Western Region Continuums of Service Conference

Wednesday, March 15th

Explorer, environmentalist, master navigator, cultural revivalist, educator, storyteller: Nainoa Thompson has led the rediscovery and revival of the ancient Polynesian art of navigation. Through his voyaging, teaching and engagement, he has opened a global, multigenerational dialogue on the importance of sustaining ocean resources and maritime heritage. Nainoa has dedicated his life to exploring the ocean, maintaining the health of the planet and ensuring that the ancient marine heritage and culture of Polynesia remain vibrant into the future.

Thompson is the first Native Hawaiian in 600 years to practice the ancient Polynesian art of navigation: long-distance open-ocean voyaging on a traditional double-hulled canoe without the aid of modern instruments. His work has led to a renewed understanding and revival of traditional voyaging arts lost for centuries due to the disappearance of such travel methods and the colonization and Westernization of the Polynesian archipelagoes.

Thursday, March 16th

For over 25 years, Sandra Bass has facilitated social change both domestically and internationally through public policy, community engagement, scholarship, and education. She currently serves as Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Public Service Center at UC Berkeley. Upon receiving her doctorate in political science, Sandra was appointed as an assistant professor of Criminology and Political Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she integrated service learning into both her undergraduate and graduate courses. In 2002 Sandra joined the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and in 2010 she was selected to lead the Foundation’s girl’s education, women’s leadership, and reproductive health program in Sub-Saharan Africa, and later was appointed the executive director of Teach With Africa, an organization focused on cross cultural learning for K-12 teachers in the US and South Africa.

She currently serves on the regional board of Multiplying Good, the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund, the Boards of the East Point Peace Academy and the Movement Strategy Center and Co-Chairs the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Civic Engagement Advisory Board at UC Berkeley. She has served as a “Wise Head” reviewer for the MacArthur Foundation 100 and change competition, on the steering committee of the African Grantmakers Affinity Group, and is the former Board Chair of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, among other appointments.

Friday, March 17th

Dr. Verónica N. Vélez is an Associate Professor in Secondary Education and Education & Social Justice at Western Washington University. Her research focuses on Latinx im/migrant mother activism, community-based participatory action research in grassroots contexts, popular education, and (re)imagining cartographic tools for movement building and critical inquiry. Each of these areas is informed by expertise in Critical Race Theory (CRT), Latinx Critical Theory (LatCrit), Radical and Tactical Cartography, and Chicana Feminist Epistemologies.

Influenced and inspired by these varied, but interrelated frameworks, she and her mentor, Dr. Daniel Solorzano at UCLA, developed Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA), a framework and methodological approach that seeks to deepen a spatial consciousness and expand the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in critical race research in education. She is also a National Academies Ford Foundation Fellow and a Faculty Fellow with the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), and previously a Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant Fellow.