Featured Speaker: Reimagining Curriculum Development to Support Students’ Well-Being and Drive Their Success in School and Beyond with Allison Zmuda

Pandemic-related disruptions to education systems have notably affected student well-being and amplified inequalities in learning. Against this backdrop, Ms. Allison Zmuda asks educators to step back and ask, “What are we here to do?” Incorporating the concepts of DEIJ, SEL and data insights into a collaborative environment, Ms. Zmuda clarifies the need to both streamline and energize curriculum design while exploring the use of a storyboard approach that fosters high levels of student engagement, bolsters well-being for all, and sets all students on a path to reach their fullest potential. Attendees will leave with a renewed sense of purpose, a clear answer to ‘what we are here to do’, and concrete next steps on answering that call.

Ms. Allison Zmuda is a well-respected international education consultant specializing in long-term projects on curriculum, assessment and instructional design. For more than 20 years, she has supported educational organizations to imagine learning experiences that are worthy of the pursuit for both students and educators—designing work that is relevant, meaningful, challenging and appropriate. She has co-authored 11 books with one of the most recent publications being: The Quest for Learning (Solution Tree), co-authored with Marie Alcock and Michael Fisher. Her latest writing project with Heidi Hayes Jacobs articulates how to streamline and energize curriculum and is scheduled to be released by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) in September 2023.

Additionally, Ms. Zmuda curates a website community comprised of numerous articles on curriculum design and personalized learning. She is co-director of the Institute for Habits of Mind with Bena Kallick and Art Costa, as well as amplifying voices on Learning Personalized. Ms. Zmuda has a B.A. in American Studies from Yale and earned her M.A. in Liberal Sciences and American Studies from Wesleyan University.