Panelists

Tre Childress is the Principal of Urban Prep Academy West Campus. In 2006, Mr. Childress was a founding teacher at Urban Prep Englewood Campus. He was the Chair of the Math Department, and teacher for both Math and Science. Mr. Childress created the curriculum for the 9th Grade Pre-Algebra, Algebra One, as well as the 9th and 10th Grade Integrated Science classes. He was also an Instructional Support Team Committee member. Currently, the Maryland native leads the phenomenal UP West Campus in its third year of existence. His mission is to inspire, motivate and connect with young men to ultimately lead the revolution to destroy the achievement gap.

Sylvia Ewing (moderator) is a writer, teacher, non-profit executive, and award-winning journalist. She was the voice of WTTW Channel 11 for many years and has done voice-overs for numerous videos and special projects. Ms. Ewing has a long history with WBEZ radio, Chicago's NPR affiliate. She was a correspondent and producer for Eight Forty-Eight, the station's weekday morning newsmagazine, as well as for town hall meetings and online features. Ms. Ewing carried her vision to the stage, producing and/or directing over a dozen shows for Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Traffic arts series. Ms. Ewing has been nominated for three local Emmys, shares an Edward R. Murrow award with her WBEZ colleagues, and is the recipient of several Chicago Association of Black Journalist awards, and a Peter Lisagor honor from the Chicago Headline Club.

Dr. James Paul Gee is Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies in the Division of Curriculum and Instruction at Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton College of Education. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. His most recent books deal with video games, language, and learning, including What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy and Good Video Games and Good Learning. His most recent book is Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays (2007). Professor Gee has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences and education.

Nancy Nassr attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where she studied English Education. She taught for two years at the University of Chicago Charter School in Woodlawn and was also a program director for Urban Students Empowered, a college readiness program for at-risk students. She has served as the director for the Summer Writers' Workshop at the University of Chicago for two years, an enrichment program for high school students across the Urban Schools Improvement Network. The need for innovative and passionate educators, she believes, is a necessity we cannot ignore. Equally important are schools designed to engage a disenfranchised generation. This is what brought her to ChicagoQuest, where she teaches today.

Nancy Serrano graduated from DePaul in 2000 and majored in Elementary Education. She began her teaching career in 2001 at her childhood school, Seward Elementary. She has worked for Illinois State University as the Parent and Community Liaison for the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline Program. She is currently a 6th Grade Bilingual English Language Arts teacher at Hernandez Middle School in the Southwest side of Chicago. Nancy will be finishing up her masters degree program in Curriculum & Instruction in March and plans to pursue her doctorates in the near future. She is an advocate for underrepresented youth and a firm believer in quality public education for all.

Overview

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