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Open for Antiracism: Trauma informed approaches to open education
Wed March 4, 2026 @ 6:00 pm - 6:45 pm GMT
Open for Antiracism is a special project of OE Global that has been providing professional development programming across California Community colleges on OER and Open Pedagogy for almost 6 years.
In this 2-part session, you’ll first hear from our program directors, Laura Dunn and James Glapa-Grossklag, on how the antiracism and equity landscape has changed since the program’s beginnings in 2020, the impact that OFAR has had on students and faculty, and how OFAR is applied in the classroom.
In the second half of our session, OFAR coach, past participant, and professor of child development at Cerro Coso Community College, shares how he has adapted OFAR’s program in his trauma informed approach to teaching child development. Tyrone will be presenting how to blend anti-racist curriculum and trauma informed teaching strategies to create classroom environments that are empathetic and inclusive to students of diverse backgrounds who have experienced trauma.
- Tyrone Ledford is an educator and equity advocate committed to student success and community empowerment. An award-winning Umoja Counselor and two-time Faculty of the Year at Cerro Coso Community College, he created the Trauma-Informed Care specialization program to better support students impacted by trauma. Beyond the classroom, Tyrone advances equity through his family-owned community garden, where he provides students with access to fresh food, education, and hands-on experience growing their own food while promoting food security, sustainability, and self-sufficiency.
- Laura Dunn is the director of Open for Antiracism and faculty of religion at the University of Hawaii. Laura’s current research examines how indigenous knowledge systems intersect with cross cultural contemplative practices as a means to reclaim identity in post- and neo-colonial contexts. She is an award-winning writer and scholar, Newhall Fellow, Interreligious Collaborative Research Fellow, and recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Association for Asian Studies Publication Grant.Â
- James Glapa-Grossklag is Dean, Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning at College of the Canyons (USA). He serves as Technical Assistance Provider for the California Community Colleges’ Zero Textbook Cost Degree Program, the largest-ever public investment in OER. He co-directs the Open for Antiracism Program, is an OER Fellow for the Michelson 20MM Foundation, and co-leads, with Carnegie Mellon University, a national training program to help faculty from broad-access institutions learn to teach with generative AI. James is past President of Open Education Global, the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, and Directors of Educational Technology in California Higher Education. James served as a trainer on OER for the US Department of State in the Middle East and North Africa and was Innovation Scholar in Residence at RMIT University in Australia. He held the appointment of Global OER Ambassador for ICDE 2017-21. In 2019, he received the President’s Award from Open Education Global for “advancing open education around the world through his exceptional dedication, outstanding contribution, and exemplary service.”
