Join Janice Johnson Dias as she discusses her book PARENT LIKE IT MATTERS: HOW TO RAISE JOYFUL, CHANGE-MAKING GIRLS with Jacqueline Woodson

A Parenting Series event

How do we teach girls to change the world? Janice Johnson Dias encourages parents to begin within, seeking their own fulfillment and in turn becoming self-realized role models for young women. Drawing on her knowledge as a leading sociologist and experiences raising her own change-agent daughter, Marley, she offers strategies for discussing racism and sexism, finding appropriate mentors and inspiring girls to pursue their passions. Dias emboldens girls to “lift as they climb” – boosting other young women as they move through their life journey. Mixing personal experience with research from the field, Dias has created the ultimate guide for inspiring a generation of girls to take charge and make change.

Janice Johnson Dias, Ph.D. is a tenured associate professor of sociology at John Jay College in New York City. Johnson Dias is co-founder and president of the public health and social action organization GrassROOTS Community Foundation and its SuperCamp for girls. Johnson Dias holds a PhD in sociology from Temple University. Her collaborative work on black girls’ mental, sexual, and physical health issues earned her a special Congressional recognition and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson and Annie E. Casey Foundations. Born in Jamaica, Johnson Dias moved to the United States at age twelve and now lives in New Jersey with her husband, Scott; daughter, Marley; and dog, Philly.

Jaqueline Woodson is a writer of books for children, adolescents, and adults, perhaps best known for Miracle’s Boys and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. She served as the Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015-2017 and was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2018-2019. In 2020 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is the 2021 winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award for Before the Ever After. Woodson lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with her partner Juliet and two children, Toshi and Jackson.

A parenting event for adults

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