Debra Chasnoff
President/Senior Producer
Groundspark

Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff is a pioneering leader in the international movement working to create safe and welcoming schools and communities. Debra’s highly acclaimed documentaries addressing youth and bias issues are widely hailed by educators and advocates as among the best tools available today to help open up dialogue and activism around many of the most challenging issues affecting young people’s lives and school environments.

Debra is the president of GroundSpark, a national non-profit that combines education, filmmaking, and advocacy to work on social justice issues. She founded GroundSpark's Respect for All Project through which she made Straightlaced—How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up, It’s Elementary—Talking About Gay Issues in School, Let’s Get Real (about bias and bullying) That’s a Family! (supporting youth growing up in diverse family structures). GroundSpark provides professional development to school districts across the country.

In addition to dozens of film festival awards, Debra is the recipient of the Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation Fellowship for outstanding non-profit leadership, the Pathfinder Award from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and the first-ever alumnae achievement award in documentary filmmaking from Wellesley College.

Alex Kajitani
Speaker, Writer, Teacher
AlexKajitani.com

Alex Kajitani is the 2009 California Teacher of the Year, and a Top-4 Finalist for National Teacher of the Year. His book, Owning It was named “Recommended Reading” by the U.S. Department of Education. Alex is also on a mission to get every kid in America to learn their times tables, and to make this happen, he created the popular online program MultiplicationNation.com. Alex is a highly-sought after keynote speaker who supports and motivates teachers nationwide, and he’s known around the world as “The Rappin’ Mathematician.” Alex has a popular TED Talk, has been honored at The White House, and was featured on The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. For more of his innovative ideas, visit www.AlexKajitani.com.

Al Killen-Harvey
Co Founder/Lead Trainer
The Harvey Institute/Rady Children's Hospital

Al Killen-Harvey is the co founder of The Harvey Institute, a training and consultation company whose mission is improving health care outcomes through integrating sexual health. For the past 21 years he has worked at the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital where he currently serves as the Lead Trainer under two federally funded grants designed to improve Trauma Informed care in Child Welfare and Mental Health systems across the United States.

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, he has worked for several decades in the field of trauma treatment. He is a past recipient of the San Diego County Child Abuse Coordinating Council’s “Unsung Hero” Award for his work with children who have been abused and/or neglected. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Long Beach as well as a faculty member of the San Diego Public Child Welfare Training Academy. Mr. Killen-Harvey is a frequent presenter, nationally and internationally, on a wide variety of topics related to children and adolescents as well as sexual identity and gender identity.

He has served on the board of CAPSAC (California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children) and is a consultant and trainer for UCLA’s Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica, California. He has served as an expert witness for the United States Army in several same sex sexual assault cases and is currently the co-chairperson of the Cultural Consortium for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and serves on their Policy Committee. He also is on the Clinical Advisory Board for the Trevor Project, a national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. He is the current President of the Board of Directors of Step Up Theater a non-profit teen theater company in San Diego. Additionally he serves as a Mentor with the Scholar Program of the Point Foundation that aims to empower promising LGBTQ students to achieve their full academic and leadership potential.

Amy Loudermilk
Associate Director of Government Affairs
The Trevor Project

Amy Loudermilk is the Associate Director of Government Affairs at The Trevor Project where she directs and manages all state and federal advocacy initiatives related to suicide and improving the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. She has successfully spearheaded advocacay campaigns in the District of Columbia and California to pass the first ever laws requiring schools to develop suicide prevention policies and training that specifically address the needs of LGBTQ youth. Prior to coming to Trevor, Ms. Loudermilk served as the Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs in the District of Columbia during Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration, developing programs and policies to improve the lives of the LGBTQ community. She previously spent five years at the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence leading advocacy campaigns on behalf of service providers and victims and survivors of domestic violence in the District of Columbia to secure and protect their rights. Ms. Loudermilk was honored with the Next Generation Award from Metro Weekly Magazine in 2010 and named Alumni of the Year in 2014 by George Mason University’s College of Health & Human Services. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Towson University, she also has a Master’s of Social Work degree with a concentration in Social Change from George Mason University.