POCIS Northwest

12/08/2025

POCIS NW Celebration! One Community, Many Stories

12/08/2025

Diversity Career Fair is just around the corner! Join us remotely on February 8 or in person at Lakeside School on February 28.

This annual recruiting event is for sharing information and opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds interested in working in regional independent schools. This career fair is for both experienced independent school professionals and for folks starting to explore careers in independent schools.

At the Diversity Career Fair, attendees hear from diversity practitioners about working in independent schools and meet with schools to learn about current career opportunities.

12/08/2025

Join us for the Diversity Career Fair!

03/20/2025

The POCIS Northwest Equity and Inclusion Speaker Series invites you to:

Join Elena Aguilar, author of the highly acclaimed book Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching, to discuss the importance of emotional resilience in equity work. Walk away with a number of strategies to cultivate the emotional resilience needed to build equitable schools.
April 23, 2025
5:00-6:15 pm
Via Zoom
Free and Open to the Public
RSVP for your Zoom link below
Or visit: https://pocisnorthwest.org/events/equity-and-inclusion-virtual-speaker-series/

01/08/2025

Spread the word!!
Come work with us in the U.S. Northwest.
Register at https://pocisnorthwest.org/diversity-career-fair/

10/08/2024

Join POCIS Northwest for a conversation with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad tomorrow! This event is free and open to the public.

In this keynote, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad offers a unique, culturally, and historically responsive approach to cultivating genius and joy in education. This approach is essential for accelerating the growth of all students and uniquely youth of color, who have been traditionally underserved in learning standards, policies, and school practices. She will present her equity framework, called the HILL Model, to help educators develop students’ histories, identities, literacies, and liberation. Participants will learn and understand history and policy and personal and instructional factors that justify the need and purpose for culturally and historically responsive education. Additionally, participants will see sample lesson/unit plans across grade levels, moving theory into action.

Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books. She has also received numerous national awards and is the author of the best-selling book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. She also co-authored Black girls’ literacies: An Edited Volume. Her Culturally and Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across thousands of U.S. schools and districts across Canada. Her newest book, Unearthing Joy, is the sequel to Cultivating Genius and provides a practical guide for putting culturally and historically responsive education into curricular practice.
RSVP: https://pocisnorthwest.org/events/equity-and-inclusion-virtual-speaker-series/

09/10/2024

Join the POCIS Northwest Virtual Equity and Inclusion Speaker Series on October 9, 2024 on Zoom at 5:00 - 6:15 p.m. for Cultivating Genius and Joy in Education through Culturally and Historically Responsive Pedagogies with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad.

In this keynote, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad offers a unique, culturally, and historically responsive approach to cultivating genius and joy in education. This approach is essential for accelerating the growth of all students and uniquely youth of color, who have been traditionally underserved in learning standards, policies, and school practices. She will present her equity framework, called the HILL Model, to help educators develop students’ histories, identities, literacies, and liberation. Participants will learn and understand history and policy and personal and instructional factors that justify the need and purpose for culturally and historically responsive education. Additionally, participants will see sample lesson/unit plans across grade levels, moving theory into action.

Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books. She has also received numerous national awards and is the author of the best-selling book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. She also co-authored Black girls’ literacies: An Edited Volume. Her Culturally and Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across thousands of U.S. schools and districts across Canada. Her newest book, Unearthing Joy, is the sequel to Cultivating Genius and provides a practical guide for putting culturally and historically responsive education into curricular practice. Learn more and RSVP at https://pocisnorthwest.org/events/equity-and-inclusion-virtual-speaker-series/

This event is free and open to the public.

06/03/2024

Join the Juneteenth Community Celebration in Bellevue!
https://www.etonschool.org/thelittleschool-juneteenth-community-celebration

Your are invited to attend the second annual Juneteenth Community Celebration in Bellevue on 15 June from 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at Crossroads Park! Visit the Juneteenth Community Celebration...

05/21/2024

On Saturday, May 18, 2024, over 100 families and employees of color from POCIS member schools attended the Families/Faculty/Staff of Color Social Potluck, with special guest artists - Simon Tam and Joe X. Jiang. It was a wonderful event! Thank you to The Evergreen School for hosting and Rajeswari for leading the planning committee for this event.

05/18/2024

Small yet mighty group of DEI Practitioners at this afternoon’s gathering. Have you checked out the delicious Cuban food at Cafe Con Leche?

05/14/2024

On April 25, 2024, Forest Ridge hosted the spring BIPOC Voices Summit. It was a fantastic day full of engaging professional development, community building, good food, and fun. BIPOC Voices is a program, created by POCIS Seattle, that brings together educators of color including teachers, school counselors, and administrators. In BIPOC Voices, educators share ideas, offer support and encouragement, and discuss ways for schools in the area to implement the ideas and approaches shared by guest speakers and other leaders in DEI-related work. A special thank you to Robin Vincent for hosting and to our wonderful presenters, Dr. Alan Phan and Jewell Sparks. For the presentation slides, please contact your POCIS rep for the passcode on the website.

05/07/2024

Please RSVP for the next and last speaker for this school year's Equity and Inclusion Virtual Speaker Series on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Ruha Benjamin is a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab and author of three books, Viral Justice (2022), Race After Technology (2019), and People’s Science (2013), and editor of Captivating Technology (2019). Ruha Benjamin speaks widely about the relationship between innovation and inequity, knowledge and power, race and citizenship, health and justice. RSVP at https://pocisseattle.org/events/equity-and-inclusion-virtual-speaker-series/