Now, only in its third year, NYU Metro Center’s annual conference has become a blockbuster success amongst a host of educators, scholars, parents/caregivers, and youth participants alike. This remarkable education justice event has reliably become a phenomenal “pedagogical laboratory,” where proven, equity-driven best practices, research, and strategies are shared with attendees. The Equity Now Conference not only enhances the culturally responsive knowledge base of districts and schools, but also intentionally and consistently breaks fresh ground in the development of an inclusive educational system that invites all of our children to achieve their best possible academic, socioemotional, and cultural development.
Check out our 2025 conference schedule.
Equity Now: Welcoming, Affirming and Healing Schools Schedule
Friday, May 30, 2025
9:00am-4:30pm
8:45-9:30am: Continental Breakfast
9:00-9:05am: Message from Dr. Fabienne Doucet, Executive Director of NYU Metro Center
9:05-9:10am Greetings from Dean Jack H. Knott, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development
9:10-9:28am Dr. Lester Young, Chancellor for New York State Education Department
9:28-9:30am: Introduction to Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings
9:30-10:30am: Keynote Speaker: Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings
10:32-10:50am: Book Purchasing/Signing with Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings
10:55am-12:05pm: AM Breakout Session
12:15-1:10pm: Connection Lunch and Freedom Dreaming
1:20-2:30pm: PM Breakout Session
2:35-3:00pm: Coffee Connection
3:00-4:15pm: Panel Conversation: Creating Welcoming, Affirming, and Healing Schools (featuring: Dr. Meisha Porter, Center for Educational Innovation (CEI), Chauncy Young, New Settlement Parent Action Committee, and Darnese Daniels, New York City Public Schools)
4:15-4:30pm: Reflections and Closing
AM Breakout Sessions (10:55 AM-12:05 PM)
Culturally Relevant Hands on STEM Learning
Room: 405
Decolonizing Traditional Reading Instructional Practices: A Culturally Sustaining View and Approach to Literature
Room: 406
Draw Your Dream (Youth Only)
Room 901
Mapping Equity through Systems Thinking: Transforming Challenges into Liberatory Practices
Room: 903
Let's D.R.I.P. (Diversity-Resilience-Interactive-Perspective) Culturally Responsive Sustaining Instruction in Social Studies
Room 904
Co-Creating Learning Communities: Partnering with Youth in Culturally Responsive Ways
Room: 905
Elevating Coherence: Strategies for an Authentic Welcoming, Affirming, and Healing Learning Environment
Room: 906
Intergenerational Healing: Closing the Gap between Immigrant Youth and Families
Room 907
Healing Through Empathy: Practices to Affirm Historically and Culturally Marginalized Groups
Room: 908
2nd Wave MTSS to Bring Together Restorative Practices and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy with Balanced Data Analysis
Room: 909
Disability Justice and the Evolution of Inclusive Educational Leadership: Integrating the Social Model of Disability in Urban School Districts
Room: 910
Grading for Growth: Cultivating Belonging Through Fair Practices
Room: 912
PM Breakout Sessions (1:20 PM-2:30 PM)
It’s A V.I.B.E.
Room: 405
Healing in Progress: A Healing Circle with Healing Schools Project
Room 406
Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Power
Room: 903
Nurturing Independence and Cultivating Interdependence
Room: 904
Creating Cultures of Care in Urban High Schools
Room: 905
All We Need is Each Other: Cultivating Hope, Healing, and Resiliency Among School-based Equity Leaders
Room: 907
The Aftermath, Moving Forward!
Room: 908
Boundaries or Burnout
Room: 909
CRSE in Action: Three Years of Practice
Room: 910
Mental First Aid for Families: Recognizing and Responding to Crises from the Classroom
Room: 912
The 2025 Equity Now Conference offers a full day of community building, networking and learning for educators, parent/caregivers, youth, community organizers and technical assistance providers who are committing to transforming their classrooms, schools and districts. NYU Metro Center's annual convening also offers a unique opportunity to hear from an educational equity luminary and pioneer, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings. Dr. Ladson-Billings work in the areas of culturally relevant teaching, economic inequality, and systemic racism has greatly impacted the field of education. Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings keynote address at the 2025 Equity Now Conference promises to both enlighten and inspire.
Registration for NYU Metro Center's 2025 Equity Now Conference will be open through Friday, May 9th, 2025.
Facilitating this pivotal convening is a herculean effort in both word and deed. Equity Now Conference organizers have had to conduct an extensive and thorough search to secure a distinguished, brilliant, and inspirational individual to address this year’s pedagogical conclave. After an exhaustive search, a stellar selection was made.
- The individual chosen to address the 2025 Equity Now Conference is the former editor of the American Educational Research Journal.
- This educator has received numerous awards from national organizations and universities, including the Distinguished Service Medal from Teachers College, Columbia University, as well as the John Nisbet Award from the British Educational Research Association at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England.
- This leading pedagogical theorist has impacted the field of education, with their work on the adverse and destructive effects of systemic racism and economic inequality on educational opportunities.
- The revelatory findings of this teacher educator in the areas of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory have proven to be monumental and prodigious.
Similarly, her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children continues to serve as an essential text for educators.
It seems that the conference search committee made the correct decision about who should address the Equity Now Conference.
The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools is proud to announce Professor Emerita and former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor in Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, and was Faculty Affiliate in the Departments of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Gloria Ladson-BIllings, as the keynote speaker for its 2025 Equity Now Conference: Welcoming, Affirming, and Healing Schools.
The third (3rd) annual Equity Now Conference will be held in New York City, on Friday, May 30th, 2025. Registration for the conference is officially open. Note: Discounted rates are available from now through the early-bird registration deadline of May 1st, 2025.
Equity Now Conference Registration closed on Friday May 9, 2025.
Cancellation policy: Registration can be cancelled for a full refund up to April 30, 2025. Registration can be cancelled up to May 16, 2025 for a 50% refund. After May 17, 2025 there are NO refunds.
Learn more about Equity Conference Travel and Lodging information
