Schedule 2026

DAY 1 – WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3

12:00-1:00 pm – Lobby

• Conference Registration

 

1:00-1:15 pm – Cook Hall

• Welcoming Remarks

 

1:15-2:15 pm – Cook Hall

• Keynote 1 – Civil Rights and Political Participation

 

• • Sam Mihara, Memories of Injustice. Sam Mihara will expertly guide attendees through his WWII incarceration experience during this session. In 1942, the U.S. government forced 9-year-old Sam and his family, along with everyone of Japanese ancestry living in the Western Exclusion Zone, out of their homes and into prison camps. Sam and his family were sent to a prison camp called Heart Mountain in desolate northern Wyoming, where he lived for 3 years in subpar conditions. After returning home, Sam graduated from U.C. Berkeley and UCLA. And he became a rocket scientist for the Boeing Company. Sam received 4 major awards for history lecturing. His latest award is the NEH Jefferson Lecturer for 2024. He has spoken at over 500 schools. He talked at UCLA, Harvard and Congress. During his compelling presentation, Sam describes why the World War II camps were created and describes the forcible removal of people from their homes. Sam discusses what daily life in camp was like, how they got out of the camp, and what it was like for many people when they returned home. Finally, Sam examines the question: can such injustice happen again?

 

2:15-3:00 pm – Cook Hall and Lobby

• Opening Reception
• Book Signing, Artisans, Exhibits, & Poster Fair

 

• Posters – Community & Economic Development
  • Leadership Analysis of the Cambio Center and its Impact at the University of Missouri – Juan José Reyes, Gertrude Arthur, Jada Mulholland, Sophie Rentshcler, and Lisa Dorner
  • Determinants of Economic Self-Sufficiency, Well-Being, and Integration among Refugees– Youngbin Lee

• Posters – Education & Youth Development
  • Evaluating the Impact of Colombia’s Free Tuition Policy on Low-Income Student Enrollment: A Difference-in-Differences Approach – Luis Rojas
  • Community Translanguaging as Relational Practice Among Latina Immigrant Mothers in Informal Support Networks – Jenifer Rueda Varon and Sophia Piral Lee

• Posters – Health
  • Effective interventions and/or risk factors to prevent hospital admissions/readmissions in older adults: Systematic Review– Rosalia Molina
  • Spectral EEG Phenotypes of alcohol-associative learning and memory– Julian Aponte
  • Geography, Immigrant Destinations, and Latinx Mental Health in the United States – Shania Montúfar

 

3:00-3:15 pm – Break

 

3:15-4:30 pm – Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

• Breakout 1 – Cook Hall: Education and Youth Development – Panel
  • From Language Learning to Self-Advocacy: Participatory Pedagogies in Adult ESOL – Melissa Hauber-Özer, Kelly Leavitt, Sofia Deatherage, Yuanyuan Gu, Olumide Banjo, Desiree Dixon, Spyridoula Myga, and Leela Mogadam

 

• Breakout 2 – Hamra Classroom: Presentaciones en español
  • Factores que provocan estrés y satisfacción laboral entre trabajadores TN en la industria porcina norteamericana – Magdiel López-Sorian
  • Creando comunidad en una preparatoria: Prácticas dentro del Club de Cultura Hispana – Maritza Sandoval Aguilar
  • De la certificación al título universitario: Estrategias para apoyar a docentes preescolares bilingües mediante programas con recursos y personal bilingüe – Angélica Reina
  • “¿Será que alguna vez pisaré una universidad?”: The Quest for Higher Education Access Among Low-Income Students in Colombia – Pilar Mendoza y Sebastián Concha Vargas

 

• Breakout 3 – Plassmeyer Classroom: Community and Economic Development – Workshop
  • Reimagined: Building Communities as Former Diversity Professionals – Jairo Javier Morales and Remy Xa

 

• Breakout 4 – Barnes Boardroom: Education and Youth Development – Workshop
  • A Hopeful Future En Conjunto:  Comunidades Creating Solidarity for   Working Class and Immigrant Student Success – Theresa Torres, Dea Marx, and Jude Carmona

 

DAY 2 – THURSDAY, JUNE 4

 

8:30-9:00 am – Lobby

• Breakfast

 

9:00-10:15 am – Cook Hall

• Keynote 2 – Health

 

• • Julia López, Ph.D., Intersections of Migration, Identity, and Mental Health in Latine Communities. Migration is not just a movement across borders; it is a lived experience that shapes identity, belonging, and mental health in profound ways for Latine communities. This keynote explores how structural forces such as immigration policy, discrimination, language access, and health system design intersect with family dynamics and cultural resilience to influence well-being. Grounded in community-engaged research and real-world practice, the talk aims to highlight both the harms produced by inequitable systems and the strengths that sustain healing, including collective care. Attendees will leave with actionable insights for advancing culturally responsive, equity-centered mental health care.

 

10:15-10:30 am – Break

 

10:30-11:45 am – Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

• Breakout 1 – Cook Hall: Civil Rights and Political Participation – Panel
  • ROMERO by Xiomara Cornejo: Drama & Puppetry to Heal the World – David Crespy, Xiomara Cornejo, and Cherie Sampson

 

• Breakout 2 – Hamra Classroom: Education and Youth Development – Promising Practices and Research
  • Embodied English for Inclusive Multilingual Futures: A UNIMINUTO–Cambio Center Partnership – Sebastián Concha Vargas
  • Agricultural Education fellowships in Mexico as a tool for US agriculturalists to grow access and inclusion in the US – David Aguayo, Lindsey Saunders, Meikah Dado, Josefina Pedraza Lopez, Manuel Galicia Reyes, Juan Jose Juarez Velazquez, and Alexis Guerra
  • Latin American Immigrants’ Resilience: A Strength-Based Model to Support Communities, Families, and Youth Socioemotional Wellbeing  – Lucía G. Medina
  • Impacts of Language Policy in Higher Education on International Graduate Students’ Trajectories – Melissa Hauber-Özer, Hsin-I Sydney Yueh, Sophia Piral Lee, and Kara Starnes
  • Semillitas: A Kansas City Culturally Responsive Early Childhood Program – Susan Schmidt and Gerardo Martinez

 

• Breakout 3 – Plassmeyer Classroom: Education and Youth Development – Workshop
  • Building Bridges and Breaking Language Barriers: Expanding Bilingual and Biliterate Education – Jacqueline Rodriguez

 

• Breakout 4 – Barnes Boardroom: Health – Research & Promising Practices
  • Developing Emergency Preparedness Microlearning Modules for Rural Communities with Limited English Proficiency – Guillermo Narvaez
  • When the company leaves the company town: A case study from rural Nebraska – Athena Ramos
  • Addressing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among Hispanic people in two Missouri counties – Rosalia Molina
  • ‘Disfrutando’: A culturally tailored intervention to address type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Hispanic population – Maithe Enríquez

 

11:45-12:00 pm – Break

 

12:00-1:00 pm – Lunch in Cook Hall

 

1:00-2:15 pm – Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

• Breakout 1 – Cook Hall: Education and Youth Development – Workshop
  • Multilingual Mosaics: Building Midwestern Dual Language Programs through Community, Identity, and What We Thought was Broken – Olivia Flores

 

• Breakout 2 – Hamra Classroom: Civil Rights and Political Participation – Workshop
  • Abide in Love: Building Networks of Care Across Detention, Distance, and Data – Lucy Behrendt, Max Tohline, and Emily Stuart

 

• Breakout 3 – Plassmeyer Classroom: Self-Care Workshop
  • Laughter Yoga – Eileen Wolfington

 

• Breakout 4-Barnes Boardroom: Research and Promising Practices – Interdisciplinary
  • Goya Boycott: A Protest in Affinity Space– Aída Guhlincozzi
  • News Media Avoidance by Latinos and their Civic (Dis)Engagement– Manuel Chavez, Leonard Apcar, Manuel Guerrero
  • Our Community Has Capital: Celebrating the Community Cultural Wealth in Latine Students’ Social Networks – Nidia Bañuelos, Kyoungjin Jang-Tucci, Claudia Triana, and Natalie Xiong
  • The Michigan Tejano Music Historical Marker: History and Implications– Richard Cruz Dávila
  • From Idea to Impact in 90 Days: Building Programs that Actually Run – Maximilianah Zales

 

2:15-2:30 pm – Break

 

2:30-3:45 pm – Concurrent Breakout Sessions

 

• Breakout 1 – Cook Hall: Community and Economic Development – Panel
  • Promising Practices from Religious Communities – Jaymes Schrock, Lexi Hall, Rev. Dottie Mathews, and Guillermo Villa-Trueba

 

• Breakout 2 – Hamra Classroom: Community and Economic Development – Research
  • Structurally Produced, Institutionally Maintained: Farming Culture and the Capacity-Outcome Gap Among Small Producers in Texas – Ervin Leiva
  • The Emergence of New Pueblos and Barrios: Latino Population Growth in American Cities – J.S. Onésimo Sándoval
  • Energy Poverty Without Income Data: Policy Trade-offs for Community and Economic Development – Laura Pardo
  • Social Capital and Small Farmers’ Adoption of New Technology – Jean Kayitsinga

 

• Breakout 3 – Plassmeyer Classroom: Education and Youth Development – Workshop
  • En Comunidad Translanguaging: Using Learner Biography to Lift Biliteracy and Cross-Linguistic Transfer – Kendra Herrera and Socorro Herrera

 

• Breakout 4 – Barnes Boardroom: Education and Youth Development – Research and Promising Practices
  • Effect of a Vocabulary Intervention for Science on Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Attitude among Multilingual Learners in Middle School – Heba Abdelnaby
  • Hearts, Methods, and Classrooms: Critical participatory inquiry alongside recently-arrived Guatemalans in rural U.S. high schools – Sophia Piral Lee
  • What Helps Recently-Arrived Immigrant Adolescents Graduate from U.S. High Schools? Voices from Rural Missouri – Sabina Aghayeva, Akpidi Oladokun, Sophia Piral Lee, and Lisa Dorner
  • From Learners to Educators and Community Builders: Asian American and Migrant Youth Leading Workshops through Community-Engaged, Responsive Pedagogy – Yeji Kim
  • International Student and Scholar Services: Navigating Change and Uncertainty– Kristen Carranza

 

3:45-4:00 pm – Break

 

4:00-5:30 pm – Cook Hall

 

• Keynote 3 – Community and Economic Development

 

• • María Sánchez and Senator Jill Carter, A Caring Community that Builds Together: Housing, Culture, and Economic Growth in Jasper County, Missouri

 

DAY 3 – FRIDAY, JUNE 5

 

Friday morning, participants will attend the site visit OR workshop they chose during registration. Each activity provides breakfast. Site Visit 1 starts at the City of Refuge at 8 am. For Site Visits 2 & 3, please meet in the lobby at the State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) at 8 am to board the van.

 

OPTIONS 1-3: Site Visit and Breakfast (8:00-10:15 am) 

 

• Site Visit Option 1: City of Refuge — Transportation is on your own to 10 N Garth Ave, Columbia, MO 65203 — just 0.6 miles from Tiger Hotel.

 

• Site Visit Option 2: The Food Bank Market: A Place for Nutrition and Hope — Transportation provided by van; meet in the SHSMO lobby at 8 am.

 

• Site Visit Option 3: CoMo Cooks Shared Kitchen — Transportation provided by van; meet in the SHSMO lobby at 8 am.

 

OPTIONS 4-5: Workshops and Breakfast at the State Historical Society of Missouri (8:30 am Breakfast, 9:00 am Workshops)

 

• Workshop 4, Cook Hall: Expresión in the Classroom: Storytelling Practices that Build Belonging and Agency – Iván Ramirez

 

• Workshop 5, Plassmeyer Classroom: Trauma-Informed Mental Wellness in Migrant Communities: Clinical Strategies That Heal – Dr. Julia López

 

10:15-10:30 am – Break

 

10:30-11:45 am – Cook Hall

 

• Keynote 4 – Education and Youth Development

 

• • Van Lac, PhD, Towards a Rhizomatic Lens: Bolstering Student Voice through Youth Participatory Action Research with Minoritized Students at a Title I Elementary School. In recent years, scholars and practitioners in K12 settings have recognized the value of incorporating authentic student voice in schools. However, a population often undertheorized and overlooked in the student voice literature is elementary school students. This keynote presentation will examine a research project centering a form of student voice called youth participatory action research (YPAR) at a Title I elementary school in the Midwest. This study offers educators a pathway forward to (re)imagine how to support primary students in student voice initiatives such as YPAR through a rhizomatic lens that accounts for connections, ambiguity, and lines of flight.

 

11:45 am-12:00 pm – Cook Hall

• Closing Words
• Spark Change Award

 

12:00-1:00 pm – Cook Hall

• Boxed Lunch
• Mariachi