
Reviews Write New Review
Location
Booking Fee
Fee: $##,###Get Pricing
Virtual Fee: $##,###Get Pricing
[email protected]
Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is the founder of LiberatED, an antiracist approach to social and emotional learning and healing. She is the former Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, where she supported schools to use the power of emotions to create a more compassionate and just society. Prior to her work at the Center, Simmons served as an educator, teacher educator, diversity facilitator, and curriculum developer.
She has been a leading voice on teacher education and has written and spoken across the country about social justice pedagogy, diversity, emotional intelligence, and bullying in K-12 school settings, including the White House, the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, the United Nations, two TEDx talks, and a TED talk on Broadway. Simmons has been profiled in Education Week, the Huffington Post, NPR, the AOL/PBS project, MAKERS: Women Who Make America, and a Beacon Press Book, Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists.
Simmons is a recipient of a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a J. William Fulbright Fellowship, an Education Pioneers Fellowship, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, a Phillips Exeter Academy Dissertation Fellowship, a Hedgebrook Writing Residency, and an Arthur Vining Davis Aspen Fellowship among others. She earned her doctorate degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she recently served as faculty in the Summer Principals Academy. Her research interests include teacher preparedness to address bullying in the K-12 school setting, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the intersection of equity and social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions—all in an effort to ensure and foster justice and safe spaces for all. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People (St. Martin’s Press, 2022).
Videos
Speech Topics
Leveraging Emotional Intelligence and Culturally Responsive Practices for Thriving Students
For students to thrive at school, they must feel safe to be who they are; they must love themselves. As a result, our leadership and instruction must foster psychological and emotional safety through emotional intelligence and culturally responsive pedagogy. During this interactive session, participants will explore the five key skills of emotional intelligence—recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions—as well as examples of culturally relevant practices. Through narrative, Simmons will discuss how the intersection of emotionally intelligent and culturally responsive practices can create equitable and welcoming communities, where students can learn in the comfort of their own skin.
News
Related Speakers View all
![]() |
Liz Dozier
Founder & CEO of Youth Equity Platform Chicago Beyon...
|
![]() |
Kandice Sumner
Educator & TED Speaker
|
![]() |
Jaime Casap
Former Chief Education Evangelist at Google
|
![]() |
Tamir Harper
Co-Founder & Executive Director of UrbEd Inc., Advoc...
|
![]() |
Dr. Sharroky Hollie
Executive Director of The Center for Culturally Resp...
|
![]() |
Erin Gruwell
Founder & Executive Director of the Freedom Writers
...
|
![]() |
Gloria Ladson-Billings
Former Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education i...
|
![]() |
Doug Lemov
Managing Director of Uncommon Schools & Author of "T...
|
![]() |
Rodney Robinson
2019 National Teacher of the Year
|
![]() |
Lisa Delpit
Educationalist, Author, Eminent Scholar & Former Exe...
|
![]() |
Keith L. Brown
Motivational Speaker on DEI, Workplace Wellness, Lea...
|
![]() |
Melissa Crum
Artist, Author, Researcher, and Owner of Mosaic Educ...
|
![]() |
Zaretta Hammond
Teacher Educator & Author of "Culturally Responsive ...
|
![]() |
Nikki Giovanni
Poet, Educator & Best-Selling Author
|
![]() |
Linda Darling-Hammond
CEO of Learning Policy Institute & Founder of the St...
|
![]() |
Anthony Colannino
President of Leading & Teaching for Growth
|
![]() |
Eduardo Briceño
Founder & Former CEO at Wiring Growth, Facilitating ...
|
![]() |
Tom Vander Ark
Author & CEO of Getting Smart
|
![]() |
George Couros
Author & Educator; Innovative Teaching, Learning and...
|
![]() |
Emily Diehl
Former Director of Professional Learning & Curriculu...
|