We are Honored to Announce Our
2026 Keynote Speakers & Panelists
Dr. Christopher B. Knaus is a long-time NAME member and winner of the NAME's 2025 Award for Research. He serves as Professor of Education at the University of Washington Tacoma. A multidisciplinary scholar and practitioner, Knaus collaborates locally and globally to transform education systems, strengthen community based organizations, innovate educator preparation processes, and cultivate educational leaders. Knaus partners with communities to implement localized workforce development projects, including for teachers and educational leaders, as well as service-related industries. Christopher Knaus' current projects include practitioner-oriented collaborations in Washington, Oregon, California, and globally in Southern Africa.
Dr. Kristal M. Clemons, a Chicago native, possesses broad experience in K–12 education, higher education, and nonprofit management. Before assuming the role of national director of the CDF Freedom Schools program, she was an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at Virginia State University. A Chicago native, Clemons has also been involved with CDF Freedom Schools programs over the last two decades. Beginning as a Servant Leader Intern, Clemons went on to serve as the project director and co-founder of the CDF Durham Freedom School site, a CDF Freedom Schools partner at North Carolina Central University. Clemons also co-founded the CDF Freedom Schools site at Florida A&M University. There, she served as co-executive director and managed the daily operations of three local CDF Freedom Schools sites. Most recently, Clemons has served as the co-founder and co-executive director of the CDF Freedom Schools site at Virginia State University. Clemons’ expansive work and leadership within CDF Freedom Schools is supplemented by the historic perspective she cultivated in focusing her doctoral dissertation on the 1964 Freedom Schools movement.
Donna Dukes, Founder and Executive Director of Maranathan Academy, was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Miles College, a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Harvard University and a Master of Arts in Management from Harvard University. Donna founded Maranathan Academy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit alternative school and learning center, on September 3, 1991, to educate critically at-risk youth and adult students.The Academy's goal is to break intergenerational, cyclical dependency on government assistance, which plagues the critically at-risk populace. Over the last thirty-two years, Maranathan Academy has impacted over 2,000 lives and graduated nearly 400 students from Maranathan Academy. She works tirelessly to bring the plight of critically at-risk students to the attention of the public and private sectors, and to ensure that her students, embrace academic opportunities, discard victim mentalities, practice inclusion, accept personal responsibility for their actions, and thereby, become productive, contributing members of society.
Dr. James A. Banks is the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies Emeritus and founding director of the Center for Multicultural Education (now the Banks Center for Educational Justice) at the University of Washington. He is known for his work in social studies and global citizenship education, and he has written widely in those fields. His research has focused on how educational institutions can improve race and ethnic relations and the academic achievement of diverse groups. Research by Professor Banks on how educational institutions can improve race and ethnic relations has greatly influenced schools, colleges, and universities throughout the United States and the world. He is often called the “Father of Multicultural Education.” Professor Banks has given lectures on citizenship education and diversity in many countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, and New Zealand. His books have been translated into Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, and Arabic.
The Rose Duhon-Sells Lecture will be a Panel
Convened by James A. Banks
including:
Christine E. Sleeter, PhD is a professor, author, education activist and former president of NAME. She is Professor Emerita in the College of Education, California State University, Monterey Bay. She has helped hundreds of teachers become better teachers of the schools' culturally diverse students. She has also served as the Vice President of Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education) of the American Educational Research Association. Her work primarily focuses on multicultural education, ethnic studies, preparation of teachers for culturally diverse schools, and anti-racism. Considered an expert in her field, Dr. Sleeter is a much sought-after speaker and is the author of more than 24 books, numerous articles, and blog posts.
Royel M. Johnson is a nationally recognized scholar of higher education whose work centers system-impacted students—young people whose lives intersect the foster care, criminal legal, and housing systems—and the conditions that shape belonging, opportunity, and racial equity on college campuses. He is a tenured professor of education and social work at the University of Southern California, and Co-Editor of Educational Researcher—a leading interdisciplinary journal that shapes national conversations in education research and policy—and Co-Director of the Research Institute for Scholars of Equity (RISE). Johnson's research program advances three interconnected strands. First, he examines how institutional policies, practices, and cultural norms shape access to opportunity, belonging, and student success in higher education, particularly for racially minoritized and system-impacted students. Second, he studies racial equity as an institutional and political project—how colleges and universities define, implement, resist, or reconfigure equity initiatives amid shifting policy landscapes and intensifying political backlash. Third, he advances theoretical and methodological tools, including socio-ecological and critical race mixed-methods approaches, for studying marginality in higher education.
H. Prentice Baptiste is a Regents and Distinguished Achievement Professor at New Mexico State University. Professor. Dr. Baptiste was awarded the first College of Education Diversity Award in 2014.He was president of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) from 2016 to 2018, a premier organization advocating for equity and social justice, which he help found in 1990. His research interests include the conceptualization of multicultural education, the process of multiculturalizing educational entities, and culturally diversifying science and mathematics instruction. Baptiste has authored or edited seven books, K-8 science book series (Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Publishers) as well as over 125 articles, papers, and chapters on multicultural and science education. He has presented papers and conducted workshops in Nigeria, Egypt, Germany, Jamaica, Kenya, Morocco, the Netherlands and Cuba.
Gary R. Howard is a very popular keynote speaker at NAME and other educational conferences, writer, and workshop leader. He has over 40 years of experience in civil rights, social justice, equity, education, and diversity. Before becoming a consultant, he founded the REACH Center for Multicultural Education and served as an Adjunct Professor at Western Washington University and Seattle University. Gary received his undergraduate degree in Cultural Anthropology and Social Psychology from Yale University and did graduate work in ethics and social justice at Yale Divinity School. He has provided extensive training in cultural competence and culturally responsive practice to schools, universities, social service groups, and businesses throughout the United States and Australia. Currently, Gary is focused on leading Equity Leadership Institutes that help educational organizations provide professional development for social justice and systemic change. He often shares stories from his annual white water equity workshops on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Wayne Au, Ph.D., is an educational researcher, scholar-activist and the Dean of the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington–Bothell. His work focuses heavily on critical education theory, anti-racist education, and teaching for social justice. Before entering academia, Au worked as a middle and high school social studies and language arts teacher, most notably at Garfield High School and Middle College High School in Seattle. Au is a long-time editor for Rethinking Schools. He is known for his advocacy work focusing on historically marginalized students, his scholarship frequently explores high-stakes testing, multicultural education, and Asian American education.
