Session 3
Let Your Light Shine and Find Peace Within: Ensuring Integrity is the Foundation of Practice
Nathan Hollis II, Assistant Professor, College of Education, Grand Canyon University
Educators have a wide-ranging scope of practice that includes various roles and responsibilities. Not only should educators be competent in their discipline, but they must also be highly effective with meeting the diversified needs and interests of their stakeholders (i.e., students, parents and families of students, colleagues, public, etc.). Additionally, respected educators must exemplify consistency in their beliefs and actions no matter the circumstances. This can be especially challenging if conflicting values and misaligned worldviews exist between the educator and those they are intended to lead and serve.
In this session, participants will identify their personal strengths. To do this, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own values, behaviors, and decision-making processes. Also, participants will examine strategies for demonstrating their integrity in settings and situations that challenge their morals and ethics. As stated in Matthew 5:16, your light must shine before others. Therefore, the goal for the session is for participants to possess a framework that incorporates actionable principles of integrity that challenge ethical dilemmas and support the ethical decision-making needed both in and out of the classroom.
Nathan Hollis II has served in a variety of capacities across private, public, and non-profit settings for over 25 years. He has been a classroom teacher (grades 1-4), mentor teacher, curriculum designer, and administrator in higher education. Currently, Nathan is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Grand Canyon University (GCU) in Phoenix, Arizona.
In addition to his professional roles, Nathan has diverse service experiences in the field. He has actively participated on and led several, state executive boards including the American Lung Association of Arizona (ALAA), the Arizona School Association (ASA) Higher Education Division, and The Education Coalition. Additionally, Nathan has mentored novice teachers as a member of Profound Gentlemen, which is a national organization focused on retaining and nurturing male educators of color. Also, he has provided presentations at several national, state, and local conferences on a broad range of topics.
Nathan has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s in early childhood education, and a master’s in business administration. He is state certified as an elementary public educator and endorsed in early childhood education. Nathan is currently pursuing a PhD in psychology with an emphasis cognition and instruction from Grand Canyon University. His dissertation topic explores how African American fathers describe their influence on their sons in post-secondary education.