EyesOpenIowa 2018 Annual Conference 

You are invited to attend the 2018 EyesOpenIowa Annual Conference: Ripples Affect, September 25-26, 2018 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Urbandale, Iowa!

This engaging sexual health education conference brings together teachers, nurses, college students, professors, health educators, and youth serving professionals from across the Midwest!

Professionals can choose from a variety of exciting and interactive workshops in the adolescent sexual health field. Along with dynamic keynote speakers, roundtable discussions, exhibitors with professional resources, and plenty of time for networking with other professionals, this conference is your key to effective and fun professional development.

Register Now! FREE GIFT: All Conference registrants will receive a free e-book, courtesy of the Center for Sex Education. How I Got Into Sex Ed.  Many thanks to the Center for sharing this terrific book!

 

Attendees are also eligible for 1 AEA credit by attending the full conference! Additional information about AEA credit will be available at the EOI registration table.

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This year's fantastic keynotes include:

Kim Cook  

  Day 1, Opening Keynote Address: "How #PopCulture Has Reshaped Conversations About Sexuality"

  Kim T. Cook, RN, CHES, has certifications as a Health Education Specialist, middle and high school health teacher, and in LGBT Studies and is also a former elementary school nurse. She is the founder of Teen World Confidential, an online resource for parents of teens and 'tweens to help get the conversation(s) started.    

Kim believes that when parents and kids establish an open dialogue around sex, kids are empowered to make the best possible choices over a lifetime. She is also the author of Teen World Confidential: Five-minute Topics to Open Conversation About Sex and Relationships. As the mother of three grown daughters, she is a survivor of the adolescent years.

**Conference attendees will receive a free copy of Kim's book, Teen World Confidential!**

Day 1, Afternoon Keynote Address, "How Organizations Avoid Responsibility for Equity and Civil Rights"

John-Paul Chasson-Cardenas

For over 25 years, John-Paul Chasson-Cardenas has worked in the area of inclusion, equity, human and civil rights. John-Paul has been recognized at the national level for his work transforming large multimillion dollar systems towards equity. This includes overseeing civil rights compliance and Educational Achievement Gap reduction efforts for 295 school districts in Washington State, leading multistate and multimillion dollar community change efforts to reduce poverty among youth and families of color, and leading state and federal law, policy, and voting change efforts.John-Paul is anationally-recognized speaker, facilitator and instructor.

 

Day 1, Afternoon Closing Keynote address, "Opening Our Eyes to Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking: Prevention, Identification, and Aftercare"

Lauren Peffley

Lauren Peffley recently earned her Master of Social Work and Certificate for Violence & Injury Prevention from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University with a concentration of Advocacy and Empowerment for Survivors of Sexual Exploitation. She also completed training with the YWCA’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and has served as a SART advocate. Lauren has been passionate about anti-exploitation work for over a decade now, taking every opportunity to learn about it, write about it, speak about it, and work with organizations doing something about it. She spent a year living in Southern India serving as an intern with International Justice Mission, and then spent two years as a dedicated volunteer/public speaker for Not For Sale – Minnesota. Lauren is currently pursuing justice and serving survivors through her role as Program Coordinator at Eden’s Glory.

 

Latasha DeLoach

Day 2, Morning Keynote Address: "Exposing the Invisible Ink: Revealing Systematic Racism in the Years of #staywoke"

LaTasha DeLoach holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Iowa School of Social Work. In her position of Community Projects Specialist at Johnson County Social Services, she is the Johnson County Disproportionate Minority Contact coordinator and the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children coordinator. DeLoach advocates for families and is a fierce advocate for women and young women of color in Iowa.

She has been a member of many local and statewide boards and committees including UI School of Social Work Professional Advisory Committee, State Disproportionate Minority Contact Subcommittee, Iowa Girls Justice Initiative Taskforce, SMART on Juvenile Justice Leadership Team, City of Iowa City Council’s Ad Hoc Diversity Committee and City of Iowa City Roundtable Discussions.

DeLoach is a certified facilitator for Girls’ Circle, The Council for Young Men and Boys, and Family Team Meetings. She is a trainer and facilitator for the Iowa Department of Human Services Race: Power of an Illusion program. DeLoach is the co-founder of several organizations and programs for women and girls of color, including G! World, Sisters in Power, and Sankofa Outreach Connection, an emerging local organization with over 300 women of color members.

DeLoach was vice president of the Iowa City Community School District Board of Directors. She is also a committed community volunteer and coordinator of conferences, seminars, workshops, and events. Her crowning achievements include being a partner to her husband Jason and a mother to her boy/girl twins, Nathan and Lauren.

 

Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel

Day 2, Conference Closing Keynote Address 

Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel has served as One Iowa’s executive director since January 2017. He is also adjunct faculty at Iowa Central Community and Des Moines University and a respite provider through Lutheran Services in Iowa. He has over 10 years of nonprofit experience working with the LGBTQ community, migrant and seasonal farmworkers, Latino community, and individuals with disabilities.

Daniel has a Doctorate of Education in Leadership from Creighton University. His doctoral work includes a dissertation titled Resilient Leadership: A Case study about a gay man’s journey of coming out and running for public office. He holds an M.A. in health studies from the University of Alabama, a B.A. in liberal arts with sociology and psychology minors from Grand View University, and an A.A. from Iowa Central Community College.

In 2015, Daniel received one of the Des Moines Business Record’s Forty Under 40 awards. In 2012, he received the Karen Packer Spirit of Collaboration Award at the Iowa Cancer Summit. Daniel completed the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute’s Community Leadership Program in 2017.

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EyesOpenIowa's conference breakout sessions are at the height of comprehensive, inclusive, and intersectional sexual health education. Here's a list of the outstanding workshops that will be offered. Conference participants will receive an email in the next few weeks to select their workshops. Full presenter biographies will be included with conference materials.

 

Marcia Berke, Northern Illinois University,“Creating a Safe Environment from the Ripple Effect of Gender Diversity”

 This session focuses on classroom strategies and techniques for creating a positive and inclusive learning environment for the sexually minority student. Attendees will participate in activities designed to familiarize them with the current terms of the LGBT+ community, and the challenges educators can face when implementing inclusive pedagogical techniques. Resources will be provided and discussion encouraged. 

Gail Cowan, EyesOpenIowa, “Fundraising for Local Adolescent Sexual Health Initiatives

Come join Gail Cowan, Director of Development at EOI, for a lively session on effective fundraising practices, with a focus on raising funding for local adolescent sexual health initiatives. In this interactive session, Gail will lead a discussion with participants on best practices, share tips from her more than 20 years in the field, and help participants identify three steps they can take to begin growing their fundraising efforts. 

Ashley Ezzio and Sarah Myren, Young Women's Resource Center“Advocating for Young Pregnant and Parenting Students”

The Young Women’s Resource Center (YWRC) is excited to be facilitating a discussion about barriers and challenges young pregnant and parenting students face and how educators can be active advocates for their needs. Join us in learning more about the YWRC’s Young Powerful Mother’s programming, student’s legal rights, and best practices for working with parenting youth. The session will include youth voices, hands on activities, and opportunities to share challenges and successes from your community.

Ashley Kuykendall, Washington University in St. Louis, “Queering Reproductive Health for Young People”

Sexuality education often leaves LGBTQ+ students behind and renders them inadequately prepared to prevent pregnancy and other adverse outcomes. As a result, LGBTQ+ young people are more likely to experience teen and unintended pregnancy. It is crucial that educators, clinical staff, and parents are able to provide relevant and competent support to queer youth in a reproductive health context. By applying a queer lens to reproductive health care, pregnant or parenting teens can receive more competent, affirming care that acknowledges and uplifts their sexual orientation and experience.  This workshop will provide an overview of the intersection of sexual orientation and unintended pregnancy along with best practices for educating and caring for queer pregnant youth.

Jamie Burch, Planned Parenthood Voters of Iowa, “Navigating the Legislature: How to Use Your Voice to Stand Up to Attacks on Sex Education and Reproductive Health”

Attacks on sex education and reproductive health keep coming at both the state and federal level. In this session, you will learn how to use your voice and engage those you serve to effectively communicate with lawmakers. Ask questions about past attacks and hear a bit about what else we might face. 

 Kristin Fairholm and Emily Miller, EyesOpenIowa, “The Care and Feeding of your Rock Star Educators”

You already know your staff are rock stars, but how do you equip them for continued success with your organization? What do educators need to thrive? What makes a well-trained and comfortable sex educator? What can you do as a supervisor or mentor to energize, support, and retain your most valuable team members? We will address all of these questions and more as we dive into this innovative and engaging workshop designed for those that supervise health education staff. Learn how to ease stress, energize and cultivate staff during uncertain political and grand funded times. Participants will gain skills in identifying and addressing burnout, advocating for development of essential skills needed for effective sex education, and how to thrive in an unstable climate.

Anne Williams, Holy Trinity Church, and Ellen Rothweiler, Grace Lutheran Church, “Faithful Sex”

Talking about sex in a faith community can make some squeamish. Not our presenters! Join us for a conversation about introducing and implementing sex education into congregations and faith communities.

KellyMarie Meek, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, "Contextualizing Consent"

Are you struggling to integrate discussions about consent into the education you are providing in the classroom? Or are you comfortable presenting on the topic, but less comfortable talking about consent in your daily life? This workshop will take a look at everyday scenarios, from family gatherings to online communications to sexual relationships, to talk about what role consent can and should play in those scenarios, and how you can play a part in building a culture where consent, communication, and empathy are the norm.

 Kirsten Brown:EyesOpenIowa, “All About the Interpersonal: Connecting SEL with Sex Ed”

Join us for a discussion on social emotional learning (SEL) and its connections with sex ed! This workshop will provide an overview of SEL, highlight popular evidence-based SEL curricula, and identify the SEL skills and standards that are reinforced within sex ed programming. We will also discuss ways this information can be used when working with schools and advocating for sex ed.

Danielle Miller, Child & Family Therapist, “Alternative Methods to Support Adolescent Mental Wellness"

As anxiety and depression rates soar among teens, we find ourselves facing a troubling trend - the overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of psychiatric illnesses.  Paired with traditional treatment interventions that may sometimes extend and/or worsen mental illness, our youth are in need of an alternative approach. Learn the similarities and differences in presentation of common mental illnesses, how a diagnosis may work against a teen's best health outcomes and, most importantly, how you can support your student's mental health needs holistically. Broaden your understanding of alternative methods to prevention and treatment by learning about the role of diet, exercise and social support in the development of mental wellness.

Jenna Eppert, Des Moines Public Schools, “Talking Health to High School Students”

The workshop will share various ideas on how to be creative with health topics and presentation ideas for students.  Participants will discuss activities to incorporate into their own lesson plans.

Allison Barber, PharmD, “Bayer IUS Training (with hands on training)”

Back by popular demand! This workshop was highly rated by educators from last year’s conference. Don’t worry if you’re not a clinician – this workshop is for anyone!

This interactive workshop will focus on the Bayer Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine Device (LNG-IUS) in the Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) Landscape. The time will include a presentation about the IUD as well as time for participants to become familiar with the insertion steps. The time will include an overview of:

-Unintended pregnancies

-Contraceptive methods women are using in the US

-An overview of LARC

-Agency/Society recommendations surrounding LARC

-The Contraceptive CHOICE Project

- the safety and efficacy of the 3 Bayer LNG-IUS (Mirena, Kyleena and Skyla).

Jamie Sebring, Cedar Rapids Community School District, “Do Babies Really Come from Storks: Weaving Schools, Communities, and Stakeholders in Sex Ed Together.”

This workshop discussion will describe the role of comprehensive sexual health education in Iowa and identify the role teachers, principals, curriculum directors, superintendents, parents, and communities have in sex education. Additionally, participants will discuss potential backlash from stakeholders and communities and methods to respond to backlash. The workshop will also help participants to respond to backlash. Finally, participants will learn how to develop an effective framework to implement effective comprehensive sexual health education in schools.

 Kim Cook RN, CHES,  “Addressing Sexuality with the Special Needs Population and their Parents”

 Too often we neglect to discuss sexuality with our students with special needs and their parents. Kim Cook will share ideas about how to address topics such as hygiene, masturbation, and relationships with students who have mental/emotional/physical special needs and their parents. She will also discuss talking points to share with parents of these individuals. 

 

 

 

 

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Conference Logistics:

Tuesday September 25th, 8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Wednesday September 26th, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Hotel Information:

Hilton Garden Inn - Urbandale/Des Moines

8600 Northpark Dr.

Johnston, IA 50131

The Hilton Garden Inn has been gracious enough to set aside a block of rooms for your convienence on the nights of September 25-26 for $129/night. To reserve, please call 515-270-8890 and ask to make the reservation under the EyesOpenIowa block for these dates. Rooms are limited and will no longer be on hold after September 4th, so to ensure your spot please make your reservation as soon as possible.

Register Now!