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Power Up Together:
ICCS X ION FACE Pre-Conference
October 28th, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho
Summit Sessions
Policy Maker Panel Discussion
From Literacy to Life Readiness: Building a Community-Supported K-12 Pipeline for Student Success
Far + Wise will share its evolving K-12 model that combines literacy intervention, social-emotional learning, family engagement, enrichment opportunities, career exploration, and paid internships into a single continuum of support. Participants will learn how partnerships between schools, families, community organizations, employers, and out-of-school time providers can work together to address barriers faced by students while creating meaningful opportunities for long-term success.
Sam Herrick (Far + Wise)
Sam serves as Executive Director of Far + Wise, where he leads efforts to expand educational access, academic success, and career readiness for youth across Blaine County. He brings more than two decades of experience in education and nonprofit leadership, with expertise spanning youth development, strategic planning, program evaluation, fundraising, and community partnerships.
From Good Intentions to Real Impact: Who’s Missing from the Conversation?
From Good Intentions to Real Impact: Who’s Missing from the Conversation?
This session explores how schools, out-of-school programs, and community initiatives can unintentionally overlook the voices that are essential to meaningful and sustainable change. Participants will examine who is often missing from planning, problem-solving, and decision-making conversations, including youth, families, frontline staff, and community partners. Through real-world examples and practical reflection activities, attendees will learn strategies for building authentic relationships, elevating community voice, and identifying existing strengths that can be leveraged for greater impact. Katie is a former teacher, principal, district administrator, and current educational leader who has led statewide initiatives focused on school safety, student well-being, family engagement, and community collaboration. Hailey brings expertise in family engagement, facilitation, and community-based approaches that elevate parent and youth voice in meaningful ways.
Katie Francis & Hailey Clements (The Shifted Mindset)
Katie and Hailey bring extensive experience in education, youth development, community engagement, and systems change. Together, they have worked with schools, out-of-school programs, nonprofits, state agencies, and community organizations across Idaho to strengthen partnerships that support children, youth, and families.
Small Shifts, Stronger Teens: Practical Programming Strategies to Support
What do Idaho youth need to thrive? Learn how small, practical shifts in programming can
strengthen connection, self-awareness, and community belonging. Explore protective factors that support mental health and well-being, see ideas already working in Idaho, and leave with concrete strategies you can use right away.
أندريا هيل (Communities for Youth)
Andrea is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor in the School of Public and Population Health and the Community Engagement Coordinator for Communities for Youth. It’s her professional mission to engage, educate, and empower individuals, families, and communities so that life can be well lived.
Bridging the Gap: How STEM Programming Brought Two Schools Together
Union High School and Iowa Elementary established TMC Works in partnership with ION during the 2024–2025 school year. Significant outcomes have been observed among our at-risk middle and high school participants. Students have developed deeper engagement with STEM content, discovered a genuine passion for education and mentorship, and become integral contributors to their school communities. The peer mentorship model has proven particularly effective. By pairing high school mentors with elementary students, we created meaningful opportunities for hands-on STEM learning experiences. Beyond academic gains, the program has yielded unexpected benefits: improved student attendance and the development of authentic, lasting relationships that extend beyond the classroom.
Jennifer Owen-Tillotson (Iowa Elementary)
Nicholas Rush (Union High School)
Jennifer Keene (Nampa School District)
Kylan Diaz (Union High School student)
Angelina Baker (Union High School student)
Jennifer Owen-Tillotson is a Community School Coordinator at Iowa Elementary. Nick Rush is the science and STEM teacher at Union High School. Jennifer Keene teaches science at The Ridge Middle School. Union STEAM students have worked over the last two years to build the STEAM mentorship program for which Kylan Diaz and Angelina Baker are founding members.
Building Youth Confidence: Peer-to-Peer Conversations Through the Lens of Artmaking
In this hands-on experience, educators will learn to create environments and integrate structure that approaches learning through conversations between peers K-12, all through the equitable lens of creating and artmaking. We will explore questions like how do we as educators and mentors prompt students to integrate moments of self-reflection into their workflow? How can we utilize the unique perspectives of students to help relate to and engage with their younger peers? How can we encourage kids to ask each other thoughtful questions, and give guidance to confidently answer them?
Brooke Rowen (Moscow Contemporary Art)
Brooke is an independent artist, BFA student at the University of Idaho, and Youth Art Educator at Moscow Contemporary. He enjoys learning alongside students while encouraging youth to have agency and an impact on their communities. Brooke is constantly looking to foster connections between his students, drawing from his own struggles of navigating educational spaces after the pandemic, and experiencing trends of social disconnections between his peers and the community around them.
ميغان ماك (Moscow Contemporary Art)
Education Director, Megan, has an MFA from Pratt Institute in NY. She has worked predominantly as a portrait and commercial photographer for over ten years in both Los Angeles and New York. She still works as a photographer, videographer, and interdisciplinary artist. In October, 2022 she joined the Moscow Contemporary team and has played a key role in growing and establishing the expansion of the education program including the No School Art Program (NSAP), After School Art Program (ASAP), and Adult/Teen Workshops. Additionally she has helped to facilitate a new Dance for Parkinson’s + program with instructor and artist Corrie Befort.
Reimagining Family Engagement
Family engagement is often measured by attendance at events, volunteer hours, or completed forms, but these metrics rarely capture whether schools are building authentic partnerships that improve student outcomes. This professional learning experience challenges school teams to rethink the purpose of family engagement by starting with a critical question: What are we truly trying to accomplish?
Through reflection, discussion, and strategic planning, participants will examine the difference between involvement and engagement, identify barriers that unintentionally exclude families, and redesign opportunities that foster trust, belonging, shared responsibility, and student growth. Teams will leave with a clear vision for meaningful family partnership and a practical action plan for creating targeted engagement opportunities aligned to their school goals.
Sarah Henthorn (United Way of Treasure Valley)
Sarah is the Community Schools Lead Coach for the Idaho Coalition for Community Schools, bringing over six years of experience as a Community School Coordinator. Passionate about collaboration, Sarah supports schools across Idaho in building strong, sustainable partnerships that help students, families, and communities thrive.
Amplifying Youth Voices Through Community Partnerships
Reimagine how your students can use their voices to shape and impact their communities through outreach, collaboration, and projects that matter. In this hands-on session, you will explore ways to connect with community members and build lasting partnerships that create meaningful change for both students and the community. Together, we will examine strategies for designing authentic learning experiences that empower students to engage in meaningful conversations and take action.
Mario Pile (University of Idaho)
Mario currently serves as the Student Ombuds and Retention Specialist for CLASS at the University of Idaho. Prior to his work in higher education, he spent over a decade supporting at-risk youth in a variety of settings, including Juvenile Corrections and the Idaho Youth Challenge Academy. Over the past year, he has had the privilege of collaborating with Mrs. Mangini and her students on the development of their student-led podcast.
Paige Mangini (Moscow Middle School)
Paige is a former middle school ELA teacher and current teacher librarian in Moscow, Idaho, with nearly three decades in education. This past year, she launched Library Advisory, a student-led program focused on community connection and leadership. Students collaborated with partners including the University of Idaho, Latah County Historical Society, Moscow Chamber of Commerce, and Community Schools to bring the UI Common Read, The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon, to the middle school.
Three Paths to Success: Ready Families; Communities; Schools
Children can arrive at kindergarten with vastly different early life experiences. This interactive session explores the developmental spectrum through three case studies of young children whose early childhood environments vary in access, opportunity, and support. Participants will examine each child’s story—shaped by factors such as early learning settings, family context, developmental supports, and community resources—and consider how these experiences influence transition into K-12 and beyond. In the process, we’ll explore low-cost, high-impact strategies available to communities and schools that lay the foundation for long-term success.
Heather Lee
Heather oversees our Early Education Collaborative Network, leading project managers across the state as they coordinate efforts to engage parents, early learning programs, librarians, kindergarten teachers, school administrators, state agencies, and the business community in creating successful early learning programs. She also provides guidance and leadership to ensure that evidence-based, developmentally appropriate kindergarten readiness skills are promoted. Her work focuses on building strong connections among children, families, schools, and communities to support every child’s early learning success.
Kari Palmer (Idaho AEYC)
Kari is the Project Manager for Canyon County’s Early Learning Collaborative (ELC) through Idaho AEYC, leading the “Play 2 Learn” program that provides play‑based early education for children ages 0–5 across the Treasure Valley.
From Silos to Systems: Build Youth Collaborative
Communities often have passionate organizations working hard for youth, but too often they work in isolation, creating service gaps, duplicated efforts, and missed opportunities for deeper impact. This session explores how a group of youth-serving organizations came together to create a Youth Collaborative focused on sharing resources, identifying needs, coordinating support, and strengthening outcomes for young people. Participants will learn the practical steps involved in building and sustaining a collaborative network, including establishing shared goals, navigating organizational differences, building trust, and creating structures for communication and accountability.
Monica Reyna (The Space)
Monica serves as Program Director a The Space, where she leads a team of educators to create and implement innovative programming. Before that, she spent 6 years as a Violence Preventionist, during which she had the joy and honor of mentoring teen leaders, co-creating educational workshops, and helping young people access tools to lead conversations on healthy relationships and social change. . She has a background in social science research and evaluation design and a Master’s degree in Applied Sociology from Loyola University Chicago.
تنمر؟ أم ماذا؟
This session explores storytelling as a powerful tool for building authentic relationships with youth. Through personal experiences and real-world examples, attendees will learn how storytelling can create trust, strengthen belonging, and help students feel seen and understood. More importantly, this session will focus not only on telling our stories, but on learning to hear the stories students carry with them every day. Participants will explore how shared experiences, active listening, and meaningful connection can help bridge gaps between youth and the adults who support them. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for using storytelling to better connect with students of all backgrounds, create stronger relationships, and become positive, lasting parts of a young person’s story. Intended for adult educators, mentors, and youth-serving professionals. Session may include discussion of sensitive real-life experiences. This storytelling-based approach has resonated with educators, mentors, and youth professionals across multiple settings, leading to continued requests for the session.
Jared Lopez (Idaho Underground)
Jared has years of experience presenting on behalf of College of Western Idaho in a plethora of different settings and topics. Additionally, Jared leads team trainings, and hosted small conferences of his own where he not only presented but coordinated. Through his experience in the USMC he has also had the opportunity to train and present to his fellow men and superiors on multiple occasions. Currently within the realm of entrepreneurship he has also been a key-note speaker, spoken at assemblies, and led professional development trainings for other organizations around the Treasure Valley.
Jaden Crandall (Idaho Underground)
Jaden is a Columbia High School graduate and former mentee from the Idaho Underground. He began his professional career as a volunteer with the Idaho Underground and gradually earned his title as a program coordinator where he oversees the scheduling and activities of after school programs. His influence has helped develop youth across the Treasure Valley and surrounding areas such as Nampa, Emmett, Fruitland, and Cambridge. Jaden is a student at CWI learning Spanish as a second language to connect better with our ESL students.
PARTNERS
شكراً على دعمكم السخي!
