What they say about us

Tom Heaney

“Working with Tom is like going on a trip. You know you’ll arrive because every detail is calculated. He seamlessly combines passion with temperance and vast experiential knowledge with humility—while always pushing forward. If social justice work were dodge ball, Tom would be the first picked. He draws out the best of everyone.”

-Roberto Sanabria, Director of Equal Opportunity and Access, Northwestern University-

"Tom Heaney has a long and vivid history of working and educating for justice.  His graduate course, "Learning for a Change," as our visiting professor on Yukon Island was rated very highly.  It included innovative and meaningful ways to actively involve learners in exploring justice and popular education; it challenged them to critically reflect on their own capacity to make change in their worlds."

 -Gretchen T. Bersch, Professor Emerita, University of Alaska Anchorage-

Tania Giordani

"Every time I see or work with Tania, I feel like a breath of fresh spring air has entered the room. She is passionate about helping adult learners reach their goals, and she is an expert in doing so. She gives her time unstintingly to her profession and her colleagues. Her social justice approach to adult education provides on-going hope, empowerment, and commitment. Working with Tania is one of the best ways that I know to improve programs, curricula and teaching."

-Suzanne Leibmam, Professor Emeritus, Adult Education, College of Lake County-

"Tania is a brilliant social artist!  Not only does she foster awareness and openness between people, she also expands creative space where these capacities gain transformative power and break through internal and external limitations.  In working with groups, she sets a tone of respect and trust that enables people to lean into dialogue, learning, and growth.  Tania draws forth the stories, questions, and insights that help us recognize one another's humanity in deeper, more empowering ways.  In a thoughtful and eminently respectful way, Tania helps people understand nuances, layers, and tensions in identity, relationships, and group dynamics that can lead to conflict and pain when left unexplored.  She combines playful energy with empathy and intelligence, which means that the good relationship work that groups need to do is not just hard but lively and uplifting."

-Shanti Elliot, Director of Community Connections at Francis Parker High School-

Wendy Yanow

"Wendy is an experienced adult educator and social justice advocate who offers insightful historical and contemporary perspectives about education for positive social change. Her focus on culture as context, and on equity in education, is evident in all of her teaching, writing, and consulting."

-Catherine Marienau, Professor/Faculty Mentor, School for New Learning/DePaul University-

"Wendy Yanow is a passionately critical adult learner and educator.  What motivates her to offer her knowledge and training to learners and educators from many different backgrounds is her passion for social justice.  This passion underlies her continuous efforts towards broadening and deepening her understanding of the impact many social factors such as race-ethnicity, gender, or class have on learners’ life and learning chances. Whether in a college classroom or at a community center, Wendy sees the learners not only as individuals whose lives and learning needs have been shaped by these factors, but she also greets them as people with a rich fund of knowledge and experience. Wendy knows how to guide students to draw on their experiences and to affirm the knowledge contained in them. At the same time, she also weaves the process of developing a critical eye towards experiences that speak of discrimination or social injustice into the very process of affirmation. Critical educators who want to make changes in the name of equity can only benefit from Wendy’s sharing of her multi-faceted skills and expertise, and from her passion for social justice."

-Mechthild Hart, Professor Emeritus, DePaul University-