2026 Annual EDSA Conference

DePaul University's Doctoral Student Association (EDSA) is thrilled to host the 2026 Annual EDSA Conference in collaboration with the Racial Justice and Systemic Change Committee (RJSCC). The conference will take place on Saturday, May 2, 2026 and will be in-person with virtual options.

This year’s conference theme is “Defining Advocacy and Discovering Agency through Collective Action,” centering on how advocacy can be understood from multiple perspectives and how we identify personal strengths and motivations for change at both individual and collective levels.

The morning session (9:00 AM–1:00 PM) begins with a keynote address by College of Education Dean Jennifer Mueller and is designed for doctoral students but remains open to all College of Education faculty, staff, and graduate students interested in edcuation-focused panels on academic and career development.

The afternoon programming (1:00 PM–5:00 PM) will feature a keynote address by Dr. Tina Curry, an equity-focused educator, speaker, and contributor to Teaching for Racial Equity, on recognizing individual capacity for change through collective, community-based action, followed by the Afternoon Community Event: Collective Change and Advocacy Lab, facilitated by Counseling Program members Dr. Darrick Tovar-Murray and Krisana Holt. This portion of the conference is designed for a broader COE audience and centers community, advocacy, and collective action.

Conference programming is collaboratively planned by the Racial Justice and Systemic Change Committee (RJSCC) and the Education Doctoral Student Association (EDSA).

For any questions, please contact the Doctoral Graduate Assistant: [email protected].

*This is a free event

*Breakfast and lunch will be catered for guests who attend both morning and afternoon events

*Virtual option available at check out for remote students

Option 1: FULL DAY PASS (9:00 AM–5:00 PM)

Includes both morning and afternoon programming (9:00 AM–5:00 PM)

Open to all COE attendees - Most relevant for doctoral students and those exploring academic and education career paths

Morning Session: Scholarship & Career Development

• Morning keynote by Dean Jennifer Muller
• Doctoral-level academic & career panels
  (e.g., dissertations & capstones, higher ed careers, K–12 issues, and non-traditional career pathways)
• Doctoral student research presentations

Afternoon COE Community Event

• Keynote by Dr. Tina Curry
• Collective Change and Advocacy Lab
• Spoken word & performance

Option 2: AFTERNOON PASS (1:00 PM–5:00 PM)

Open to all COE attendees – Relevant for counseling students, non-education professionals, and doctoral scholars who want to engage in advocacy skill building

Afternoon COE Community Event

• Keynote by Dr. Tina Curry
• Collective Change and Advocacy Lab
• Spoken word & performance

The 2026 EDSA Conference theme is – Defining Advocacy and Discovering Agency through Collective Action

Why do some individuals feel empowered to challenge systems while others remain uncertain of their influence? Advocacy begins with voice—but it grows through action. In every community, individuals encounter moments when they recognize injustice, inequality, or unmet needs. Yet recognizing a problem is different from responding to it. Advocacy emerges at this intersection—when awareness transforms into intentional action. At the same time, agency refers to an individual’s belief in their capacity to influence change. When people come together, collective action not only amplifies advocacy efforts but also strengthens individual and shared agency. Agency develops when individuals recognize their power, and that power often becomes clearer when people unite around a shared cause.

By examining advocacy and collective action together, we can better understand how people discover their ability to shape change in their communities and beyond.

The purpose of this conference is to explore how defining advocacy helps individuals understand their own power and how collective action serves as a pathway for discovering and exercising agency.

Dr. Tina Curry is an instructional coach, educational leader, and graduate educator with more than two decades of experience strengthening teaching and learning in K–12 schools. She currently serves as an IB PYP Coordinator and instructional coach in Chicago Public Schools and teaches graduate courses in literacy and pedagogy at National Louis University, where she received the Graduate Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2019.

Dr. Curry partners with universities, schools, and districts to design professional learning focused on instructional improvement, leadership development, and equitable learning environments. A contributing author to the award-winning book Teaching for Racial Equity: Becoming Interrupters, she serves as Chair of the Achievement Awards in Writing Advisory Committee for the National Council of Teachers of English.

Her work bridges research and practice, and she was also honored by the 2019 graduating class of Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy with the Most Influential Teacher Award, recognizing her impact on students and future educators.

In this keynote, she will explore how individuals come to recognize their capacity to create change and how that capacity is strengthened through collective, community-based action. Drawing from her work in schools, higher education, and professional learning spaces, Dr. Curry will challenge attendees to move beyond awareness toward action—offering insights relevant to educators, counselors, and all those committed to creating more just and responsive systems.

The mission of DePaul University's College of Education is to prepare educators, counselors, and leaders who are committed to creating equitable, compassionate, intellectually rich, and socially just environments. To further these goals, the Education Doctoral Student Association (EDSA) was formed over 20 years ago and is committed to organizing a conference that discusses current issues and topics that students face in the field.

Each year introduced a different theme, ranging from 2010’s Social Justice in Education, to last year’s focus on Re-Imaging Education, demonstrating how educators are constantly growing and evolving.

Therefore, EDSA is interested in learning how our doctoral students view their roles and levels of agency as they share and reflect on their narratives about how they recognize their motivations to react and develop them on a communal level through their respective disciplines and in their research.

The Racial Justice & Systemic Change Committee works to scrutinize the practices, procedures, and policies within the College of Education that perpetuate structural racism and exclusion, and to actively change policies and practices that produce inequities within and beyond the COE.

As a joint committee of faculty and staff—overseen by members of the Faculty and Staff Councils—RJSCC creates a shared governance space where all members have voice and vote. Grounded in the understanding that dismantling systemic racism in institutional settings requires collective responsibility, the committee welcomes diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and approaches reflective of our college community.

Info: This panel will explore career pathways for professionals seeking to build and sustain careers in higher education as both practitioners and researchers/scholars. Panelists will share insights into common entry points, advancement trajectories, and strategies for long-term growth across functional areas such as student affairs, academic advising, institutional research, diversity and inclusion, enrollment management, faculty roles, and higher education administration.

Attendees will gain practical guidance on navigating practitioner and academic pathways, developing transferable skills, and positioning themselves for leadership in colleges and universities.

Info: Also including Kendrick Johnson: Educational Consultant, Frontier Educational Consulting. This alumni panel will highlight the wide range of professional pathways pursued by College of Education graduates and how the knowledge, skills, and dispositions developed in their programs translate across sectors such as executive leadership in higher education technology and administration, municipal program operations within city government, occupational therapy in K–12 school districts, law enforcement and community safety roles, and independent educational consulting.

Panelists will reflect on how competencies such as research literacy, systems thinking, leadership development, equity-centered practice, data-informed decision-making, and community engagement have supported their work across public, private, nonprofit, and government contexts.

Info: At this panel, our graduates will share their personal journeys through the capstone and dissertation writing process, offering an honest look at how they moved from idea development to proposal defense, data collection, analysis, and final manuscript completion. Panelists will discuss how they selected and refined research questions, aligned theoretical frameworks with methodology, navigated IRB and data access, and managed the practical demands of sustained scholarly writing.

They will also reflect on how they strengthened their methodological expertise (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods), developed academic writing and revision practices, worked effectively with chairs and committees, and balanced research with professional and personal responsibilities.

Info: This panel will center career perspectives from both K–12 practitioners and education researchers, highlighting how professional pathways unfold across classroom, school, and scholarly contexts. Panelists will share insights into their roles as teachers and researchers, the decisions that shaped their trajectories, and how they navigate the evolving landscape of K–12 education from different vantage points.

The discussion will explore what it means to build a career grounded in both practice and inquiry—whether remaining in the classroom, moving into leadership, pursuing doctoral study, or engaging in research that influences schools and communities. Attendees will gain practical guidance on aligning professional goals with opportunities in teaching, scholarship, and hybrid practitioner-researcher roles.

Info: This session brings together doctoral scholars across programs and stages of study to share research submitted in response to the conference Call for Proposals and selected through a blind review process by the EDSA committee and faculty. A hallmark of the conference, this session offers a glimpse into the real-world work our students are doing. Over a catered lunch, attendees will engage with diverse topics that reflect how emerging scholars are exploring advocacy, agency, and change within education and their respective fields.

Info: As part of the conference’s closing programming, Najah Buck, a Counseling alumna and Licensed Professional Counselor, will offer a spoken word performance that brings voice to the themes of advocacy, identity, and collective change. Incorporating spoken word into the conference reflects the role of art as a powerful medium for expression, connection, and social transformation. This performance invites the COE community to engage not only intellectually, but also emotionally—highlighting how storytelling and creative expression can deepen understanding, build community, and inspire meaningful change.

Info: What does advocacy look like right now, and how do we move it from individual effort to collective action?

Presented by the Racial Justice and Systemic Change Committee (RJSCC), and facilitated by Counseling faculty member Dr. Darrick Tovar-Murray and CSL department coordinator Krisana Holt, M.Ed, this interactive session brings the College of Education together for a shared experience of reflection, dialogue, and action.

Participants will engage in guided conversation and collaborative reflection to explore how advocacy shows up in their work and how it can be reimagined across roles in education and counseling. The session will culminate in a collective reflection, connecting individual insights to broader possibilities for community, agency, and change across the COE and beyond.

Info: The conference will close with a musical performance that highlights the power of collective expression through the arts. This moment invites the COE community to connect beyond academic dialogue, using music as a way to build community, amplify voice, and reflect on the day’s themes of advocacy and change.

Info: Dr. Tina Curry is an award-winning educator, instructional coach, and nationally recognized speaker whose work sits at the intersection of equity, leadership, and systems change. With over two decades of experience in Chicago Public Schools—as a teacher, equity coach, and instructional leader—and as a contributor to the award-winning Teaching for Racial Equity, Dr. Curry has trained educators across the country in culturally responsive and equity-centered practices.

In this keynote, she will explore how individuals come to recognize their capacity to create change and how that capacity is strengthened through collective, community-based action. Drawing from her work in schools, higher education, and professional learning spaces, Dr. Curry will challenge attendees to move beyond awareness toward action—offering insights relevant to educators, counselors, and all those committed to creating more just and responsive systems.

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Host or Publisher DePaul College of Education: Doctoral Program