Teaching Truth Panel: Protecting History and Making DEIA Real

Four years ago, UUCF launched the Teaching Truth Campaign in response to book bans and attacks on historically factual education. Across the country in 2026, DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) is increasingly under direct assault. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, gather after UUCF’s worship service to eat together, hear from a powerful panel, and prepare to respond with clarity, courage, and collective action. This is a moment to act together and defend truth.

“UUCF is bringing these thought leaders together because Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility have been falsely vilified by the current administration," says UUCF's Senior Minister Rev. David A. Miller. "Longstanding inequities continue to marginalize those already on the edges of society. Bringing these realities into the light is essential. Suppression and demonization only deepen fear and division and undermine the future of our communities and our country.”

Panelists

Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a social justice activist, poet, and a civil rights attorney. She is the daughter of immigrants from Kerala, India. She is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and her award-winning collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was published by Regal House. Sunu’s work can also be found in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Indian Poets and The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Sunu is currently a Senior Advisor with Democracy Forward, and on the board of the Transgender Law Center. Sunu has been included as one of the Washington Blade’s Queer Women of Washington.

Dr. Joan Kester is the founder of Transition Discoveries, a nonprofit and 15-year action research initiative focused on improving post-school outcomes for students with disabilities. The Transition Discoveries systems/change model is currently being implemented in more than 50 school districts across Pennsylvania. Dr. Kester is a retired assistant professor from The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, where she continues to teach in the areas of disability and public policy and secondary transition practices. Throughout her career in disability studies, she has been a strong advocate for advancing the civil rights of people with disabilities. Dr. Kester has received national recognition for her leadership in supporting successful transitions for youth with disabilities, including her work to enhance the accessibility of one-stop service systems through the development of comprehensive staff development and capacity-building strategies.

David Powers Corwin is an associate professor at George Mason University in the School of Integrative Studies and teaches courses for women and gender studies, the English Composition program, and the Honors College. Most of their courses focus on gender and sexuality in popular culture, friendship studies, rhetoric, research methods, and LGBTQ studies. Dr. Powers Corwin won the 2017 Mary Roper Award, is a co-recipient of the university's Patriot Pathbreakers Award, and received the University Life's Outstanding Service Award in 2019, and the Spirit of the King Faculty Award in 2021. In 2022, an award was named in their honor for their teaching and curriculum efforts in LGBTQ Studies - the Dr. David Powers Corwin Award for Teaching and Scholarship.

Evelyn Spain is the first vice president of the Fairfax County NAACP, where she has provided support and guidance to community outreach programs, the Political Action Committee’s Candidate Forums, chair of WIN and the Freedom Fund. She is certified in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and consults with organizations around unconscious bias and addressing gaps in DEI. In 2020 Ms. Spain was appointed to the Fairfax County Planning Commission, representing the Sully District. She later secured certification as a planning commissioner and currently serves as the vice chair for the Fairfax County Planning Commission, In July 2021, she was appointed chair of the Confederate Names Task Force by the chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She is the founder and president of The Foundation for Eleanora R. Spratt Scholarships, a nonprofit scholarship program that provides funding for economically challenged students.