About
The Holocaust & Human Rights Teachers of America Symposium

After years of classroom teaching and speaking at conferences surrounded by speakers and presenters with doctoral degrees, I was tired of seeing "experts" talk about the k12 setting without having any real experience or expertise in that arena.  I was also tired of seeing so many of my K12 colleagues left with serious gaps in factual information as well as in applicable age appropriate lessons for Holocaust & Human Rights - Lessons that honored the victims without politicizing the classroom.

​

In March 2020 I presented on the future of Holocaust Education at the the  50th Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust & the Churches at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas (my graduate Alma Mater). I was one of 2 attendees that didn't have a Ph.D. I was also one of 2 that had actual classroom experience. It was then that I decided, enough was enough, and I began the journey of organizing this Symposium.

​

The Holocaust & Human Rights Teachers of America Symposium is open to all teachers in grades 6 -12 from any state in the United States of America, Canada, and Latin America. Teachers can be from private, public, religious, secular, or home-school settings and teach Language Arts, Social Studies, and creative electives.

​

The Symposium strives to bring the same professionalism and academic integrity found at conferences for higher education professionals (i.e. scholars), to the K12 teacher. Through our Symposium teacher-attendees will become Holocaust & Human Rights Pedagogy Experts, network with each other and many other "experts" in the field from authors to artists, and revolutionize the way the subject and its teachers are viewed by administrators, law-makers, and textbook publishers for decades to come.

​

The Symposium will take place July 24 to 27 2023 in Historic Marietta Georgia. Marietta has a history with human rights and Antisemitism that lends itself as an apropos place for the 1st Annual Holocaust and Human Rights Teachers of America Symposium, most notably the story of Leo Frank. Among our educational partners are the Marietta History Museum and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

​

The Symposium is open to teachers and interested adult community members alike. Teacher attendees will receive a robust resource tote with 15 books and films.

​

It is the intention of the symposium to create a truly meaningful academic professional development experience for teachers to become subject area experts in the field of Holocaust and Human Rights pedagogy and nurture interdisciplinary team teaching while growing a national and international community of dedicated educators interested in teaching truth.

​

​