Rainbow Educators Network (REN) operates as a local cohort of school professionals working together to improve 2S/LGBTQIA+ safety, education, inclusion, and belonging in our schools. Participants, also called Rainbow Liaisons, are asked to commit to attending the group for the full school year. Registration is open to all types of school staff, including credentialed, certificated and administrative personnel.

Rainbow Liaisons meet each month to learn, collaborate, and support one another in improving educational and health outcomes for 2S/LGBTQIA+ students through a systemic change approach that includes professional development, leadership development, mutual support/collaboration and tracking changes/trends in policy, law and culture locally and beyond. This is the third year of the Rainbow Educator Network being offered through a partnership between the HCOE Equity Series and Queer Humboldt.

To learn more about this group, email info@queerhumboldt.org or SBlanck@hcoe.org.

Series Dates

The cohort meets once a month, mostly on the First Thursday:

* =Second Thursday

We encourage two people from each district/site to attend. Certificated, classified and administrators are invited to attend. 

Facilitator/Organization

Lark Doolan is the executive director of the local non-profit, Queer Humboldt, working to uplift the local 2S/LGBTQIA+ community through community education, supporting local school districts, micro-grants, and direct mental health services for queer youth, queer adults, and caretakers/parents of queer youth. As the Transgender Health Champion at Open Door Community Clinics, Doolan works with a team of medical professionals towards building equitable health care access for gender diverse people in rural Northern California, especially ensuring that transgender youth have access to life saving health care locally and affordably.

Doolan is a credentialed special education teacher and school administrator in California and has worked in school settings since 2007. Doolan is also a practicing Marriage and Family Therapist and serves on the State of California’s Office of Health Equity Advisory Committee, representing the Humboldt County 2S/LGBTQIA+ Mental Health Policy.  Since 2012 Doolan provides training for school staff on creating safe and inclusive schools for gender diverse youth, non-heterosexual youth, and youth with disabilities.

Register for This Cohort