Our Speakers
Charlie Moreno-Romero
Charlie is a pedagogue, anthropologist, and researcher. Interested in democratic education, SDT, SDL, Circle practice, educational commoning.
Luz Olid Díaz and David Caballero Pradas
Luz and David are the founders of Evolving Education, whose mission is to research and democratize how the most progressive learning spaces around the planet are transforming education. On their journey, they saw a deep need to re-root education so that life could flourish.
Kateryna Botvinnik
Kateryna is an educator and co-founder of a democratic school in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. She is also a co-founder of the NGO Vilnosvita, a facilitator of self-directed education festivals (with over 1,500 participants), and the organizer of IDEC-EUDEC 2019 in Ukraine.
Jennifer Goen
Jennifer is a high school English teacher and Instructional Lead Teacher at the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, a democratic public school in Arlington, Virginia. She is committed to student-centered learning and to upholding the school’s pillars of self-governance, self-directed learning, caring community, and equity. In her leadership role, she coaches teachers in SDL and designs professional learning. At the district level, Jennifer facilitates a K–12 cohort for National Board Certified Teachers and leads learning on technology, media literacy, and student-centered pedagogy. She is an ambassador for the Teacher-Powered Schools Network and a doctoral student at Marymount University studying AI and self-directed learning.
Tomis Parker
Tomis has spent his entire career in the alternative education world. He started as a teaching assistant in a Montessori classroom, then worked as a facilitator at a startup free school, organized summer camps for homeschoolers, and eventually co-founded the Agile Learning Centers model — a grassroots network of self-directed learning communities that has spread internationally. For years, he has served as Operations Director at ALC Mosaic, a (large) microschool in Charlotte, NC, where he experienced firsthand the documentation challenges that plague programs like theirs.
Liz Radday
Liz is passionate about challenge-based learning, student-driven passion projects like Capstone, and giving students voice and choice in the classroom. She spent sixteen years as a math and special education teacher in middle and high school and now conducts research on STEM education, writes curricula, and provides professional learning for teachers on a variety of topics, including Personal Interest Projects and AI in Education. Her book, Learning They’ll Love: Engage Students, Meet Standards, and Spark Creativity with Personal Interest Projects, was published in November 2025. She co-hosts the popular weekly podcast ChatEDU on AI in Education.
Nao Saowanee Sangkara
Nao is a filmmaker, educator, and founder of Binsi, an emerging movement that weaves together natural living, democratic education, art, and community into one integrated life-practice. Based in Northern Thailand, she leads a learning sanctuary and living-lab for natural building, child-led learning, and regenerative community life. Her work sits at the intersection of cinema, alternative education, personal narrative, and social transformation, bridging intimate storytelling with systemic change.
Tetiana Yermakova
Tetiana is a student at the democratic school One Crazy School, a youth leader, and a facilitator of Vilnosvita events.
Judy Arnall, BA, CCFE, DTM
Judy is a certified brain and child development specialist and master of non-punitive parenting and education practices. She created Unschooling Canada Association and is the bestselling author of 5 print books, including Unschooling To University. She has unschooled 5 adult children and attended 4 university convocations so far. You can find her at
https://www.judyarnall.com or at https://www.unschoolingtouniversity.com.
Ian Cunningham
Ian is the founder of the Self-Managed Learning Alliance, a nonprofit that supports democratic learning communities in the UK. Ian ran the largest and longest-running learning community for 24 years before setting up the Alliance. In his day job, he is a dancer.
Jun Eliahh Díaz González
Jun is a workshop facilitator with practices oriented around experiential learning, play, and popular education. They have accompanied business and training processes with young entrepreneurs at Nuestra Escuela in Caguas. An activist for human rights, a community organizer, and a member of the Nuestra Escuela community since 2019, as part of the staff. Since 2020, they have facilitated processes with children, youth, and adults, providing support centered on human rights, the right to play, and LGBT+ issues. They design participatory spaces where play and the body are recognized as the primary territory for learning, promoting relevant and transformative educational experiences.
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Zahra Lightway, M. Ed.
Zahra is the co-founder of Light Way Learning and creator of Famli, a family practice of consent-based democracy. She has studied and practiced sociocracy since the 1990s, training in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia with organizations including The Sociocracy Consulting Group and Sociocracy for All. Zahra has taught collaborative governance in intentional communities in Australia and Europe and presented at the Global Ecovillage Network European Gathering in Sweden. She also ran democratic learning programs for children in Texas, including a democratic microschool, three years of home-based Saturday programs, and a summer camp.
Eve Tonkin
Eve is a member of the IDEC Inclusion & Diversity Committee, which works to maintain and raise inclusion and diversity at IDECs, and a founding member of the Whakamanawa Learning Community. This charity promotes and supports agentic and holistic pedagogy in New Zealand. She was the teaching principal of Timatanga Community School, a Democratic school in Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand, from 2012 to 2025. She also attended a Democratic high school in her youth and taught at Timatanga Community School from 2006 to 2011. She is currently writing and consulting about education in Aotearoa, New Zealand
Sifaan Zavahir
Sifaan Zavahir is a co-founder of Kinder Republic, Sri Lanka’s first and only Democratic School, and a Founding Member of the Rights-Centric Education Network, which advocates for educational practices that fully respect human rights, especially child rights.
Olivia Loria & Cecelia Bradley
Olivia is an international education consultant with 55 years of experience working in private and public schools, as well as with homeschoolers. She was the founder and director of Pinewood School (1981-1996). Pinewood School combined with Clonlara School in 1996. Her last position with Clonlara was the Spanish Office Liaison. She is an active participant in the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) and a member of the IDEC Committee on Inclusion and Diversity. She served as an advisory board member, president, secretary, and board member of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools (NCACS) while it was active.
Cecelia began her adult journey in education in the late 60s, when many new ideas, hopes, and dreams were part of the period’s educational and social upheaval. At that time, Currambena in Sydney was also beginning, and she eventually became part of that community as a staff member. After almost 30 years of learning and teaching with children, she and her colleagues initiated the Australasian Democratic Education Community. She was involved in establishing the Asia/Pacific Democratic Education Community and has attended several IDECs and APDECs over the years. She is part of the IDEC Inclusion and Diversity Committee.
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Christopher Sarkonak
Christopher is currently a high school physics teacher with 17 years of experience in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, and is working towards his Ph.D. in Education. He was the first Canadian selected for direct entry into CERN’s International High School Teacher Program and works with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics to develop resources focused on physics pedagogy. Christopher is passionate about student-centred education, having founded a STEM for Girls Week that has expanded into a STEM Club that offers outreach to K-8 schools in the city, and works with students to develop an assessment model that supports all learners.
Roy Karp
Roy Karp is an experienced educator, writer, and advocate for small “d” democracy. As Director of the Alternative Diploma Program, he built a community-based high school that successfully engaged students facing significant educational barriers. Roy has trained hundreds of students and educators in Restorative Practices (RP). He has used them to create inclusive and democratic classrooms where students and teachers work collaboratively toward common goals. He currently leads Tidal Water Consulting (https://tidal-water.com), which provides training and coaching to implement RP in schools, non-profits, and mission-driven social enterprises.
Manuel Vergara Echeverría
Manuel is an alternative philosopher and researcher in philosophy, education, and politics; he holds a PhD in Educational Sciences and a degree in Legal and Social Sciences from the University of Chile and the University of La Serena. He is the author of Aristeia: Hacia una nueva educación para la conciencia/Aristeia: Towards a New Education for Consciousness (2004) and Epistemología Espiritual/Spiritual Epistemology (2019). In addition, Manuel is the founder and advisor to various educational, social aid, altruistic, and professional association initiatives.
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Colectivo Pluriversidad Latinoamericana
Marcel Boesch, Patricia Meléndez, Jacquelin Gasco, Raquel Tomazini, and Yoliet Lombida - Find out all about us at www.pluriversidad.org.