CHARTING OUR FUTURE
LOCAL FOCUS.
STATEWIDE IMPACT.
MAY 13 & 14
TACOMA, WA
Tomorrow
Starts Today.
We are calling all education leaders, advocates, and allies to join us for Foundation for Tacoma Student’s fourth annual Charting Our Future conference. For two days, our community will come together to share knowledge, challenge systems, and pave the way for an equitable future for all. This conference is an opportunity for bright minds to come together and participate in meaningful and insightful conversation, build valuable partnerships, and align on efforts to systematically improve the education outcomes of our youth. Come and learn from individuals and organizations that are actively working to create more equitable communities by changing policies, practices, resource allocation, and power dynamics. This is a chance to broaden horizons, challenge assumptions, and forge connections with like-minded individuals who are committed to driving change.
2024 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Geoffrey Canada
May 13
President, Harlem Children's Zone
Founder, William Julius Wilson Institute
Geoffrey Canada is the president of Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a world-renowned education and poverty-fighting organization based in New York City, and founder of William Julius Wilson Institute (WJWI). An innovator in the field of education, author, and leading advocate for children, Canada has made it his life’s mission to help young people from under-resourced communities succeed through education. To realize his vision, Mr. Canada launched HCZ, a comprehensive, cradle-to-career network of programs that The New York Times called “one of the most ambitious social-policy experiments of our time.” Starting as a one-block pilot project in the 1990s, HCZ today serves more than 34,000 students and families living in a 97-block area of Central Harlem in New York City.
Adam Harris
May 14
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Author, The State Must Provide
Adam Harris is an award-winning journalist. He is currently a staff writer at The Atlantic covering national politics. He is the author of The State Must Provide, a narrative history of racial inequality in higher education. He was previously a reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education where he covered federal education policy and historically black colleges and universities. Prior to joining The Chronicle he worked at ProPublica, and has been a National Fellow at New America. He was named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list and his writing has appeared in BBC, Bleacher Report, and EBONY Magazine.
PAST KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Yazmin Trudeau
Washington State Senator, District 27
Liz Dozier
Founder & CEO, Chicago Beyond
Deray Mckesson
Educator & Civil Rights Activist
Malcolm Mitchell
Superbowl Champion & Author
Nikkita Oliver
Executive Director, Creative Justice
Bree Newsome
Activist & Filmmaker
Charting Our Future Over the Years
Empowering Equitable Futures
In 2023, the third annual COF conference focused around opportunities to scale efforts throughout the county to create conditions for success. Speakers and workshops explored what it would take to create a truly equitable education system.
Changing Systems, Changing Lives
In 2022, the Foundation for Tacoma Students brought together over 300 community partners, for the first time post-pandemic. We were joined by nearly 60 speakers leading powerful discussions around Changing Systems, Changing Lives.
Race, Justice, and the Education System
In April 2021, the Foundation for Tacoma Students hosted its first inaugural Charting Our Future conference. Over 500 educators, partners, leaders, and community members joined the 3-day virtual event to focus on one theme: Race, Justice & the Education System.
