Welcome & Vision
We invite you to experience the inaugural Healing-Centered Education Summit Online Experience. This gathering created space for us to coalesce around the emerging restorative and healing-centered paradigm in educational research and practice. With the challenges facing our world--political polarization, economic inequality, racial and gender violence, and health disparities--the need for practices, policies, experiences, and communities for collective recovery and restoration are crucial. Through groundbreaking panels, presentations and breathwork sessions, this online experience will inspire a new generation of scholarship and pedagogical practices that will influence K-12 and professional education. Dive in and hear from over twenty-five speakers and join a robust community of people exchanging ideas and resources within this paradigm.
Over the last four decades, social-emotional learning (SEL), mindfulness-based and contemplative education, trauma-informed care, restorative justice and decolonizing education have formed part of frameworks that constellate the healing-centered turn in educational discourse. However, the notion of healing-centered education is still fairly new in the realm of educational practice and academic research. Dr. Shawn Ginwright was one of the first educators to conceptualize and use the term healing-centered engagement to describe a more restorative approach to youth development in his book Hope and Healing in Urban Education.
Although our human community has engaged in healing-centered practices since time immemorial, the notion of intentionally developing and integrating such practices into formal schooling, university curricula, workforce professional development and adult education is a new phenomena. The vision for this summit is to support the array of scholars, practitioners and curious learners in coming together to contribute to the growing interest in healing-centered approaches to education. At the core, whether we call it healing-centered or some other trendy concept, this summit and this historical moment are about creating the conditions for our children and ourselves to thrive and flourish in the face of multiple crises.
Speakers & Panelists
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Solana Booth
Core Questions
How do we create conditions for thriving and flourishing in our classrooms, educational and organizational settings?
How do we lean on healing-centered practices to support restorative and contemplative approaches justice, equity, diversity and inclusion work?
How can we build on the momentum of mindfulness, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed pedagogy, culturally relevant education and anti-racist education to cement the healing-centered education canon?
How do we develop the heartfulness and discomfort resilience to navigate tumultuous times and activate post-traumatic growth while caring for ourselves and for our communities?
How do we deploy embodiment and embodied practices to strengthen our leadership and presence in doing this work?
What is the role of liberatory and equity-centered design principles in enhancing healing-centered approaches to education?
Who is this summit for?
Educators
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultants
Therapists
Psychologists
Researchers
Teachers
Parents
Artists
Somatic Practitioners
Activists
Aspiring Activists
Anyone interested in building community and exploring the healing-centered paradigm
Summit Co-Chair
For the last decade, Dr. Acosta has worked to bridge the fields of leadership, social justice, and mindfulness.


Summit Co-Chair
Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz is an award-winning Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on racial literacy in teacher education, Black girl literacies, and Black and Latinx male high school students.
Pricing & Registration
We want to make this Summit online experience as accessible as possible. With the support of existing and growing sponsors, we have been able to significantly reduce admission. Contribute based on your relative financial needs & standing.
Asynchronous Access
Now Available!
Subsidized
$89.99
$149.99
- Reduced registration for full summit access
- Access to full Community Audio Garden with over 16 hours of pre-recorded interviews
- Access to summit digital infrastructure including networking platforms
General Admission
$149.99
Originally $249.99
- Regular admission and access to registration for full summit access
- Access to full Community Audio Garden with over 16 hours of pre-recorded interviews
- Access to summit digital infrastructure including networking platforms
- Pay-it-forward forward for someone else to experience the summit
Group Rate
Multiple Registrations
Would you like to purchase multiple tickets for a large group?
Become a Sponsor
Multi-Level
Want to establish your organization as a committed leader in this field of thought, while providing foundational support to an emerging movement? There are various levels of engagement--from contributing to specific areas of the program to general resource development for summit production.