Advancing excellence at scale through a thriving professoriate

Tools for Leading Tough Conversations About Free Speech

Navigating Tense Moments:
Tools for Leading Tough Conversations About Free Speech

December 16, 2025 | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Eastern)

PEN America's Navigating Tense Moments workshop series equips faculty leaders to understand how they and campus administrators can skillfully handle hot, politicized, or emotional moments without limiting free expression. The series is developed and facilitated by PEN America consultant Neijma Celestine-Donnor, drawing from her distinctive blend of legal expertise and social work background. 

This session will focus on dialogue tools for leading difficult conversations about free speech while centering relationships, learning opportunities, and transparency. Participants will use scenarios to test how they would apply the tools in their own work.

NOTE: THIS SESSION IS OFFERED BY INVITATION ONLY

Colloquium Leader

Neijma Celestine-Donnor

Neijma Celestine-Donnor, JD, MSW, LCSW-C is a campus free speech consultant at PEN America, where she brings her distinctive blend of legal expertise and social work background to support campus engagements and public events focused on educational freedom and expression.


Ivy+ FAN Virtual Colloquium:
Faculty Rights & Responsibilities

Dialogues for Ivy+ faculty who want to understand how their universities work and the roles faculty can play in helping them work better.