WORKSHOP LEADERS

Anita Churchville coordinates the K-12 High Ability Program at the American School of Bombay. She previously created and coordinated the Gifted and Talented Education program at the American School of Doha and at Academia Cotopaxi in Ecuador. In addition, she worked as a program specialist in the Los Angeles Unified School District in California, USA, supporting 16 schools. She has a master's degree in special and gifted education and an educational diagnostician certification. She has presented conference sessions at the IB Regional Conference (The Hague), the Istanbul NESA regional conference and the NESA regional conference in Bangkok.

Marilyn Friend, Ph.D. Professor Emerita, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has spent her career as a general education teacher, special education teacher, researcher, professor, administrator, teacher educator, and staff developer. She is Professor Emerita of Education in the Department of Specialized Education Services at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and she is Past President of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the largest International Professional Organization dedicated to improving the educational success of children and youth with disabilities and/or gifts and talents.

Dr. Friend has consulted with school professionals nationally and internationally (more than 3000 presentations and projects in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia) as they collaborate to educate their students, assisting them to create classroom partnerships through co-teaching, to form productive and efficient work teams, and to foster inclusive practices. She is the author or co-author of three widely used college textbooks on special education; a variety of co-teaching materials for teachers and administrators; more than 60 articles about collaboration, inclusive practices, and co-teaching; and a highly popular video series on co-teaching and other inclusive practices. Her work was recently recognized when she was named the 2016 recipient of the Teacher Education Division/Pearson Excellence in Special Education Teacher Education Award.

Rohit Kumar, through his work and education, has come to believe that schools are places for an enriching socio-cultural dialogue that can empower or subvert its pupils, depending upon how the school is imagined, designed and brought into action. Rohit holds an M.A. in Education from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and Masters in Software Systems from Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai, India. However, he thinks his most important learning comes from two other experiences. One, teaching at Akanksha Foundation’s Social Leadership Program for three years where he worked with youth from low income homes and at ASB’s Global Leadership class, where he works with youth to engage with their multicultural selves. Two, being part of the summer staff team at Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) project by Wellesley Center for Women, Wellesley College, USA where he co-facilitates diversity workshops for educators.

Since 2015, he is working with American School of Bombay on Community and Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives where he work with students and teachers on service learning, intercultural competence and CSR advisory programme. He has also co-founded Khoj Community School, a project for whole-school approach to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with a focus on concept-based curriculum, multicultural education and community development.

Velica Pernell is a Language Arts teacher at the American School of Bombay. She has an M.A. in English Curriculum and Instruction from North Carolina State University, and with nearly 15 years of teaching experience, employs a balanced literacy approach through Reading and Writing Workshop.

Working in a variety of socioeconomic schools, Velica, a former Equity Co-chair, has often observed the disparity among educational institutions and the marginalization of voices in school settings. Combining this knowledge, with her love for books, she is continually looking for ways to leverage literature to explore issues of class, gender, race, etc. Velicia believes that this creates a more balanced English curriculum: one that emphasizes students’ rights to literary voices that reflect complex identities as a means for self-understanding and a window into the lives of others.

Andrew Watson is an author, teacher, national and international speaker, who has been connecting brain research with independent schools for the better part of a decade. A one-time dean of faculty and an award-winning teacher with 16 years of experience, Andrew now explores practical classroom uses of neuroscience and psychology research. Founder and President of Translate the Brain—an educational consultancy—he has worked in dozens of schools: from Johannesburg to New Jersey, from California to Cairo. His book Learning Begins has been called “an invaluable resource: lucid and approachable,” offering “research-based strategies and concrete examples that can be implemented immediately.” A graduate of Harvard College, Andrew holds an MA in English Literature from Boston University and an M. Ed. from the “Mind Brain Education” program at Harvard University.