Laura Lawrence
Award-winning Entrepreneur | Best-Selling Author | Mental Health Advocate
Book Brent Saccucci, Diversity Equity & Inclusion Speaker
About This Speaker
Brent Saccucci is a full-time faculty member in social change and teacher education at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge. At UofL, Brent founded and leads the Social Change in Schools Cohort, equipping over 75 Southern Alberta in-service and pre-service teachers with strategies in radical pluralism to overcome political polarization and inequity in schools.
Brent has been a teacher in elementary, middle, and high school, as well as a school guidance counsellor and has led programs in healthy masculinity for middle school boys. While teaching remains his heart and soul, Brent is also an educational researcher whose work in social justice education has been published in journals and books across Canada. Brent brings this research to life in his work with school boards, churches and rural communities, where he empowers people to centre dialogue rather than divisive culture wars. In 2025, Brent was awarded an Alberta Human Rights Champion for his bridge-building work between religious communities at 2SLGBTQ+ people.
Now at UofL, Brent Saccucci is also a Research Fellow with the Critical Thinking & Citizenship Engagement Lab, a Faculty Affiliate at the Centre for Feminist Research, and an Affiliate Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies. Brent recently completed a multimodal, open-access textbook on Gender & Sexuality in Education with the amazing folks at UofL Libraries.
Contact an agent to get Brent's availability and ratesSpeaking Topics: Brent Saccucci
Belonging by Design: Building Cultures Where People Feel Seen, Safe, and Valued 
Creating inclusive environments takes more than good intentions. In this thoughtful and practical keynote, Brent Saccucci helps audiences move beyond performative inclusion and think more deeply about what it takes to build cultures of trust, respect, and belonging. Drawing on his work in diversity, equity, inclusion, emotional literacy, and psychological safety, Brent offers a human-centered approach to navigating difference, holding complexity, and creating spaces where people can show up more fully. This outline is rooted in Brent’s repeated focus on intersectionality, belonging, identity, and emotionally safe conversations.
Audience Takeaways:
- Understand what gets in the way of authentic belonging in groups, teams, and communities
- Learn practical ways to foster trust, psychological safety, and more respectful dialogue
- Gain a stronger framework for navigating identity, difference, and complexity with care
Audience Takeaways:
- Understand what gets in the way of authentic belonging in groups, teams, and communities
- Learn practical ways to foster trust, psychological safety, and more respectful dialogue
- Gain a stronger framework for navigating identity, difference, and complexity with care
Media Literacy Is for Everyone: Thinking Clearly in a World of Misinformation, AI, and Digital Overload
In a world shaped by algorithms, misinformation, AI-generated content, and nonstop digital noise, media literacy is no longer optional. Brent Saccucci helps audiences strengthen their ability to think critically about what they consume, question what they are being shown, and engage more intentionally with technology and digital culture. Timely, practical, and highly relevant, this session gives people a clearer way to navigate today’s media landscape without getting overwhelmed by it. This comes directly from Brent’s material on media literacy, digital citizenship, youth culture, technology, and ethical engagement with online information.
Audience Takeaways:
- Learn how to critically assess information in a fast-moving digital environment
- Better understand the impact of social media, AI, and online culture on thinking and behaviour
- Leave with practical strategies for more intentional, ethical, and informed digital engagement
Audience Takeaways:
- Learn how to critically assess information in a fast-moving digital environment
- Better understand the impact of social media, AI, and online culture on thinking and behaviour
- Leave with practical strategies for more intentional, ethical, and informed digital engagement
From Inclusion to Belonging: Practical Strategies for Today’s Diverse Classrooms
Today’s educators are being asked to respond to more complexity than ever before across identity, culture, language, well-being, and belonging. In this engaging and practical session, Brent Saccucci helps educators move beyond checkbox inclusion and toward classroom practices that are genuinely responsive, affirming, and human. Grounded in culturally responsive teaching, intersectionality, and student well-being, this session gives teachers and school leaders a clearer path to creating learning environments where all students feel respected, represented, and able to thrive. This summary is anchored in Brent’s sessions on DEI, culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, queer and trans inclusion, disability and intersectionality, and belonging across difference.
Audience Takeaways:
- Strengthen their understanding of what inclusive and culturally responsive practice looks like in action
- Learn practical ways to create classrooms that affirm diverse identities and lived experiences
- Build greater confidence in leading difficult but necessary conversations with care and clarity
Audience Takeaways:
- Strengthen their understanding of what inclusive and culturally responsive practice looks like in action
- Learn practical ways to create classrooms that affirm diverse identities and lived experiences
- Build greater confidence in leading difficult but necessary conversations with care and clarity
Rethinking Literacy and Learning: Evidence-Informed Teaching for the World Students Actually Live In
Literacy and learning look different in a world shaped by digital media, changing student needs, and growing demands for both rigor and responsiveness. In this timely session, Brent Saccucci helps educators move beyond false binaries and rethink what strong, evidence-informed teaching can look like today. Drawing from his work on structured and balanced literacy, reading comprehension, language production, digital literacy, and innovative assessment, Brent offers a practical lens for supporting deeper learning in ways that are engaging, equitable, and relevant to modern classrooms. This direction is strongly supported by Brent’s literacy and learning sections, including his emphasis on moving beyond the “reading wars,” integrating digital and GenAI pedagogies, supporting comprehension and language production, and critically examining long-standing assumptions about assessment and learning.
Audience Takeaways:
- Gain a clearer understanding of what evidence-informed literacy and learning practices can look like across contexts
- Explore practical strategies to support comprehension, communication, and student engagement
- Rethink traditional assumptions about teaching, assessment, and what it means for students to demonstrate learning
Audience Takeaways:
- Gain a clearer understanding of what evidence-informed literacy and learning practices can look like across contexts
- Explore practical strategies to support comprehension, communication, and student engagement
- Rethink traditional assumptions about teaching, assessment, and what it means for students to demonstrate learning
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