Presenter(s)
Ger Thao
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Ger Thao is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Curriculum Studies Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Education, Pacific Research Intern with the Pacific Islands Development Program, and Language & Culture Specialist for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. She holds a MA in Education: Curriculum & Instruction, BA in Liberal Studies, and Multiple Subject teaching credential from CSU, Chico. She was a former elementary teacher/ELA Intervention Specialist in northern CA for 8 years and Consultant for Hmong Language and Cultural Enrichment Program in Madison, WI. She is a Hmong American author of a bilingual children’s book titled “The Hmong Journey: Hmoob Txoj Kev Taug.” Her passion is working with educators to support schools in developing and implementing literature, curriculum, and professional developments that reflect diverse populations, including multicultural, indigenous, Asian and Pacific-Island perspectives.
Justin Davies
Kalamazoo Nature Center
Justin Davies is Engagement Director at the Kalamazoo Nature Center and an educational consultant. He served as Curriculum Specialist for the Honolulu Museum of Art from 2016 - 2020, developing curriculum for student tours and arts-integrated programming in the schools. Prior to that, he earned his MS in Education from the City College of New York, and taught for 12 years as a classroom teacher at the Pre-K, elementary and middle-school levels. He designs and leads professional development courses on arts integration for classroom teachers and is co-author of the Arts Integration Framework (2017). He is also a practicing artist with work in the collection of the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.