Administrators of Color in Independent Schools

Thursday, October 23–Saturday, October 25

We hope that you will join us for two and a half days of connection, mentoring and sharing between senior administrators of color working in independent schools from around the country at the 8th Annual Administrators of Color in Independent Schools Conference.  

This year, we have extended the conference to include optional programming on Saturday. The conference will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 23 and end at 12 p.m. on Saturday, October 25. 

Registgration for the 8th Annual Administrators of Color in Independent Schools Conference is currently closed.
 
Please contact prupani@fwparker.org with questions.

List of 2 items.

Event Agenda

Agenda
#ACISCFWP
 
Thursday, October 23
  Friday, October 24  
  • 8:15 a.m. - Optional Breakfast
  • 9 a.m. - Keynote Speaker: Arivee Vargas
  • 10:15 a.m. - Coffee Break
  • 11 a.m. -  Affinity Groups by Role
  • 12 p.m. - Networking Lunch
  • 1:15 p.m. - Keynote Speaker: Jarvis Givens
  • 2:45 p.m. - Group Photo
  • 3 p.m. - Wrap Up
  • 3:30 p.m. - Closing Reception Sponsored by The Glasgow Group
          Saturday October 25
          • 9:30 a.m. - Brunch & Conversation Tesha McCord Poe and Amanda Williams Sponsored by Joy-Raising
          • 11:30 a.m. - Closing

          Event Speakers

          Jarvis R. Givens is a Professor of Education and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is also the current Leverhulme Visiting Professor at University College London’s Institute of the Americas. Givens is the author of three books, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching; School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness; and American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation. He is also the author of a forthcoming book, which will be released in January 2026, entitled I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month. Professor Givens is the co-founding faculty director of the Black Teacher Archive at Harvard, and his work has been published in several venues, including the American Educational Research Journal, Journal of African American History, Harvard Educational Review, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and more. Givens is originally from Compton, California and currently resides in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
          Tesha McCord has spent over a decade working as a senior administrator in Independent Schools in the Bay Area. In this capacity Tesha has partnered with leadership teams to set and implement innovative educational strategies and provide growing revenue streams through admissions and fundraising K–12. She’s also helped raise over $100M, including direct solicitations of 6 and 7 figures. She served as the Chief Development Officer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula and as the Chief Advancement Officer for Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, where she helped to lead the largest campaign in the school's history.
           
          Formerly she served as Associate Head of School for Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, California where she later returned to serve as a trustee. Tesha currently serves as a Trustee for Prospect Sierra School in El Cerrito, California, EatReal Certified in San Francisco, Challenge Success, and is the Board Chair for the Mariposa Foundation DR based in the Dominican Republic. Most recently, she served as Interim Head of School at the Girls’ Middle School in Palo Alto, California.
          Chicago historian Shermann Thomas, affectionately known as Dilla, is a fascinating blend of a modern historian, cultural worker, and content creator. Dilla is wellversed in Chicago‘s history, architecture, and overall culture. He brings the city to life through captivating storytelling and insider knowledge of Chicago.

          A self-taught historian, Dilla has been featured in Chicago Emmy award-winning programming and awarded the City of Chicago‘s Tourism Ambassador of the Year.. Public Narrative has named Dilla the 2022 Studs Terkel Uplifting Voice recipient. The Chicago Public Library has honored Dilla with the prestigious 21st Century Award and the City Club of Chicago has named him the 2024 Cultural Amplifier.
          Amanda Williams is an artist who uses ideas around color and architecture to explore the intersection of race and the built environment. Through an interdisciplinary practice that brings spatial and aesthetic theory to bear on real social problems, Williams is clarifying the role of the artist in reimagining public space. Be it the latent value in vacant houses, the expansive palette of what blackness is, the speculative beauty of tulip bulbs or the social currency of childhood candies, Williams has an ongoing practice of elevating seemingly mundane objects and spaces to a renewed and often reformulated status of importance.

          Her work is in several permanent collections including the MoMA, NY; The Art Institute of Chicago; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the co-author of a forthcoming permanent monument to Shirley Chisholm. Amanda serves on the boards of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Graham Foundation, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and is a founding member of the Black Reconstruction Collective. Williams has been widely recognized, most recently being named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. Amanda received her B.Arch from Cornell University. She lives and works in Chicago.
           
          Arivee Vargas is an award-winning executive coach, former lawyer and corporate executive, host of the Humble Rising Podcast, and the bestselling author of Your Time To Rise: Unlearn Limiting Beliefs, Unlock Your Power, and Unleash Your Truest Self. 
           
          With nearly 20 years of legal and corporate executive experience, as an executive coach and sought-after speaker on burnout, work-life harmony, and personal and leadership development, Arivee guides high-achieving lawyers, corporate leaders and their teams to move forward with more clarity, confidence, fulfillment and higher life and work satisfaction.
           
          Arivee previously served as a law clerk on the First Circuit and the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, practiced litigation at two large law firms, and taught Business Law at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. She led global litigation and corporate compliance initiatives, the global employee relations function, and oversaw all leadership development programs as part of the Human Resources team at a fast-paced biotech in Boston.
           
          Arivee's work has been featured in Oprah Daily, Forbes, Success Magazine, Boston Business Journal, FIERCE by Mitú, and Hispanic Executive Magazine, among others. 
           
          Arivee is a first-generation Latina and mother of three. She is a proud alumna of Boston College and Boston College Law school, and received an honorary degree from Boston College in 2022.
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