33rd Annual ADEIL Conference | A Holistic Approach to Sustainable Education
October 1, 2025 | 10 a.m. PT – 7 p.m. PT
Introducing the keynote speaker, Dr. Catherine Denial. Historian and Award-Winning Educator
ADEIL enthusiastically welcomes our keynote speaker, Dr. Catherine Denial, author of A Pedagogy of Kindness.
Catherine (Cate) Denial, Ph.D., is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. A winner of the American Historical Association’s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, Cate has served as a member of the Educational Advisory Committee of the Digital Library of America, as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and as a Learned Scholar for the National Historic Landmarks division of the National Park Service. Cate currently sits on the board of Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life. She has held an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation fellowship from the American Philosophical Society, and she is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society.
From 2001 to 2011, Cate served as the Lead Historian for Bringing History Home, a professional development program for K-12 educators funded by $3 million from the U.S. Department of Education. Cate’s new book, A Pedagogy of Kindness argues that higher education needs to get aggressively and determinedly kind. A Pedagogy of Kindness is about attending to justice, believing people, and believing in people. It’s a transformational discipline.
As creator and director of the Bright Institute at Knox College, Cate oversees a program which supports 13 faculty from liberal arts schools across the United States in their teaching and research for three years, while providing them with $10,500 in research funds and convening an annual summer seminar. From 2022 to 2023, she was PI on a $150,000 grant awarded to Knox College by the Mellon Foundation, bringing together thirty-six participants from across higher education in the United States to explore “Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care in the Academy After COVID-19.”Cate is also a pedagogical consultant who works with individuals, departments, and institutions in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, and Australia.
The evolving demands of education necessitate a dual focus on educator professional growth and well-being. The 33rd Annual ADEIL Conference aims to create dialogue around educator development with the goal of sharing approaches to sharpening teaching practices while balancing educators’ mental health and wellness needs. In other words, how are we developing and caring for ourselves and one another, while meeting learner needs in the classroom and beyond?
Presentations will address diverse educator professional development, as well as diverse wellness needs, through discourse by considering the following:
- Development, execution and impact of professional learning communities
- Creating belonging for educators
- Fostering a culture of growth and trust through mentorship
- Mental health advocacy for educators (self-care, mindfulness, emotional resilience, non-violent communication)
- Strategies to address educator burn-out
- Measuring the efficacy of professional development programs
Conference Proceedings
Presenters are invited to submit a paper based on their presentations for the peer-reviewed conference proceedings submissions. Learn more about conference proceedings submission here.