Featured Speakers

2018 Monterey Conference Featured Speakers

Keynote Speaker – Patricia McDonough
Thursday, May 31, 2018, 1:00 pm

Patricia M. McDonough is a Professor in the Education Department, UCLA. Her research is in the areas of college access, organizational culture, and equity. She has conducted research on students’ college choice decision making, high school counseling, impact of college rankings of students’ college choices, access for African-American and Latino students, rural college access, impact of financial aid knowledge on college choice, access to historically black colleges, private college counselors, affirmative action, and college admissions officers. She did the first analyses of high school’s college cultures and pioneered research on how to develop college cultures in elementary, middle and high schools.

McDonough has been a member of board of directors/advisory groups for the NACAC, ACE, ACT, ETS, the California Postsecondary Education Commission, Pathways to College Network and Park Century School.

Closing Speaker – Lisa Walker
Saturday, June 2, 2018, 11:30 am

Lisa Walker is a consultant and facilitator with over 20 years experience engaging groups in effective conversations, dialogues, and trainings.

As the former Director of Cross Cultural Student Development at the University of California at Berkeley, she worked in collaboration with campus partners to address equity and inclusion issues for a diverse student population. She is currently a consultant with The Equity Consulting Group, Inc.

She has served as a National Leader for the College Board, as a consultant for Oakland Unified School District, as well as a number of educational, non-profit and public policy organizations. Her topics have included: cultural fluency, implicit bias, diversity, team building, board development, strategic planning, and conflict and communication models. In 2017 she was a presenter at the national conference for NACAC (National Association for College Admissions Counseling.)

“Walker” as she prefers, is influenced by the disciplines of Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women Studies, by the philosophy of Engaged Pedagogy and by workplace applications for mindfulness practice. Her facilitation style is grounded in praxis, highly interactive, and inquiry based.