Workshop Overview
In this 90-minute workshop, we will explore strategies for fostering emotional safety and well-being, creating inclusive and equitable learning environments, and addressing the needs of marginalized students. We'll also discuss the importance of self-care for educators and the ways in which care and compassion can be integrated into curriculum and instruction.


Lainey Sevillano, PhD
Assistant Professor
Portland State University
“The discussions were enlightening. They made me reevaluate my own approaches to teaching and assessment. 
I intend to adopt some of the techniques suggested."
Elizabeth Otieno (Former Event Attendee)
Lecturer
USIU-Africa
Meet the instructor.

Lainey Sevillano, PhD
Assistant Professor
Portland State University
Dr. Lainey Sevillano (she/they/siya) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. Grounded in decoloniality, her research aims to disrupt psychosocial, health, and education disparities for minoritized youth, their families, and their communities. One of her goals as a scholar-educator-advocate, is to promote culturally-responsive pedagogy by encouraging educators to co-construct equitable learning communities.
Assistant Professor
Portland State University
Dr. Lainey Sevillano (she/they/siya) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. Grounded in decoloniality, her research aims to disrupt psychosocial, health, and education disparities for minoritized youth, their families, and their communities. One of her goals as a scholar-educator-advocate, is to promote culturally-responsive pedagogy by encouraging educators to co-construct equitable learning communities.
Student guests will also share their perspectives.

Alexander Holt
PhD Student, Dept. of Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
Alexander Holt is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He works to develop interdisciplinary understandings of trauma, resistance, and Blackness by engaging with ideas and scholars at the theoretical and methodological intersection of Sociology, Black Studies, Women Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Psychology. Through collaborations both within and outside Academia he seeks to deconstruct carceral logics while fostering spaces for critical engagement between students, instructors, and local communities. Holt received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with minors in French and American Ethnic Studies from Wake Forest University in 2020.
PhD Student, Dept. of Sociology
University of Texas at Austin
Alexander Holt is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He works to develop interdisciplinary understandings of trauma, resistance, and Blackness by engaging with ideas and scholars at the theoretical and methodological intersection of Sociology, Black Studies, Women Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Psychology. Through collaborations both within and outside Academia he seeks to deconstruct carceral logics while fostering spaces for critical engagement between students, instructors, and local communities. Holt received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with minors in French and American Ethnic Studies from Wake Forest University in 2020.
Claire Harper
Student, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
University of Texas at Austin
Claire Harper is a fourth-year Sociology and Neuroscience double major and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. They use mixed methods guided by intersectional, feminist frameworks and informed by critical race and minority stress theories to study health disparities in marginalized groups. After her undergraduate education, Claire intends to pursue a PhD program to continue exploring their research interest in intersectional gender and sexual minority health.
Student, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
University of Texas at Austin
Claire Harper is a fourth-year Sociology and Neuroscience double major and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. They use mixed methods guided by intersectional, feminist frameworks and informed by critical race and minority stress theories to study health disparities in marginalized groups. After her undergraduate education, Claire intends to pursue a PhD program to continue exploring their research interest in intersectional gender and sexual minority health.