SPOTLIGHT SESSIONS
Friday, October 29
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Norton Clapp Theatre, Jones Hall
Remembering/Re-envisioning Cultural Arts in K-12 Classrooms
Spotlight Speaker: Mr. Antonio Davidson-Gómez
Mr. Antonio Davidson-Gómez is an educator and percussionist focused on a musical dialogue
among cultures. He has studied, performed and recorded in various genres with an emphasis in
Afro-Latin, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean music. A veteran teacher of California's K-12
classrooms (bilingual kindergarten & high school social studies, music, and Spanish), Tony
designed a high school course on world music and led student ensembles. He recently wrote
curricula for the national touring exhibition, American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music and
was a keynote presenter for the 2009 Washington State Faculty & Staff of Color in Higher
Education Conference. He works at KCTS 9 Television, where he develops bilingual
programming, curricula and community engagement for V-me, PBS’s Spanish language sister
network, and has led regional efforts for programs including Latin Music USA and The Music
Instinct. He produced the bilingual civil rights documentary, Students of Change: Los del ’68
and helped coordinate the statewide Latino Education Summit. He currently performs with
Tango del Cielo, Sin Embargo and Deseo Carmín. Tony completed his undergraduate studies in
Comparative Sociology and Spanish at UPS (’93) and an MA in Education at UC Berkeley.
Friday, October 29
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Schneebeck Concert Hall
Revolutionizing the Education Reform Debate
Spotlight Session Chair: Dr. Thelma Jackson
Panelists:
Anh Nguyen, Portfolio Manager for U.S. Programs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Amy Wilkins, Vice President for Government Affairs and Communications, Education Trust
Karen Waters, Coordinator, Excellent Schools Now Coalition
Dr. Thelma A. Jackson, owner and principal consultant of Foresight Consultants and Founder
of The Northwest Institute for Leadership and Change, is recognized as a leading Educational
Transformation Theorist. As experts in strategic planning and strategic action, Foresight
specializes in educational services with an emphasis on systemic change, educational
reconceptualization, and multicultural issues. Dr. Jackson brings more than 25 years of
experience in education change initiatives, restructuring and reform, equity and diversity, policy
making, cultural change, and parental/community involvement. Dr. Jackson is the originator of
the African American Education Think Tank and fulfills a leadership role in the work of the
Multiethnic Think Tank. This group focuses on the academic achievement of students of color in
the state of Washington and proposes an action plan for improvement. Dr. Jackson’s diverse
background includes having served on Task Forces and Advisory Councils for four former
Governors of the State of Washington. In addition to these other activities, she has served as
President of the Washington State School Directors Association; for 20 years was a Member and
five-time President of the North Thurston School Board; served as Chairperson of the
Washington State Legislative Ethics Board; was a Member and President of the Board of
Trustees of The Evergreen State College; and she chaired the Washington State Advisory
Council on Vocational Education. Dr. Jackson has participated as an education panelist, seminar
leader, facilitator, and keynote speaker at over 100 education-related events.
Friday, October 29
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Rausch Auditorium, McIntyre Hall 003
History and Rhetoric of Our Racial Present
Spotlight Speakers: Dr. Mark McPhail and Dr. Michael Honey
Dr. Mark McPhail is the Dean of the College of Arts and Communication at the University of
Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is a professor of communication and has served as chair of the
Division of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs in the Meadows School of the Arts at
Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Dr. McPhail received his Ph.D. in rhetorical and cultural
studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where his dissertation was titled “The
Language of Racism: A Contemporary Rhetorical Analysis.” He has held previous
administrative positions at Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, Ohio; the University of Utah, Salt
Lake City; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Emerson College. Dr. McPhail has
presented numerous papers at National and Regional Conferences, and published scholarly
essays in state, regional, national, and international books and journals. He is the author of “Zen
in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Coherence”, published by the State University of New
York Press, and “The Rhetoric of Racism Revisited: Reparations or Separation?,” published by
Rowman and Littlefield.
Dr. Michael Honey teaches African-American and U.S. history, civil rights and labor studies
and specializes in work on Martin Luther King, Jr. He holds the Fred T. and Dorothy G. Haley
Endowed Professorship in the Humanities at the University of Washington, Tacoma (UWT).
His research and writing are widely recognized. Black Workers Remember: An Oral History of
Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1999), received the Southern Historical Association's H.L. Mitchell Award for southern
working-class history, the Southern Regional Council's Lillian Smith award for a study of human
rights issues and the Governor's Award for excellence by a Washington State writer. Southern
Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1993), won the Organization of American Historian's James A. Rawley Prize for history of
race relations, the Southern Historical Associations Charles Sydnor Prize for southern history,
and the University of Illinois Press' Herbert Gutman Award for social history. His article on
white Unionists within the Confederacy during the Civil War won the OAH Charles Thomson
Prize for the best research article based on the National Archives.