Dena Simmons (LiberatED) Professional Development

Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is the founder of LiberatED, an organisation dedicated to advancing antiracist social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools and communities. Her professional development offerings challenge educators to critically examine how SEL is implemented and to ensure that efforts to build students' social and emotional competencies do not inadvertently reinforce the very inequities they aim to address. Simmons' work sits at the intersection of social-emotional learning, racial justice, and healing. She argues that traditional SEL frameworks, while well-intentioned, often ask students of colour to regulate their emotions and adapt their behaviour within systems that remain fundamentally inequitable. LiberatED's approach reframes SEL through an explicitly antiracist lens, equipping educators with frameworks and practices that centre students' identities, honour their lived experiences, and address the systemic conditions that impact their wellbeing. Drawing on her own experience growing up in the Bronx, her doctoral research at Teachers College, Columbia University, and her tenure as Assistant Director at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Simmons brings both scholarly rigour and deeply personal conviction to her professional learning sessions. Her TED Talk on the topic has reached a wide audience, and her work has been featured in major education publications. These sessions are ideal for educators, counsellors, and school leaders committed to building learning environments where every student's humanity is affirmed and where equity is woven into the fabric of social-emotional practice.