SATURDAY KEYNOTE -
DR. APRIL BAKER-BELL
DR. APRIL BAKER-BELL
Dr. April Baker-Bell is an award-winning transdisciplinary teacher-researcher-activist and associate professor of language, literacy, and English education in the Department of English and Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University.
Baker-Bell is an international leader in conversations on Black Language education, and her research interrogates the intersections of Black Language and literacies, anti-Black racism, and antiracist pedagogies. Her award-winning book, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, brings together theory, research, and practice to dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism (a term Baker-Bell coined) and white linguistic supremacy. Baker-Bell is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the 2021 Coalition for Community Writing Outstanding Book Award, the 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s New Directions Fellowship, the 2021 Michigan State University’s Community Engagement Scholarship Award and the 2021 Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Creative Activity, the 2020 NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language, the 2020 Theory Into Practice Article of the Year Award, the 2019 Michigan State University Alumni Award for Innovation & Leadership in Teaching and Learning, and the 2018 AERA Language and Social Processes Early Career Scholar Award.
FRIDAY KEYNOTES -
DR. KHALILA FORDHAM AND DR. PAOLO LARAÑO
DR. KHALILA FORDHAM, PSY.D.
Khalila Fordham, PsyD: Dr. Fordham is a licensed clinical psychologist and currently serves as a staff psychologist and the Multicultural Support Specialist at the University of Puget Sound (nonprofit).
At the university, she provides a variety of clinical services, including individual and group therapy, as well as clinical supervision to master’s and doctoral-level trainees. In addition, she is primarily responsible for developing and facilitating the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training for the healthcare providers in the wellness center and serves as a clinical mental health and DEI consultant to the university at large. Dr. Fordham relocated to the Pacific Northwest to assume her role at Puget Sound after serving as a staff psychologist and the Coordinator of Consultation and Outreach at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. She earned both her master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from the Georgia School of Professional Psychology in Atlanta, GA.
Dr. Fordham recently stepped into the foray of entrepreneurship by co-founding Anomalous Partners, a small, Black women-owned organization dedicated to developing and disseminating resources for positive societal change. With 15 years of experience in the psychology field, Dr. Fordham has worked within a range of environments, from college counseling centers to the department of juvenile justice, which affords her the opportunity to work across diverse populations regarding various concerns. She highly values opportunities to consult and serve as a liaison between organizations and their broad constituencies. Organizations have included the University of Puget Sound; Clemson University and the Clemson University Police Department; University of South Carolina.
Dr. Fordham’s clinical interests include cultural diversity and the impact of oppression, human sexuality, trauma recovery, identity and personality development, and systems intervention. In addition to conducting therapy, she has an affinity for social justice, advocacy, public education, and outreach. Whenever possible, she serves as an advocate and mentor for youth from historically marginalized groups and consultant for educators striving to support their students, particularly those who have suffered trauma. Dr. Fordham has organized and facilitated programming regarding mental health, stress management, trauma recovery and support, sex education, sexual assault prevention, team building, as well as prejudice and discrimination reduction. Dr. Fordham is in the process of becoming an AASECT certified sex therapist and educator, specializing in trauma recovery, taboo lifestyle practices, and treatment with individuals from marginalized identity groups.
Outside of the clinical setting, you may find Dr. Fordham reading, dancing, singing karaoke, practicing Brazilian jiu jitsu, attending sci-fi conventions, or engaging in “intense discussions.” She also is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Dr. Fordham is looking forward to exploring more of the great outdoors in the Pacific Northwest.
DR. PAOLO LARAÑO, PSY.D.
Paolo is a clinical psychologist working at the University of Washington Tacoma and in private practice. Paolo has worked in mental health and education for the last decade.
His professional experiences also include teaching social/emotional learning in elementary and middle school, working with incarcerated youth and their families, and providing outreach and education to various underserved communities. He sees working in mental health as a vehicle for his lifetime journey of working for social justice and healing, both individually, and within our various communities. He has worked extensively with various elementary, middle, and high schools all over the San Francisco Bay Area, with a primary focus on student resilience and improving communication and understanding between faculty, students, and staff. This work also involved working specifically to support teachers in their learning about how to more effectively support students with a variety of different identities. Along with a team of other Filipinx psychologists, Paolo helped develop, and continues to provide training around the impacts of colonization on individuals and communities and how mental health providers can work to decolonize their practices. He’s provided these trainings to students, staff, and faculty at the university level at the University of Puget Sound and The University of Washington, Tacoma and has also helped train fellow clinicians in workshops in various mental health settings.
When he’s not working, Paolo enjoys spending time with his family, cooking/searching for some kind of new food to try, running/walking, playing music, dancing, writing, and nerding out over a variety of things.