Jonathan and Karen share strategies for increasing the capacity for you and your students to discuss challenging topics.

Jonathan C. Zur is President & CEO of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (VCIC), an organization that works with schools, business, and communities to achieve success through inclusion. https://inclusiveva.org/. An experienced facilitator and consultant on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Jonathan was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to the Commonwealth Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, formed in the aftermath of the tragedy in Charlottesville in August 2017. In 2016, Jonathan was a speaker at the inaugural White House Summit on Diversity and Inclusion in Government. His program work with VCIC is noted in the book No COLORS: 100 Ways to Stop Gangs from Taking Away Our Communities as “the best…in the nation for sowing the seeds of non-violence, inclusiveness and understanding in a high school.”


Karen Kochel is a Child Developmental Scientist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Richmond. Her research focuses on childhood through adolescent social development and emphasizes the interplay between peer relationships, such as peer victimization and friendship, and psychological adjustment in classrooms and schools.