Saturday, July 26, 2025 -Malcolm x colleg- Chicago, Il- 10:00am to 2pm

Candice Pedraza Yamnitz

 a plugged-in homeschooling mom, blogger, bookstagrammer and teacher who is an active member of Christian Mommy Writers.

Candice has ghostwritten three novels and various articles. Before that, she was a dual-language classroom teacher for several years. All of that changed when she had her spirited daughter and then her even more energetic sons. Using her educational knowledge and writing skills, she writes novels and chapter books and teaches every so often at her homeschool co-op and local library.

She has lived in the Chicago area almost all her life. If you ask her why she writes, she’ll describe late nights rocking her babies while reading countless fantasy and dystopian books until a story idea of her own gave her a new dream.

Candice has placed in the ACFW First Impressions, Genesis, and Virginia Crown. Her debut YA fantasy novel, UNBETROTHED, released February 2022. Visit her at candiceyamnitz.com and find her on Instagram and TikTok at @candiceyamnitz.

Will Estrada

The battle to protect your right to homeschool is entering a new phase. A new model bill that is hostile to homeschooling freedom urges legislators to impose archaic restrictions on home education in every state. The bill’s authors and advocates claim that homeschooling is used to hide child abuse, despite a growing body of research that says homeschooling and abuse are not correlated. In this presentation, we will analyze both this model bill and the worldview on which it is based, and tell you exactly what you need to know about the Make Homeschool Safe Act. We are eager to inform and equip your family now so you can respond quickly and knowledgably to these emerging threats.

Will began his legal career working for HSLDA in January 2004 as a legal assistant to HSLDA Senior Counsel Scott Woodruff. After graduating from Oak Brook College of Law and Government Policy with his Juris Doctor in 2006, he moved on to direct HSLDA’s Federal Relations department and serve as HSLDA’s federal lobbyist.

Will worked as a career federal employee in the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services from 2018 to 2021. In November of 2021, he resigned from the federal government and was selected by the Board of ParentalRights.org to serve as the first full-time president of ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation.

April Huard

I’m the Director of Education at Clonlara School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In my role, I oversee the pedagogical approach of the school’s campus and off-campus programs which enroll over 2,000 students globally. One thing I love about my job is visiting our programs and affiliate schools around the world. It’s inspiring to be connected to a globally diverse group of people who are passionate about learning.

I started my career as a teacher in a public school system in Ohio. After several years, I left that position to homeschool my own five children, a pursuit that lasted over 20 years. During that time, I started a homeschool co-op and taught high school English. In 2016, my family moved to Michigan, and I began working at Clonlara School, which is an accredited private school that serves homeschooling and campus families.

My udergraduate degrees are in English and French, and I did my master’s degree in educational psychology. I’m especially interested in motivational theories and personalized learning. Although I’ve completed these degrees, I continue to learn something new every day about kids and education!

I’ll be speaking about the advantages of a personalized education at this conference. I’ve worked with hundreds of students over the past decade who have truly followed their interests and curiosities instead of adhering to a strict curriculum. I’ve been able to see, firsthand, the many benefits of that approach. I hope the information and stories I share will empower parents to more fully embrace personalized learning for their children.

I’m inspired to continue working in this homeschooling and alternative education space because of my own experience homeschooling my own children. I want to encourage and equip other families to have the confidence to pursue the educational path that’s right for their own children. Finding the right educational fit can make all the difference in a child’s life! 

Nina D. Sánchez 

A proud second-generation Chicagoan with roots in Pilsen and Central Mexico. As Director of Enrich Chicago, she collaborates with a collective of 40 arts and philanthropic institutions working to end systemic racism in the arts. She has served in a variety of capacities within multicultural leadership initiatives, direct-service, and education sectors, building anti-racism frameworks, disrupting systemic inequity at its core, and mobilizing strategic plans into meaningful programs, opportunities, and institutional/individual actions. She leverages her strengths of strategy, ideation, and assessment to be an active voice for effective policies and systemic interventions that support increased racial equity in her hometown of Chicago

Maricela Treviño

 Maricela has served in education for over 18 years as a teacher, tutor, and assessment writer. She earned her B.A. in Chicana/o Studies and M.Ed. in Math Teaching from Stanford University and holds a Montessori certification in Early Childhood. Throughout her career, Maricela has worked with Pre-K through 12th-grade students in math, reading, and science. As a Montessori teacher, she designed a Spanish curriculum for young learners and has developed training for tutors on math instructional strategies, social-emotional learning, and literacy guidance. She also wrote community educator courses on how students learn math and how to build equity in math learning environments.

Maricela is a proud mother of two lifelong homeschoolers. She has homeschooled her children for the past 11 years in the United States and Mexico.

Laura Rodríguez-Romaní

Owner of Los Amigos Books, Chicago’s only Spanish-language and bilingual children’s bookstore, is a former dual language teacher with a Master’s in Education and a certificate in Library and Information Science. The curated collection features culturally rich books from Latin America, Spain, and the U.S., with a strong focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The mission is to offer joyful and meaningful reads that support families in raising bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural children.