Christena is an Anthropologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego. She has an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University with special interest in Chinese religion and cultural values and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University with a focus on contemporary Japanese culture and social activism. She has been Director of the UCSD Program in Japanese Studies for several years, has served on university committees for International Education, and is an advocate for international studies at all levels of education. Her teaching focuses on Japanese society and culture, ethnographic and field methods in social science, and transnational cultural production of visual and narrative arts.  Her research includes work on inequality and culture in Japanese labor protest, construction of meaning in Japanese workplaces, cultural influences on healthcare practices in the U.S. and Japan. She is currently working on narratives of inequality, empathy and social justice in Japanese popular culture.

Rod Septka is an educator with 30 years of experience teaching grades two through eight and is passionate about connecting students to their world through literacy and global education. For several years, Rod guided students and teachers throughout Marin County in the creation of action projects focused on the environment and social justice. He helped Mill Valley School District develop their global studies initiative and supported teachers in integrating global competence education into their curriculum. Rod earned a Global Competency Certificate from World Savvy and Columbia University after completing a service-learning project in Ecuador. Rod has an MFA in creative writing from Mills College and was a long time teacher consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project where he designed and taught writing programs in Marin and in Seoul, South Korea. Rod was Marin County Teacher of the year in 2004.

Dr. Aaron Bruce, serves as the Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President at ArtCenter College of Design where he focuses on campus-wide multicultural understanding, social justice, and strategies related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr. Bruce helps strengthen the college’s connection to diverse local and global communities and organizations. His leadership in inclusive experiential design, advertising and marketing provides him with the creative energy to promote diversity, equity and inclusion across campus. Prior to joining ArtCenter, Dr. Bruce served as the CDO at San Diego State University for over a decade. He helped the university earn the ranking as one of the nation’s top 5 campuses for study abroad. His strategic leadership efforts helped SDSU to significantly close the achievement gap for historically underrepresented students.

Dr. Bruce has worked in Latin America and Africa. His passion for global understanding has afforded him with opportunities to conduct research on management strategies, public health and education in Cuba, Mexico, and Kenya. As an advocate for inclusive curriculum design, Dr. Bruce created an annual faculty led study abroad course in the Dominican Republic that made global education accessible to numerous first generation college students. He is an International Multicultural Institute certified diversity trainer and consultant who has facilitated numerous professional development seminars in the U.S. and abroad. He lives by the motto “Awaken the sleep, protect the weak, and guide the strong.”

Dr. Ray teaches physical, cultural, urban, and world regional geography courses at San Diego Mesa College. She studied geology and geography as an undergraduate student at Virginia Tech and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in geography with an emphasis on geographic education from Texas State University-San Marcos. Her graduate research with the Center for Global Geography Education investigated changes to undergraduate students’ international perspectives through online binational learning collaborations. At San Diego Mesa College, Waverly serves on the Committee for Diversity Action, Inclusion & Equity, the Environmental Sustainability Committee, the Faculty Professional Learning Committee, and the Teacher Education Committee. She received the Associated Student Government Professor Appreciation Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2015.

Waverly’s professional interests include social and environmental justice, humanistic geography, mentorship, and community-based learning. At San Diego Mesa College, she teaches physical geography courses for the Umoja-Mesa Academy Program. In 2020, she co-authored a physical geography laboratory manual funded through the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges’ Open Educational Resources Initiative. In 2021, she completed the Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education at Two-Year Colleges (SAGE 2YC) leadership program and the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) course. Waverly oversees the all-volunteer organic vegetable garden on the Mesa College campus, which provides fresh produce to students facing food insecurity. Since 2017, she has coordinated the My California GIS Mapping Showcase and Competition for the California Geographic Alliance.

Kimberly Plummer taught both elementary and secondary school students in the San Diego Unified School District for 17 years. During that time, she served on several site and district committees most notably the Curriculum Innovation Committee and the Teacher Development Team for State Standards in History- Social Science. As a Master Teacher and district Mentor Teacher she sharpened her leadership skills by coaching and mentoring student teachers, especially those from under-represented and marginalized groups, and offering professional to new and veteran teachers to support teacher retention.

Joining the K12 publishing industry allowed Kimberly to apply years of successful teaching in a broader context, first as a National consultant where her primary responsibility was professional development, and then as a Consultant Manager. Her regular interactions with the California Department of Education solidified her understanding of the state Instructional Materials Adoption process. She has collaborated with multiple districts throughout the state, guiding them through successful implementations in an effort to improve student achievement.

In her current role, Kimberly is the Director of EL, ELD and Spanish for Benchmark Education where she leads efforts to ensure multilingual students have access to quality resources and services that develop language, literacy, and content understanding.

Kendra is employed by Glenn County Office of Education as an Ed Services Coordinator focused on History/Social Science, secondary literacy, Ethnic Studies, and school and district support. She currently serves as the California Council for the Social Studies Vice President and formerly served as the Region 2 Lead. The commitment to serve the unique rural needs of our educators in the North State is at the center of Kendra’s work and CGEP has been instrumental in providing ongoing support to Region 2. The professional development and ongoing support include the CGEP Global Book Bags Program, anti-bias education and social justice standards, discourse strategies, and Ethnic Studies middle school lessons using children’s literature. This ongoing partnership has allowed Kendra to deepen her own practice and commitment to creating “life-long learners who understand issues and have an appreciation for cultural differences, an ability to understand and consider multiple perspectives, use critical and comparative thinking skills as well as problem-solving abilities, and are comfortable with ambiguity and change.”