Administrators of Color in Independent Schools

Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 25

We hope that you will join us for a day and a half of connection, mentoring and sharing between senior administrators of color working in independent schools from around the country at the 7th Annual Administrators of Color in Independent Schools Conference. 

The conference will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 24 and end at 3 p.m. on Friday, October 25. A detailed agenda will be provided closer to the event.

List of 3 items.

Featured Guests

Joshua Bennett is a Professor of Literature and Distinguished Chair of the Humanities at MIT. He is the author of five books: Spoken Word: A Cultural History (Knopf, 2023), which was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2023; The Study of Human Life (Penguin, 2022), which won the Paterson Poetry Prize, and is currently being adapted for television in collaboration with Warner Brothers Studios; Owed (Penguin, 2020), a finalist for the New England Book Award; Being Property Once Myself (Harvard University Press, 2020), winner of the MLA’s William Sanders Scarborough Prize, and The Sobbing School (Penguin, 2016), winner of the National Poetry Series and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. 
 
Dr. Bennett earned his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He has recited his original works at the Sundance Film Festival, the NAACP Image Awards, and President Obama’s Evening of Poetry and Music at the White House. He has also performed and taught creative writing workshops at hundreds of middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States, as well as in the U.K. and South Africa.
 
For his creative writing and scholarship, Joshua has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He lives in Massachusetts with his family.
Netflix’s Bake Squad star Maya-Camille Broussard is the owner of the Chicago-based bakery Justice of the Pies, which specializes in sweet and savory pies, quiches, and tarts. Broussard created her bakery in memory of her late father, Stephen J. Broussard, a self-proclaimed “Pie Master” and self-employed defense attorney. She opened her business with their shared belief that everyone deserves an opportunity to reform their lives.

Broussard actively works to positively impact the local community, including offering an “I Knead Love” workshop several times each year for kids from low-income households to learn basic cooking skills, healthy eating habits, and nutrition. Justice of the Pies has partnered with Maria Kaupas Center, Alternatives Youth, and Jewish Children and Family Services to provide meals for communities on Chicago’s South and West sides. During the COVID pandemic, her bakery has also partnered with Frontline Foods to provide food from restaurants for front-line workers, often with donations from notable names such as Kerry Washington and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Maya-Camille Broussard uses her own experience as one of the four professional pastry bakers to compete in the first season of Bake Squad to set a positive example for young bakers. Being hearing impaired, she wants to encourage others with the story of her struggles and successes. She hopes that her presence as a Black woman living with a disability on the series will show others that anything is possible. In her engaging talks, Broussard shares how she uses her bakery and role as a small business owner to advocate for people living with disabilities and food apartheid, especially in communities of color.

In her cookbook, Justice of the Pies, Maya-Camille Broussard shares more than 85 recipes for pies and other mouthwatering creations and shares the stories of heroes outside the kitchen that inspired these recipes.

Broussard graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and earned her Master of Arts degree in theater from Northwestern University. Before opening Justice of Pies, she ran Congo Square Theatre’s educational outreach program from 2003 to 2008, teaching workshops in lower-income schools.
330 West Webster Avenue | Chicago, Illinois 60614 | 773.353.3000
Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.