Julie Hong
Sparking joy by reimagining schools through purpose, people, and possibility.
Riverside, California, United States
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Named the 2025 ACSA Special Education Administrator of the Year, Dr. Julie Hong is an award-winning educational leader, author, and systems designer with over 21 years of experience across general, special, and alternative education. She currently serves as Director of Instructional Support, Innovation, and Competitive Advantage at the Riverside County Office of Education, where she leads systems that unify Alternative Education, Special Education, and career pathways through student-centered, future-ready design. She is the author of Toward Pedagogy-First AI Integration: A Conceptual Framework Grounded in Relevance to Rigor Flow and Pedagogy in the Loop. Her work advances a human-centered approach to AI integration that aligns with UNESCO’s emphasis on ethical, inclusive, and human-centered AI in education. She has led transformative change across three school districts and two county offices, building instructional coherence in diverse settings. Her work centers on AI Integrated Learning, Project-Based Learning, Universal Design for Learning, and Design Thinking. Dr. Hong also serves as Vice President of Membership for ACSA Region XIX, Past President-Elect of the SWAA Charter, board member for Mosaic Legacy, and CAAPLE mentor to aspiring administrators. She is known for Sparking Joy in Education and reimagining schools through purpose, people, and possibility.
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From Membership to Movement: Building Belonging and Leadership Pathways in ACSA
ACSA’s 2026 Leadership Summit theme, “You Belong Here: Leadership for Every Student,” invites us to examine belonging as both a student experience and a leadership responsibility. For ACSA, that sense of belonging is shaped by how we welcome, connect, engage, and elevate members across regions, charters, committees, and councils.
This interactive Member Services Committee session will help leaders move beyond recruitment and reimagine membership as a leadership pipeline, professional community, and vehicle for statewide impact. Participants will explore practical strategies for creating inclusive member experiences, strengthening regional engagement, activating emerging leaders, and helping members see clear pathways from participation to leadership.
Key audience takeaways:
1. A practical framework for moving members from awareness to engagement to leadership.
2. Strategies to strengthen belonging, retention, and member activation across regions, charters, committees, and councils.
3. A draft action step participants can adapt to improve member connection and leadership development in their own ACSA context.
Participants will leave with a usable Member Activation Framework aligned to ACSA’s goals for member development, advocacy, and organizational sustainability.
AI-Calibrated Instructional Design Integrating Access, Engagement, Behavior Support, and Rigor
Artificial intelligence is changing how educators plan, adapt, and design instruction. For students with disabilities, the opportunity is not simply to make planning faster, but to make learning more accessible, engaging, behaviorally supportive, and rigorous.
This session introduces a practical approach to AI-calibrated instructional design, where educators remain the designers, and AI serves as a responsive planning partner. Participants will explore how to integrate UDL, SEL, PBIS, and standards-aligned instruction into one coherent learning experience rather than treating them as separate planning demands.
Through a simplified design process, participants will learn how to use AI to clarify learning goals, generate access points, strengthen engagement, align behavior supports, create scaffolds, and preserve rigor for students with disabilities. The session will emphasize professional judgment, student dignity, and intentional design, ensuring AI supports deeper learning rather than replacing educator expertise.
Participants will leave with 1) Practical planning structure, 2) Sample AI prompts, and 3) Clear process for designing integrated lessons that connect access, engagement, behavior supports, and rigorous academic outcomes.
Intended Audience:
This session is designed for special and general education teachers, mental health providers, SLPs, OTs, APEs, coaches, program specialists, site administrators, and district leaders who support students with disabilities.
Relevance to Rigor Flow: Partnering with AI Through a Human-Centered Framework
AI is moving fast. Leadership must move deeper.
UNESCO (2025) calls for human-centered AI in education, and the urgency is getting more dire than ever. AI is rapidly shaping instructional decision-making for efficiency, and leaders face a defining choice: will AI simply generate answers, or will it make learning more human, purposeful, and impactful? Innovation built on trust, belonging, and professional judgment outlasts innovation built on speed alone.
This presentation introduces Relevance to Rigor Flow (RR Flow), a practical framework for partnering with AI in a human-centered way that will revolutionize how you interact with AI for purposeful thought partnership. Leaders will learn to shape and program AI so it moves beyond a productivity tool and becomes a thoughtful, targeted instructional and professional development partner. Grounded in the human conditions essential for growth, from safety and access to purpose, challenge, and transfer, RR Flow strengthens PLCs, adult capacity, and instructional clarity as districts navigate responsible AI implementation.
Participants will see AI powered by RR Flow in action, guided by a human-centered framework to support leadership decisions, adult learning, and instructional coherence.
Participants will leave with:
1. A practical framework for leading AI with belonging, purpose, and rigor
2. Strategies to strengthen adult learning, PLCs, and instructional clarity
3. Concrete next steps for your own leadership context
The Innovation Blueprint: Designing Learning That Reaches the Disengaged
Disengagement is a 21st-century challenge, often reflected in attendance, behavior, and academic performance. When students check out, it’s not just a behavior issue, it’s a design issue. This session introduces a practical innovation blueprint that combines UDL, Design Thinking, and PBL to re-engage learners. Learn how AI tools like custom GPTs can simplify and sustain the design process.
Julie Hong
Sparking joy by reimagining schools through purpose, people, and possibility.
Riverside, California, United States
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