Communities of Practice:
Tending to Our Collective Well-Being

June 23-24, 2026

RJE Conference Homepage

COMING TOGETHER SESSION SPEAKERS:  

Sankofa in Practice: Reclaiming Restorative Justice as a Tool for Healing, Accountability, and Transformation in Schools
Tuesday, June 23 | 9:30 a.m.

LaToya Fernandez, Opening SpeakerLaToya Fernandez will open the conference by sharing her journey of using restorative justice to transform classroom and school communities. Drawing from her experience as an educator, restorative justice practitioner, and community leader, Fernandez will explore how restorative practices can move beyond surface-level implementation to become a deeply relational and transformative approach to education. 

Grounded in the African principle of Sankofa, the call to return to what has been forgotten in order to move forward this message will invite participants to examine the roots of restorative justice and the importance of reclaiming its cultural, spiritual, and communal foundations.
Fernandez will introduce her Sankofa Circles framework, which integrates storytelling, embodiment, ancestral wisdom, and accountability as pathways for racial healing and reconciliation within school communities.

Through reflection and lived experience, she will also address the need to decolonize restorative justice practices in education; challenging systems that prioritize compliance over connection, and reimagining schools as spaces of belonging, truth-telling, and collective care.

  • LaToya Fernandez Bio

    LaToya Fernandez is a restorative justice practitioner, peacebuilder, author and educator with over 15 years of experience advancing equity, healing, and community transformation. She is a consultant for the Connecticut School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI) and the founder of Beyond Circles, a restorative practices hub dedicated to training, dialogue, and healing-centered engagement.

    A national leader in restorative justice and a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, LaToya has facilitated dialogue, training, and systems-level change across K–12 schools, higher education, and communities throughout the United States. Her work centers on decolonizing restorative justice by integrating African ancestral traditions, somatic healing, and collective accountability.

    As the creator of the Sankofa Reconciliation Circle model, LaToya brings a culturally rooted and embodied approach to healing and reconciliation, supporting individuals and institutions in building psychologically safe spaces grounded in empathy, belonging, and transformation. She is deeply committed to bridging systems and communities and advancing restorative justice as a pathway to liberation.

Designing for Vitality: A Vision for Community Beyond School
Tuesday, June 23 | 2:00 p.m.

Jenny Finn, SpeakerWhat if the question wasn't how to fix school, but how to build something worth belonging to?

Jenny Finn is the founder of Springhouse, an intergenerational learning community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, where farm, art, community, and seasonal rhythm form the conditions through which young people and adults come alive together. In this talk, she shares the five Sourced Design principles that shape Springhouse's culture — from how adolescents move through a meaningful arc toward young adulthood, to how adults continue their own formation alongside them, and how the community repairs and renews itself when things break down. This is a talk about what becomes possible when a community is designed not around instruction, but around vitality — and an honest look at the barriers and the vision for those ready to imagine something new.

  • Jenny Finn Bio

    Jenny Finn has spent nearly 30 years working alongside individuals, communities, and organizations to cultivate vitality and support meaningful transformation. Her work is rooted in a deep sense of calling that emerged in her early twenties and continues to shape her life and practice.

    Through mentoring, teaching, and research, Jenny invites people to deepen their relationship with themselves as a foundation for contributing to the world with clarity, compassion, and integrity. Her work spans a wide range of contexts, including nonprofit leadership, trauma and hospice care, chaplaincy, clinical private practice, expressive arts, community and cultural design, and transformative education.

    Jenny holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and is the co-founder of Springhouse, an intergenerational learning community in Southwest Virginia. At Springhouse, she helps envision, practice, and share ways of living that contribute to a world where all life thrives.

    Her work is both deeply personal and inherently relational, grounded in the belief that individual and collective vitality are inseparable. Across all settings, she is committed to cultivating environments where people can grow in presence, responsibility, and connection to life.

    Jenny lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband, Andy, and their many animals, and is the grateful mother of Andrew and Lizzie.

From Punishment to Peace: The Liberatory Journey of Restorative Justice
Wednesday, June 24 | 9:30 a.m.

Aundrea Smiley, Coming Together SpeakerDuring this coming together time, we will explore the transformative potential of RJE as a means of moving toward liberation for individuals and communities. We will begin with the idea that true justice is not punishment; it instead seeks to create community, heal relationships, restore dignity, respect, and mutual concern and promote accountability.

It is my hope to inspire a space of collaborative work emphasizing how we nurture the principles of RJE as a vital step toward collective healing and liberation.

 

  • Aundrea Smiley Bio

    Aundrea Smiley, PhD, is a career educator and educational consultant with over 18 years of service in the field, as well as an RJ practitioner. She is a graduate of the Peacebuilding program at EMU, holding a graduate level certificate in RJE, and successfully completed her PhD from Liberty University, where her dissertation research was focused on RJE at the elementary level. Aundrea has previously served as a classroom teacher/building level reading coach as well as the Literacy Coach serving a Virginia school district in grades K-12.  She is a published author and education/beauty consultant. Currently, she is an assistant professor of Teacher Education/ RJE here in the Teacher Education Program at EMU. Aundrea enjoys spending time with friends, family, and loved ones as well as serving the community in various capacities.