Please note: If you plan to attend the workshop, please choose the Friday + Saturday option when registering for the conference.

Workshop Leader: Lena Tashjian, Baltimore City College

Lena Tashjian is a social justice educator with over twenty years of domestic and international teaching experience. She earned her Bachelor's degree in English and Psychology from the University of Virginia, her Master's degree in Teaching from Duke University, and her Master's degree in English from Middlebury College. 

Ms. Tashjian is a National Board certified educator with expertise in the design and implementation of culturally responsive curricula with an emphasis on participatory pedagogy. She has been recognized for her dedication to teaching through awards such as the Fulbright Grant, the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Grant, and The 1619 Project Education Network Grant. In 2014, she founded the Baltimore City College Writing Center, one of the first peer tutoring programs in Baltimore City Public Schools, and has been working to expand peer tutoring programs districtwide.

In 2023, Ms. Tashjian won the grand-prize for the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab and subsequently founded the Believe and Achieve Peer Tutoring Association (BAPTA), a non-profit dedicated to expanding peer tutoring programs in urban public schools nationwide. She has received commendations for her leadership and community work from Baltimore City Public Schools, the Baltimore City Council, and the Maryland General Assembly. She is a dynamic educator who continues to shape the educational landscape with her unwavering commitment to social justice and belief in the power of education to transform and transcend.