Serena Pariser, M.A., has twelve years classroom experience in public and charter schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. She has taught in some of the most challenging school settings from coast to coast. In addition to her extensive experience in urban school settings, she also has experience in affluent schools, and has truly seen all sides of education. Most of her full time teaching experience is at the middle school level, although she has experience in high school and elementary school settings. She earned her master's degree in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. She has been a teacher, teacher coach, curriculum designer, and has held leadership positions in school settings. Serena was humbled to be recognized as Teacher of the Year at Gompers Preparatory Academy.

She has been invited to present at three consecutive Character Matters conferences at University of San Diego about integrating character education into the Common Core curriculum. Furthermore, she co-presented at the 2015 UCSD Diving Deep: Common Core and NGSS conference. Serena was a three-year member of the advisory board at the Character Education Resource Center at University of San Diego. She later transitioned into the role of an assistant to the Character Education Resource Center and then to Lead Administrator to the 2017 21^st Annual Character Matters Conference, that brings together administrators and teachers from all over the country. In addition, Serena was selected to be a National Evaluator for Schools of Character, where she evaluated elementary schools’ character education programs and determined if they were eligible to be a National School of Character.

In addition to her educational work in the United States, Serena has expanded her educational knowledge around the globe. She coached teachers and modeled best practices and engagement strategies in Kathmandu, Nepal and also taught in rural parts of Turkey. Serena was selected as a U.S. Ambassador with Fulbright Distinguished Teachers Award, which gave her an opportunity to coach teachers in Botswana on engagement strategies, smart technology uses, and best practices in the classroom.

Serena has a national audience of educators on social media and her website at www.serenapariser.com, where she writes educational articles for teachers around the country and globe. She currently works as Assistant Director of Field Experience at University of San Diego, where she has a broader influence on new teachers entering the profession. She also instructs a seminar class for new teachers.

Dr. Victoria Lentfer is an education instructor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She teaches classroom management and middle level courses. She is an educational consultant and founder of the CALM Classroom Management Program, which is a comprehensive behavior management and teacher leader program that provides communication models to guide teachers and students to an inclusive and productive classroom. She has more than 20 years of experience of providing instructional support and teaching at both the middle and high school urban districts, and extensive work with incarcerated youth. Victoria has also been a Trailblazer Leader and keynote speaker for the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE).