Alexander Khost (he/him) is the founder of Youth Rights Accreditation, with a long history of working as a practitioner and advocate of youth rights. Alex lives part-time in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where he volunteers at the self-directed Fearless School and part-time in Brooklyn, NY, USA, where he worked for years at the unschooling center, Brooklyn Apple Academy.

Alex co-founded Flying Squads, a youth liberation and anti-oppression collective that believes in the abolition of divided spaces between young people and their community. Previously he co-founded and co-ran the junkyard playground, play:groundNYC and founded a democratic free school. He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Tipping Points, the book and magazine publisher for the Alliance for Self-Directed Education. He has four children of his own that all are raised through trustful parenting.

My name is James Khost. I’ve spent my K-12 years going to just about every free school and homeschool center in New York city. Through growing up this way, I’ve learned what makes a self directed center’s gears turn. On top of growing up in these environments, I’ve seen the “adult side” of self directed education, via my dad, Alex Khost. I was brought along to most of his meetings on self directed education (much to the dismay of my younger self).

Because of this, I’ve had both perspectives; being on ground level as a student and being a part of the culture that is free schooling, and seeing the behind the scenes stuff that a typical student wouldn’t notice / think about when it comes to SDE.

Bria Bloom (she/her) is a born and raised unschooler. Her experience in directing her own learning led her to become an advocate for Self-Directed Education (SDE), youth liberation, and partnership parenting. The unschooling and deschooling world was her gateway into a whole lot of questioning — realizing that the systems that try to define our lives, and “school” us, are not limited to just school. She also loves to engage & play as an SDE facilitator. She is an unschooling mom of two (a teenager and a toddler); co-founder of Flying Squads; a writer; a facilitator and founder of PDX Flying Squads, a community for self-directed young people in Portland, OR; co-host/co-creator of the Rethinking Self-Directed Education podcast; and the Executive Director for the international advocacy group, the Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE).

Antonio Buehler (he/him) is a stay-at-home unschooling dad committed to helping youth navigate two worlds: the present one we live in, and the future one we can create by living prefiguratively. He advocates for young people’s full autonomy over their bodies, minds, and time within sustainable communities committed to the liberation of all peoples.

Previously, Antonio founded Abrome, a Self-Directed Education community focused on liberating children and transforming educational paradigms. Through Abrome, he collaborated with the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, Agile Learning Centers, and Flying Squads. Antonio’s desire to challenge, undermine, and create alternatives to oppressive systems also compelled him to start the Peaceful Streets Project, one of the most active copwatch organizations in the U.S. from 2012-2017.

Sari González, Director of Explora Agile Learning Community and Co-founder of Radical Learning, is youth liberation advocate, educator, experienced parent coach, and facilitator trainer known for her clear, practical focus and dedication to intentional culture creation within the self-directed education movement. Leaving the corporate world to advocate for youth agency, she has spent the last 20 years humanizing education through initiatives like Summer Search, Farm School NYC, and Cottonwood NYC. By empowering adults to support children’s learning, autonomy, and agency, she champions youth liberation and social justice. Sari provides innovative tools for parents and educators to radically shift the way they think about, speak to, and relate to young people.

Sonia Khost, PhD co-founded Green School Romania, a nature-based self-directed school to have a safe emotional space for children where they are seen, accepted and loved for who they are, and free to grow into whomever they want. She is an Agile Learning Facilitator (ALF), a researcher, and the director of the innovation and development department at Green School. She is also a teacher trainer helping teachers from public and private schools shift their educational processes – making them freer, more sustainable, and more relevant for the school community. She is a member of the Erasmus+/ European Solidarity Corps, where I train people on how to implement projects and make the best out of their learning experiences.

Becka Koritz is a visionary and innovative educator with over 30 years of experience, including 25 years of training teachers. Growing up in the Montessori public school in Sweden, she has since founded two Waldorf initiatives and Explora, an Agile Learning Center in Mexico. As a Co-founder of Radical Learning, she supports parents and educators in fostering young people’s learning, autonomy and agency. Becka is a leading voice in the self-directed education movement in Latin America, and a prolific and impactful content and course creator around SDE and partnership parenting for Spanish-speaking audiences. She is Sweden’s main advocate against mandatory schooling defending kids’ right to diverse educational alternatives. She authored the Swedish book “A School from Scratch” (2016).