Keynote Speakers
Dr. Lori Desautels
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Opening Keynote
Our Journey Through the Developing Nervous System as We Rewire Our Perceptions of Discipline
In this presentation, we will explore how our nervous systems are impacted by adversity, trauma, and experiences of resiliency through deepened connections and sensory regulation. Behaviors are only signals or indicators that the brain and body are struggling in survival states of functioning. In our time together, we will explore how we get out in front of the behavior through our procedures, routines, and transitions. We will also explore the differences between co-regulation and coercive regulation which is the foundation of discipline practices that move us through challenging moments while attending to our emotional, social, and physiological health.
Dr. Lori Desautels, has been an Assistant Professor at Butler University since 2016 where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate programs in the College of Education. Lori was also an Assistant Professor at Marian University in Indianapolis for 8 years where she founded the Educational Neuroscience Symposium that has now reached thousands of educators and is in its 16th year. Lori’s passion is engaging her students through the social and relational neurosciences as it applies to education. She does this by integrating the tier one trauma accommodating Applied Educational Neuroscience framework, and its learning principles and practices into her coursework at Butler.
The Applied Educational Neuroscience Certification, created by Lori in 2016, is specifically designed to meet the needs of educators, counselors, clinicians and administrators who work beside children and adolescents who have, and are, experiencing adversity and trauma. The certification is now global and has reached hundreds of educators. Lori’s articles are published in Edutopia, Brain Bulletin, and Mind Body Spirit international magazine. She was also published in the Brain Research Journal for her work in the fifth-grade classrooms during a course release position with Washington Township Schools. Lori continues her work co-teaching in the K-12 schools integrating her applied research into classroom procedures and transitions preparing the nervous system for learning and felt safety. Lori is the author of 4 books with more to come. Her most recent books are: Intentional Neuroplasticity, Our Educational Journey Towards Post Traumatic Growth, Connections over Compliance: Rewiring our Perceptions of Discipline. Her newest book will be a manual coming out in 2024 titled, “Body and Brain Brilliance: A manual to cultivate Awareness and Practices for our Nervous System”
Lori has met with well over 200 school districts across the country, in Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, Scotland, England and Dubai equating to more than 150,000 educators with much more work to be done!
Dr. William T. L. Cox
Friday, November 8, 2024
Closing Keynote
Harnessing Cognitive-Behavioral Science to Develop Effective Diversity Interventions: 16 Years of the Bias Habit-Breaking Training
Research consistently shows that non-scientific bias, equity, and diversity trainings do not work, and often make bias and diversity problems worse. Despite these widespread failures, there is considerable reason for hope that effective, meaningful DEI efforts can be developed, if we draw on the science of cognitive-behavioral change. One approach in particular, the bias habit-breaking training, has 16 years of experimental evidence demonstrating its widespread effectiveness and efficacy. In this presentation, Dr. Cox will elaborate on how his team applied diversity science to develop and test this intervention approach, and share a selection of research findings showing how science-informed diversity interventions like the bias habit-breaking training can create lasting, meaningful impacts on individual and institutional outcomes.
Dr. William Taylor Laimaka Cox is a scientist-practitioner in the realm of social justice. His work all serves the ultimate goal of understanding and reducing the injustice, human suffering, and disparities that arise from stereotyping and prejudice
A key theme throughout his scientific research is understanding fundamental processes at play in stereotyping and bias, especially how neural, cognitive, and cultural processes lead to the perpetuation of stereotypes and biases. His work also serves as a bridge between basic, fundamental science and translational, applied intervention work: he leverages advances in basic knowledge about stereotype perpetuation to develop, test, and refine evidence-based interventions, most especially the bias habit-breaking training, which has been shown to be highly effective at creating lasting, meaningful changes related to bias and diversity.
Dr. Cox is the Founder/CEO of Inequity Agents of Change, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to widespread dissemination of evidence-based methods to create lasting, meaningful change. They provide training and resources to individuals and organizations around the world, harnessing the science of cognitive-behavioral change to empower people as agents of change to reduce bias, create inclusion, and promote equity.
Dr. Cox received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His scientific research was recognized by National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH in the form of a Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award. In Business magazine named Dr. Cox one of Madison, Wisconsin’s “Forty Under 40” Class of 2024. He and his work have been featured several times on NPR and WPR, and has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Atlantic, and other major outlets.
