With more than 60 workshop sessions on topics crucial to school leaders, you’ll be “Ignited, Energized and United” to serve each and every student in your district or school site.

All attendees will also be invited to participate in a special ACSA/USC Rossier School of Education Leadership Institute for Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents and Aspiring Superintendents. You’ll be e-mailed an invitation after you register. Already registered for Summit? Watch for an invite soon.

You’ll also get a triple-shot of inspiration from our three keynotes. Here’s a little bit about each one and how they are transforming how we think about education, ourselves and our students.

Title: Associate Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Barbara

Bio: Victor Rios is an award-winning professor, author and expert on the school-to-prison pipeline. Rios blends his research with his personal experience of being a high school dropout, gang member and three-time felon by the age of 15. Today, he partners with school districts and communities to address system inequities and promote prosperity, well-being, and educational achievement for at-promise students and their families.

You may know him from: The 2021 documentary “The Pushouts,” which weaves Rios’s inspiring dropout-to-professor narrative with stories of YO!Watts, a youth center serving 16- to 24-year-olds who are out of school and out of work.

Books: “Human Targets: Schools, Police, and the Criminalization of Latino Youth” and “My Teacher Believes in Me!: The Educator’s Guide to At-Promise Students” (both will be available for purchase at the Summit Bookstore)

Quote: “We have to provide adequate resources to young people. Grit alone isn’t going to cut it. You can sit there and tell me all you want, ‘Hey man, pick yourself up by the bootstraps.’ But if I was born without any straps on my boots — how am I supposed to pick myself up?” (2015 TED Talk)

Keynote time: 4:15 p.m. Thursday

Title: CEO and Founder, The Who We Are Project

Bio: Former trial lawyer and ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jeffery Robinson began raising his 13-year-old nephew in 2011. As a Black man raising a Black son, he struggled with what to tell his son about racism in America. Robinson started looking at our nation’s history and was shocked by how deeply encoded white supremacy and the oppression of Black Americans is in that history. For the past 10 years, Robinson has been sharing what he learned in concert halls, houses of worship and community centers across the country.

You may know him from: In 2017, Robinson teamed up with filmmakers Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler on the documentary based on his presentation, “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” which is now streaming on Netflix.

Quote: “Slavery is not our fault. We didn’t do it. We didn’t cause it. But it is our shared history.” (“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” 2021)

Keynote time: 8:30 a.m. Friday

Title: Founder, Freedom Writers Foundation

Bio: When idealistic first-year teacher Erin Gruwell walked into Room 203 at Long Beach’s Wilson High School, her students had already been labeled “unteachable.” But Gruwell believed in something more. Despite opposition from fellow teachers, Ms. G sought to engage her students using relevant literature and media. The once-hardened teens discovered a new way to express themselves and embrace history, humanity and hope. By sharing their stories, they rewrote their futures and became catalysts for change.

You may know her from: The 2007 film “Freedom Writers” starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as Gruwell.

Book: “The Freedom Writers Diary (20th Anniversary Edition): How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them” (available for purchase at the Summit Bookstore)

Quote: “I realized if you can change a classroom, you can change a community, and if you change enough communities you can change the world.” (“The Freedom Writers Diary”)

Keynote time: 9 a.m. Saturday

Jump start your career with ACSA Professional Learning.