On May 8 – 10, 2025 DEEL hosted the Children, Race, and Racism Institute: Centering, Cultivating, and Celebrating the Brilliance of Black Girls. The purpose of the Children, Race, and Racism institute is to continue the work started over 30-years ago when Seattle-area educators came together with the common goal of undoing and dismantling racism within educational spaces. The institute calls on educators to address difficult and necessary conversations about children, race, and racism, and the impact of early childhood educators on children’s development. 

This three-day event was hosted by DEEL and brought in a distinguished panel of guest speakers and youth poets – including keynote speaker Dr. Bettina Love, New York Times Best Selling author for Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal.   

Over the three days, a total of 173 attendees experienced dynamic keynotes and workshops from local and national experts, both in-person at Seattle City Hall, as well as virtually through the RingCentral Events platform. A beautifully curated resource table provided educators with books and classroom materials to center the stories of Black girls.  

Attendees tuned in live to hear three different keynotes from national and local leaders, as well as 11 workshops led by educators working in the field. Participants also heard from a youth panel including youth from Seattle Public Schools and UW and were inspired by youth poets Harlem Naché Yarbrough and Ms. Nia Steward’s Melanin Poppin Girls Literacy Group. Dr. Chappelle’s daughters shared a touching speech on how their dad centers, cultivates, and celebrates their Black brilliance. Audience members included educators, administrators, and directors working with children across the birth to secondary educational spectrum.   

A variety of topics were part of the Institute’s learning experience for attendees, including:  

• Dr. M. Billye Sankofa Waters, Centering Stories of Unapologetic Blackgirls 

• Dr. Cirecie West-Olatunji, CEO of CRESTSprogram LLC, Creating Joyful Educational Spaces for Black Girls 

• Dr. Ashley Smith-Purviance, Resolving Black Women & Girls’ Experiences with Educational Harm 

• Dr. Sharon Knight, Exec. Officer of DSK-Culturally Responsive Education Services, LLC, Culturally Responsive Care: Supporting the Development of Black Girl’s Learning Excellence 

• Dr. Jamila L. Lee-Johnson, Inaugural Dean of Inclusion Excellence for the Graduate School, University of Notre Dame, Blooming Brilliance Blueprint: Sowing Seeds for Black Girl LeadHERship 

• Dr. Tamecca S. Fitzpatrick, Professor and Program Chair at the University of Arizona Global Campus Ed.D., Leadership Starts Early: Supporting Black Girls as Future Leaders 

• Dalisha Phillips, LMHC, Art Therapist, Brilliant Black Girls the World is Your P.E.A.R.L. (Power, Exceptionality, Authenticity, Resilience, and Luminosity) 

• Dr. Darielle Blevins, Assistant Research Professor with the Children’s Equity Project, Attuning our Gaze: Seeing Young Black Girls Through New Lenses 

• Dr. Autumn Aida Griffin, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Georgia State’s College of Education & Human Development and a fellow for NCTE’s Cultivating New Voices Fellowship for Scholars of Color, Inspiring the Next Generation of Innovators: STEM/STEAM and Black Girls 

• Tia Naché Yarbrough, spoken word author, and Genisha Branch, Being a Black Girl…My Superpower – Identifying, and Affirming the Brilliance of Black Girls 

• Dr. M. Billye Sanoka Waters, writer and educator, Centering Stories of Unapologetic Blackgirls 

The conference closed with a special youth-focused day, giving participants the opportunity to hear from Black girls directly about how to center, cultivate, and celebrate them in their educational journey.   

“Furthering my education isn’t just about school. It’s about proving to myself and other girls like me that we don’t have to choose between our identities and ambitions we can see both fully ourselves and fully successful.” – Youth Panel Student 

“What this conference left me was to see more positively the way to introduce to the new generation what equity is, what empathy is to continue growing the black community. Afro-descendants are very important and have contributed a lot to this country and have also contributed a lot to education. And as a preschool teacher, I take with me the knowledge that it is important to create in children that they should not be afraid to express themselves because they are of color, but rather to make them more independent when it is their turn to get ahead and talk to different people from other cultures and other races.”  – Liliam Aly, La Escuelita Bilingual School 

The Children, Race, and Racism Institute is an DEEL’s signature event hosted by the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning. Learn more at https://education.seattle.gov.