Kia Darling-Hammond is author of the Bridge to Thriving Framework,© and co-editor of the forthcoming T* is for Thriving: Blueprints for Affirming Trans* and Gender Creative Lives and Learning in Schools. As CEO of the research and education firm Wise Chipmunk LLC, she leverages over 25 years of experience in youth development, education, and organizational leadership to offer healing-centered research, advising, coaching, counseling, and public speaking, as well as designs for professional learning, curriculum development, and organizational growth. She has published work in several journals and serves as a member of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman’s Black Mental Health Brain Trust, is a contributing scholar and advisor to the Sports Equity Lab at Yale, and sits on the Wild Seed Liberation Land Board of Directors.

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute. She is past president of the American Educational Research Association and author of more than 30 books and 700 other publications on teaching quality, school reform, and educational equity, including The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future, which won the Grawemeyer Award in 2010. In 2006, Education Week named her one of the nation’s 10 most influential people affecting educational policy. She led the Obama education policy transition team in 2008 and the Biden education transition team in 2020. She currently serves as president of California’s State Board of Education.