Keynote Speakers

Dr. Sonia Nieto

Dr. Sonia Nieto is Profesor Emirita of Language, Literacy, and Culture, School of Education at the University of Massachuetts, Amherst. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she attended the New Your City public schools and, later, St. John’s University, where she received a B.S. in Elementary Education. She then attended the New York Grduate Program in Spain where she was awarded an M.A. in Spanish and Hispanic Literature. A junior high school teacher of English and Spanish in Ocean Hille Brownsville, Brooklyn, whe then became a fourth grade teacher at P.S. 25 in the Bronx, the first completely bilingual school in the Northeast. Her first position in higher education as as an instructor in Puerto Rican Studies Department at Brooklyn College, where she worked in a joint program with the School of Education in bilingual education. Moving to Massachusetts with her family to pursue a doctoral degree in 1975, she received her Ed.D. from the Univeristy of Massachusetts, with specializations in curriculum studies and multi cultural and bilingual education.

Dr. Nieto’s scholarly work has focused on multicultural and bilingual education, curriculum reform, teacher education, Puerto Rican children’s literature, and the education of Latinos, immigrants, and other culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. She has written numberous book chapters and articles on these themes, and her articles have appeared in such journals as Educational Leadership, The New Educator, The Harvard Educational Review, and Multicultural Education. Her first book, Affirming Destiny: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (1992), soon to be in its fifth edition (2008), is used widely in multicultural education and professional development courses. Other books include The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities (1999), and What Keeps Teachers Going? (2003), both from Teachers College Press. Edited books include Puerto Rican Students in U.S. Schools (Erlbaum, 2000), and Why We Teach (Teachers College Press, 2005).

Dr. Nieto has served on many local, regional, national, and international commissions, panels, and advisory boards that focus on educational equity for all students. Among these are the Massachusetts Advocacy Center, and the National Advisory Boards of both Facing History and Ourselves (HHAO) and Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR). She has received many awards for her research and advocacy, including the Human and Civil Rights Award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association (1989), the Teacher of the Year Award from the Hispanic Educators Association of Massachusetts (1996), the Educator of the Year Award from NAME, the National Association for Multicultural Education (1997), the Excellence in Education Awards from Boricua College, the 2003 Critas Journal Hall of Fame Spanish-Language Community Advocate of the Year Award, the 2005 Outstanding Educator from the National Council of Teachers of English and, most recently, the 2006 Enrique T. Treuba Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship, Mentorship, and Service, as well as two awards from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) at the 2006 annual meeting: the Distinguished Career Award from the Committee on Scholars of Color in Education, and the Senior Scholar Award for Research on the Social Context of Education from Division G. She has received two honorary doctorates, one in Humane Letters from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1999), and the other in Intercultural Relations from Bridewater State College, Massachusetts (2004). She was an Annenberg Institute Senior Fellow from 1998-2000 and was awarded a month-long residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy in 2000. She is married to Angel Neito, a former teacher and author of children’s book, and they have two daughters and ten grandchildren.

In the introduction to Affirming Diversity (4th ed. 2004), Dr. Nieto writes

Our schools reflect the sociocultural and sociopolitical context in which we live. This context is unfair to many young people and their families and the situations in which they live and go to school…. one of our primary roles as educators is to interrupt the cycle of inequality and oppression. We can do this best by teaching well and with heart and soul.

Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette

Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette is Professor of Art history at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette is an interdisciplinary scholar with an active arts practice. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg), a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Regina (Saskatchewan), and an Interdisciplinary Doctorate (Native Studies, Anthropology, History) from the University of Manitoba (2004). Her dissertation, Sewing Ourselves Together: Clothing, Decorative Arts and the Expression of Metis and Half Breed Identity, received the Distinguished dissertation Award from the University of Manitoba in 2005. Her broad research focus is Metis and First Nations women’s history, particularly reconstructing indigenous art histories that recontextualize museum collections and reclaim women’s voices and lives. Her publications include Sewing for a Living: The Connodification of Metis Women’s Artistic Production in Contact Zones: Aboriginal and Settler Women in Canada’s Colonial Past (2005); *Metis Man or Canadian Icon: Who Owns Louis Riel in Rielisms (2001); Beads, Sild and Quills: The Clothing and Decorative Arts of the Metis in Metis Legacy (2001); and Sex, Fear, Women, Travel and Work: Five Persistant Triggers of Eurocentric Negativity in Pushing the margins (2001). In addition, she has illustrated children’s books written by Maria Campbell, Freda Ahnenakew, and Ruby Slipperjack. Her arts practice includes painting and multimedia works combining textiles, beadwork, and embroidery with images and text. Recent exhibitions include Dolls for Big Girls (2000), Regina Art Museum; Illustrative Images: Sherry Farrell Racette (2002) Mackenzie Art Gallery; and group exhibitions: Rielisms (2001), Winnipeg Art Gallery and Animate Objects: The Grammar of Craft in First nations Contemporary Art (2002), Sakewewak Artists’ Collective. her works are in a number of public collections including Saskatchewan Arts Board, MacKenzie Art Gallery; and the Canada Council’s Art Bank. Most recently she co-curated Clearing a Path: An Exhibition of Traditional Indigenous Arts for the Saskatchewan Arts Board showcasing contemporary artists working in traditional media for the 2005 Saskatchewan Centennial.

Dr. Lee Gunderson

Dr. Lee Gunderson is a Professor and former Head of the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in second language reading, language acquisition, literacy acquisition, and teacher education. He has served as a pre-school teacher, a primary-level elementary teacher, a reading specialist, a principal and vice-principal in a bilingual school, and a teacher of the learning disabled. He received the David Russell Award for Research, the Killam Teaching Prize at the University of British Columbia and has been awarded the Kingston Prize for contributions to the National Reading Conference. He has served as Chair of the Publications Committee of the International Reading Association and is founding Chair of the Pippin Teacher’s Professional Library. He is a Past President of the National Reading Conference. He has conducted long-term research that explores the achievement of approximately 25,000 immigrant students.

Joan McCusker

Joan McCusker believes it is ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Through her experiences as a teacher, mom, world champion curler, Olympic Gold Medalist and CBC Commentator, Joan has collected a number of observations on the attitudes that propel ordinary people to build extraordinary lives. With a big smile, plenty of humour and tons of Olympic examples, Joan explains the type of attitude and teamwork that builds success in every aspect of life.

Her first example is her own journey. Joan was part of a curling foursome that dominated the world of women’s curling in the 1990’s. With her teammates, Sandra Schmirler, Jan Betker and Marcia Gudereit, Joan won three Canadian and three World Curling Titles in 1993, 1994 and 1997. While balancing young families and careers, the team rallied in the fall of 1997 to win the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials and the right to represent Canada at the Olympics. These victories prepared them well for their greatest achievement: a Gold Medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan!

Such extraordinary events happening to such an ordinary person! Joan and her six brothers and sisters were raised on the family farm near Saltcoats, Saskatchewan. It was a busy and active family that supported her first successes in school and sport. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1987 with a Bachelor of Education. She taught a wide variety of grades and subjects over ten years. She is married to Brian McCusker and has three children aged 14, 10 and 7. She resides in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Joan joined the CBC Sports Curling telecast as a commentator in 2001. She continued to curl competitively with Team Betker who placed fourth in Canada in 2003 and in the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in December, 2005. She volunteers her time to charity and is an active member on the Board of Directors of the Sandra Schmirler Foundation. She resigned her teaching position in 1998 to dedicate more time to being a mom, curler, broadcaster and motivational speaker. Joan’s travels have shown her successful people in all walks of life. She sees the parallels of sports psychology and successful strategies used in business, community and family. Joan has plenty of examples of ordinary people doing extraordinary things!!

Her presentation style is light and humourous, but her message is clear. Attitude is everything. Joan has become a popular motivational speaker with topics such as: “Building Successful Teams”; “Characteristics of Successful People”; “Winning Attitudes”; and, of course, “Ordinary People do Extraordinary Things!”