The 2024 American University (AU) Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice (SIEEJ), which took place from June 26 to June 28, was one for the ages, unfolding like a well-structured novel. 

The annual event during the last week of June, SIEEJ convenes local and national educators, students, researchers, policymakers, law enforcement officials, mental health experts, and community leaders to highlight new practices and strategies for addressing the educational needs of Black, Brown, and indigenous students. This year’s topic explored innovative strategies, evidence-based solutions, and the importance of solidarity in creating safer schools. 

Registration costs for the event are low to allow for the largest possible audience to attend, with all sessions being shown over Zoom online. Local attendees could also go to an in-person book signing and the hybrid closing lecture. This year’s topic, “Ending Violence in PreK-16 Schools,” is critically important to SIEEJ Director and SOE Senior Professorial Lecturer Dr. Antonio Ellis. “Violence in schools not only threatens the physical safety and well-being of students and staff but also undermines the very foundations of equitable and just education,” he said. “It perpetuates inequalities, fosters fear and trauma, and hinders students' ability to learn and thrive.” 

Speakers including Dr. Nathaniel Bryan, an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin College of Education; Lia Epperson, Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law; Gregory Neal Jackson, Jr., a survivor of gun violence and Deputy Director of the White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention; and Dr. Sophia Rodriguez, Associate Professor in Urban Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Sessions included keynotes, panel discussions with current students, parents, and lawmakers, and leaders from multiple types of schools, and a fireside chat. 
 

The Closing Lecture 

The genesis of uplifting the closing keynote was in October 2019 when AU School of Education (SOE) Dean Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, who established SIEEJ, met AU alum Dr. Edmund Wyatt Gordon (SPA, MA ’50), one of the greatest educators and changemakers of this era, at an alumni event appropriately titled Changemakers in Changing World. 

Gordon’s legacy is rife with achievements including being solicited by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be an architect fortifying the president’s War on Poverty legislation. The union of researchers culminated in establishing the federal Head Start programs. Gordon’s seemingly innumerable accomplishments have earned him unbridled respect and admiration from his education colleagues, and Holcomb-McCoy, soon after their meeting, made him a scholar-in-residence at SOE. SIEEJ Director Ellis, who had sought to enhance the experience of the institute’s final day, re-branded the event’s concluding lecture, infusing it with greater significance by incorporating Gordon’s name into its title. In 2021, the institute launched his namesake Dr. Edmund Gordon Distinguished Lecture, the conference’s marquee and final event. 

The pieces were in place to make SIEEJ 2024, "Ending Violence in PreK-16 Schools," one for the ages. Dr. Gordon’s earned a master’s degree in social psychology at American University. This year’s event was chaired in her absence by Gordon’s former mentee, SOE Acting Co-Dean Dr. Rodney Hopson. In early June, the SIEEJ planning committee announced that Gordon would attend the institute's Dr. Edmund Gordon Distinguished Lecture, featuring Dr. Bettina Love, in person. 

Gordon’s special assistant, Cassandra Edwards (pursuing her doctorate in education policy and leadership at SOE ’25) traveled with him from his home in New York. Hopson greeted the 103-year-old Gordon and Edwards at AU’s Washington College of Law upon their arrival and led them to a green room during Love’s pre-lecture book signing. [Caption for the photo: Dr. Gordon and the SIEEJ 2024 planning committee.] Then, as a surprise for attendees, Gordon was ushered to the stage following an introduction by Hopson and thunderous applause, where he delivered opening remarks for the lecture event in his name, silencing the hall and stunning attendees. 

He spoke passionately about the importance of education, peppered with anecdotes of his career trajectory, experience at AU, and his friendship with Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. Howard University School of Divinity Dean Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert spoke next, delivering a short yet gratitude-filled speech honoring Gordon’s impact on himself and educators worldwide. Following Love’s well-received lecture - which also included high and lengthy praise for Gordon - and the event’s closing, the honored guest took the time to pose for selfies with the cameras of numerous attendees before quietly being escorted out of the hall by Edwards. 

“Dr. Gordon is easily the most historical person I have met,” said Ellis, who has led the last five SIIEJ events. “To see, meet, take pictures with and, especially, talk with him at length literally represents the greatest moment I have experienced as an educator. The energy engendered by his mere presence just overwhelmed all of us. This will be hard to top at future SIEEJ events. I am still reeling from SIEEJ 2024.” 

Past SIEEJ Events 

A multi-day professional development opportunity pillared by antiracist principles, the institute provides vital information for its attendees via sessions and lectures, all tailored to support a topical theme. Since its 2018 inception, themes have included “Boys and Men of Color as Critical Scholars and Intellectuals: Making Our Journey Using Research and Practice”, “Shared Voices: Utilizing Antiracist Pedagogy to Transform Communities and Schools”; “Uplifting Women and Girls of Color Through Antiracist Pedagogy, Practice, and Policies”; “Leveling the Playing Field: Intersecting Race and Disabilities”; “Courageous Educational Leadership: Transforming K-12 Education Through an Antiracist Lens”; and “Eradicating the Sigma: Prioritizing Mental Health in PreK-16 Education.” 

The event has a worthy reputation for offering powerful and indelible lectures from prominent educators. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, who conceptualized and popularized the terms “antiracist” and “antiracism” via centers he founded and directed - first at AU and now at Boston University - and bestselling books he authored, has provided keynote addresses for two SIEEJ events, as has bestselling author and acclaimed speaker Dr. Bettina Love. Drs. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Gloria Ladson-Billings, David O. Stovall, and Tyrone Howard have also headlined the event.