Chauncey Veatch is the National Teacher of the Year for 2002 and a social studies teacher at Coachella Valley High School in Thermal, CA. He emphasizes literacy and knowledge of students as major components of his teaching philosophy and strongly believes that literate persons not only have more options in life, but are much more likely to become lifelong learners. Many of his students come from poor and working-class families where a language other than English is spoken. He has been teaching since 1995 and earned his social studies credential at Chapman University. He also teaches English as a Second Language and citizenship classes at the district's adult education school. Chauncey Veatch will give the Saturday night keynote address at this year's summit.

Dorothy Allison has been proclaimed "one of the finest writers of her generation," by the Boston Glove, and "simply stunning," by the New York Times Book Review. Bastard Out of Carolina, Allison's first novel, was one of five finalists for the 1992 National Book Award. It went on to win numerous awards for fiction and has appeared in translations around the world. Allison's second novel, the critically acclaimed Cavedweller, was a New York Times Bestseller. Allison serves on the advisory board of the National Coalition Against Censorship, Feminists for Free Expression, and has founded The Independent Spirit Award, a prize given each year to an individual whose work with small presses and independent bookstores has helped to sustain that enterprise. Allison lives in a rural area in Sonoma County and has a 10 year old son, attending public school. Dorothy Allison will give the Sunday afternoon keynote address at this year's summit, focused on the educational needs of poor white people in rural America.

Bill Bigelow teaches high school in Portland, Oregon and is an editor of the acclaimed publication, Rethinking Columbus, which has sold over a quarter of a million copies. His latest book is Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World. Bill has taught social studies in public high schools for 25 years. He is an editor of the national education reform journal, Rethinking Schools. He will be leading workshops about both "Rethinking Columbus" and "Rethinking Globalization" on Saturday.

Linda Christensen, is author of Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching for Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word, and co-editor of Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice. She taught Language Arts for over twenty years at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon, and currently is Language Arts Coordinator for Portland Public Schools. She is a member of the Rethinking Schools editorial board, director of the Portland Writing Project, and a founding member of the National Coalition of Education Activists. She will be leading two workshops at the summit on Saturday.

Alexander Cockburn is co-editor of CounterPunch. He is a regular syndicated columnist for the Nation. His most recent books include 5 Days that Shook the World and WhiteOut: The CIA, Drugs and The Press (both co-authored with Jeffrey St. Clair). Later this year they will be publishing CounterPunch: Journalism That Rediscovers America. Alex lives in Humboldt County Northern California.

Gayle Ross is a Cherokee Storyteller and a descendent of John Ross, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation during the infamous "Trail of Tears." During the past two decades, Ross has become one of the nation's best-loved and most respected storytellers, and has published five critically acclaimed children's books. She has been a featured artist in touring shows sponsored by the National Council of Traditional Arts, and has been a speaker at the national conventions of the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and the International Board of Books for Young People. Gayle Ross will speak and tell stories at the Friday plenary and offer a workshop on storytelling with young children.

Reed Hastings is the President of the California State Board of Education, a founding member of NewSchools.org, and the board member of Aspire Public Schools. He led the successful drive in 1998 for a revised charter school law in California and in 2000, joined with the California Teachers Association, Governor Gray Davis, and others to win the battle for easier passage of local school construction bonds. He is currently CEO of NetFlix, a subscription DVD movie service. His talk on Friday will focus on state standards, accountability, school choice, and the new federal policy No Child Left Behind.

Ruth Shagoury Hubbard is the Mary Stuart Rogers Professor of Education and the Coordinator of the Language and Literacy Program at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She earned her Ph.D. in Reading and Writing Instruction at the University of New Hampshire and has served as the co-editor and co-founder of Teacher Research: The Journal of Classroom Inquiry. She is on the editorial boards of Networks: International Journal of Teacher Research and the National Council of Teachers of English's Language Arts Journal. She will present two workshops at the Summit: "The Truth about Helen Keller: Covert Censorship in Children's Books" and "The Unofficial Literacy of Adolescent Girls, and What it Can Teach Us."

Linda Inlay, M. Ed., is the Director of the River School and an educator for 30 years, beginning at Ho'ala School in Hawaii in 1973. She brought the Ho'ala Educational Model to the River School seven years ago because it fit with the school's charter of raising independent learners. The River School, a charter middle school in Napa, effectively meets the unique needs of middle schoolers, using the Ho'ala Educational Model, developed in Hawaii thirty years ago. This model starts with the nature of human beings and how we learn best, and aligns the explicit curriculum of subject matter and school culture or implicit curriculum to the assumptions made about the psychological needs and development of adolescents. This model assumes that everything in the school --practices, relationships, and structure -- communicates beliefs and values which can either support students in learning or hinder. The vision of the school is of students who are responsible, respectful, resourceful, and responsive citizens of our democracy and global community. Linda and colleagues from the River School will present three workshops at this year's Summit.

Bob Kim is the director of outreach and training of the Respect For All Project, a program of Women's Educational Media, which provides free diversity trainings to public schools in California. His work is focused on three films produced by Women's Educational Media, It's Elementary, That's a Family! and Respect for All, films addressing cutting-edge topics such as addressing gay issues with young children, responding to the full diversity of family forms in California's schools, and bullying, harassment, and school violence. Prior to joining the Project, Kim was a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, where he focused on, among other topics, bias and discrimination cases involving students, teachers and school districts. He is a graduate of Williams College and Boston College Law School.

Kevin Kumashiro, Ph.D., has worked as a teacher and teacher educator in schools and colleges in the United States and abroad, and has facilitated workshops and served as a consultant for schools, school districts, and state and federal agencies. His first book, Troubling Intersections of Race and Sexuality, was praised as "a milestone" in the field of multicultural education, and his new book, Troubling Education: Queer Activism and Anti-oppressive Pedagogy, has been called "the next benchmark" of this field. He is the founder of The Center for Anti-Oppressive Education, located in the Bay Area of California, which develops resources for members of educational communities to challenge different forms of oppression in schools and society.. He will be offering two workshops focused on multicultural education and rooting out racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Kumashiro will be leading two intensive workshops, "Learning and Unlearning the (Dis)Comforting Songs of Hawai'i" on Friday, focused on an exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of teaching about differences versus teaching about oppression, and Saturday's "Teaching Hidden Lessons on Gender and Sexual Orientation."

Ray Raphael is the author of numerous books, including, A People's History of the American Revolution, An Everyday History of Somewhere, and The Men from the Boys. He lives in Southern Humboldt County and has worked with HSU's Secondary Education program for many years. His most recent book, The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord is an explosive account of the power of activism in the hands of ordinary people.

Matt Wray has been described as "Author, scholar, teacher, activist, consummate belcher, madman. Wray is many things to many people." Wray holds an M.A. in Social and Cultural Studies in Education and a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies, both from UC Berkeley. In 2000-2001, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of American History, where he conducted research for his forthcoming book, Inventing White Trash. He is co-editor of three anthologies: White Trash: Race and Class in America; Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life; and The Making and Unmaking of Whiteness. He is currently an assistant professor of sociology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas and has taught in education and ethnic studies at Berkeley and Humboldt State University. He will be leading two workshops, "Inventing 'White Trash': The Making of a Stereotype," and "Burning Man: Youth, Meaning, Culture, Identity."

Patty Yancey, Ph.D. is Director of the Arts and Education Collaborative in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco and an Assistant Professor in the International Multicultural/Teacher Education Department. In addition to arts education, Yancey has done extensive research in the area of public school reform, particularly on charter schools. A book of Yancey's case studies--Parents Founding Charter Schools: Dilemmas of Empowerment and Decentralization (Peter Lang, 2000)--chronicles the start-up sagas of two California charters. In Fall 2002, Dr. Yancey launched an arts-integrated, K-8 multiple subject teacher credential/M.A.T. program that integrates the visual and performing arts throughout the two years of coursework. Headquartered at USF's Oakland Campus, fourteen teacher candidates are now enrolled in the program's inaugural cohort. Prior to her career in higher education, Yancey worked as a graphic designer/illustrator, an arts educator in K-12 schools (dance and visual arts), and in non-profit arts management in California and Alaska. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Studies in Education at the University of California at Berkeley. She is also one of the contributing authors of Inside Charter Schools: The Paradox of Radical Decentralization (Harvard University Press, 2001). Dr. Yancey will be leading two workshops, one focused on the challenges and joys experienced by parents who establish charter schools, and one focused on integrating the arts into public school classrooms.