.
Yesenia Fernandez, Assistant Professor of School Leadership, Cal State Dominguez Hills, is a first generation college student who earned a Ph.D. in Education at Claremont Graduate University. She studies how systemic racism in the public school system perpetuates segregation and precludes minoritized students from higher education as well as the experiences of first generation college students. She has been an educator/student advocate for over twenty years. She recently served as an urban school district leader and led initiatives to develop systems which improved equity and access to higher education. She now works with principal candidates to examine critically the role of school leaders as well as the systems in urban schools which perpetuate inequities. She is dedicated to working with school leaders, policymakers and community members to ensure equity and justice in our urban schools. She is also a member and board president of the East Yard Community for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) Board of Directors and is involved with other grassroots organizations focused on protecting and healing our communities. Email: yfernandez@csudh.edu