Speakers
Susan has been a columnist for the journal, Understanding Our Gifted. She has written numerous articles for various publications, and has presented at national conferences for several educational organizations. She has served on the faculty of New Leaders for New Schools, a national organization dedicated to training and supporting a new generation of outstanding school principals for urban schools.
She specializes in staff development training that interprets educational research into practical applications and techniques. Since the 1980's Marilee Sprenger has actively pursued the goal of remaining current on learning techniques and how the brain functions. As an independent consultant, her passion is brain-based teaching and best practices using brain research and differentiation. She also consults in the areas of learning styles, using music in the classroom, teaming, multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence, and memory. She is affiliated with the American Academy of Neurology and is constantly updated on current research.
Carole Helstrom is an internationally-renowned educator in the fields of instructional mentoring and coaching. As a Consultant for "Profesional Growth Company" Carole Helstrom has given lectures to diverse audiences (including PreK-12 Teachers and Administrators), specializing in areas such as Reaching Every Student, Essential Elements of Instruction, Motivating the Reluctant Learner, Classroom Management, Mentoring, Coaching, Clinical Supervision, and Brain-Based Research. Carole also works with the BISA, the North County Professional Development Federation. Karla Reiss has earned a Bachelor of Science degree as well as a Master of Arts. Her Professional Diploma is in Special Education. In addition, she is a Certified Professional Empowerment Coach. The bulk of her professional career was in the education field. As Coordinator of Professional Development at Western Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education Services, she designed and developed professional learning opportunities for administrators and teachers in numerous districts in Long Island, New York. As Director of Planning and Funding at Southern Westchester Board of Cooperative Education Services, she again worked with administrators and teachers to design continuous improvement plans for a region that included 35 school districts. She worked with both high-needs school districts as well as wealthier, low-need districts. Karla is the founder of The Change Place which was established it 2002 to provide school systems, and other organizations and individuals, to create a system of ongoing, customized support to help them reach their personal or professional goals. David Noyes has 16 years of teaching experience. He is an accomplished bilingual Spanish speaker with a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education and Curriculum. David is an English Language Development and Sheltered Instruction Coach and Author of Astronomy Made Fun, and Oceans Made Fun (English Learner Support Resources). He is a writer for Mc Graw Hill; Open Court English Learner Support Guide. Some of David's accomplishments include: Presenter for California Elementary Education Association/Staff Development Resources, Awarded 2006 Outstanding Teacher of the Year by Long Beach Unified and the Los Angeles County Office of Education for meeting the needs of English Learners Hope Blecher-Sass, Sharon Russell-Fowler
Hope Blecher-Sass is the creator of hope4education.com. She has been an educator for over 2 decades. This has included work as a Reading Coach, an English as a Second Language teacher and a Special Education teacher. She has serviced students from the ages of 5 years through 18 years old. Her work with adult learners has spanned presentations for local school districts to statewide associations. She holds a BA, an MA, and is currently an adult student in an online Ed.D. program. Sharon Russell-Fowler has been an educator for almost three decades. This has included work as an ESL teacher and a mainstream class teacher. Sharon has serviced students from elementary school through college levels. She has presented at local and statewide conferences. She holds a BA and an MA degree. Sharon is a life long learner. Terri Peckham is a well-know presenter and ELL consultant in Hutchinson, KS. She is a graduate of Sterling College and has completed her ESOL endorsement classes at Emporia State University. Terri coordinates and oversees Direct Student Services at ESSDACK which include online high school courses and Pleasantview Academy and Turning Point Learning Center charter schools. She also provides curriculum support for the 14 ESSDACK Learning Centers that offer high school completion programs and credit recovery for high school students. Additional services she offers are professional development for ESL instructors and paras along with training in the new Kansas Professional Development regulations as well as Blackboard technical support. She is currently working to develop Project Based Curriculum for implementation into all of these instructional venues. Terri taught English and social studies for 12 years before joining ESSDACK in 2000.
Hui Fang Huang "Angie" Su
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Carol is a reviewer for eight journals and a section editor for one. She is author of over 100 articles, book chapters, books, and other professional development materials including "How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms." She works throughout the U.S. and abroad with teachers whose goal is to develop more responsive heterogeneous classrooms.
Rick Wormeli is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and a columnist for NMSA's magazine, "Middle Ground." He is also the author of "Meet Me in the Middle: Becoming an Accomplished Middle Level Teacher" and "Day One and Beyond: Practical Matters for New Middle Level Teachers." Rick won the outstanding English Teacher of the Nation Award at Disney's American Teacher Awards in 1996. He has been a consultant to both the White House and the Smithsonian Institution.
Dr. Silver has been an invited author for several educational journals and has given keynotes at state, national, and international conferences. She has been A featured teacher for the PBS Online Teacher Chat, and has worked with educators in 46 states, Canada, Asia, and Europe.
Todd Whitaker is a Professor of Educational Leadership at Indiana State University and has written over thirty-five articles and eight books including: Dealing With Difficult Teachers, Motivating & Inspiring Teachers and, his newest book, What Great Teachers Do Differently. Dr. Whitaker has provided professional development to teachers and administrators through over 700 presentations at the state, national, and international levels.
Bruce Campbell is a classroom teacher who has developed a nationally acclaimed instructional model based on Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Bruce has presented for the U.S. Department of Education and numerous state departments of education; has consulted for schools, districts, and universities worldwide; and is a popular keynote speaker.
Susan Winebrenner is a consultant who works with school districts all over the country to help them translate current educational research into classroom practice and an author. She is president of Education Consulting Service, Inc., a speakers' bureau for educational topics, which she founded in 1986. 
Jim Moulton is a nationally recognized educator and technology professional developer. His areas of expertise include the role of technology in teaching and learning and project-based learning. Traveling from his home in Bowdoin, Maine he works with teachers, schools, and districts across the country to help make best use of technology to support achievement by all learners.
Alan M. Blankstein is Founder and President of the HOPE Foundation (Harnessing Optimism and Potential through Education), whose mission is to provide support for educational leaders over time to reshape school communities so that all children succeed. His "Reaching Today's Youth" curriculum provides educators and others who work with youth numerous ways to tap strengths rather than focus on deficits through interactive presentations and training.
Darryl Bundrige is Regional Manager for FOUNDATIONS, a nonprofit organization serving children, families, and their communities across the country by expanding content-based enrichment programs during the non-school hours. FOUNDATIONS promotes programs that result in improved academic achievement and the attainment of lifelong learning skills. Bundrige was previously Dean of Students for the Family Charter School and supervisor of an AmeriCorps program.
Eileen Griffin is Director of the Griffin Center for Human Development, a national organization committed to promoting continuous school improvement by applying sound principles of human development. She has been an educational therapist, a teacher of kindergarten, special education, and the gifted and talented, and a curriculum coordinator/consultant for the Gesell Institute of Human Development.
Dr. Judith Irvin teaches courses at Florida State University. She chaired the Research Committee for the National Middle School Association for six years, edited Research in Middle Level Education Quarterly, and she contributes regularly to the What Research Says to the Middle Level Practitioner column of the Middle School Journal. She is an active member of the Commission on Adolescent Literacy of the International Reading Association.
Lynda Irvin is a grant coordinator for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and for the Illinois School Administrators Development Institute for School Leadership and Technology Integration, based at Illinois State University. This grant is responsible for the training of 1500 superintendents and principals in data driven decision-making. She is one of six principals nationally who served on the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) of the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Mark Springer has devoted the past 28 years to teaching seventh and eighth grade students at the Radnor Middle School in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Throughout his career, Mark has designed and taught a variety of integrated curricula, including interdisciplinary Humanities, American Studies, and his school's gifted program. In 1987, along with teaching partner Ed Silcox, Mark launched the Watershed Program which is now widely recognized as one of the nation's foremost integrated curriculum models. Then, in 1998, Mark developed the Soundings Program as a model of a fully integrative curriculum model. He continues to work with students in Soundings today, as they design their entire eighth grade year.
Michelle Pedigo was the 2000 Kentucky Middle School Principal of the Year and 2001 National Middle School Principal of the Year, which enabled her to establish strong ties to middle school principals across the nation and deepen her understanding of the diverse and the common experiences of middle school principals. She serves on the Executive Council for the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform and on the faculty of the National Middle School Association's Institute for Middle Level Leadership.
Jay McTighe has published numerous articles in leading educational journals, co-authored three books on assessment including the best-selling Understanding by Design series. He is a member of the National Assessment Forum, former ASCD Committee Chair, Director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, and Director of the Maryland Summer Center for Gifted and Talented Students.
Marilee Sprenger is a creative and compassionate educator who interprets and applies current brain research for classroom teacher at the elementary, middle school, high school, and university levels. 
Dr. Fiore is the Director of Professional Practice with the Virginia Department of Education. He has worked as a teacher, principal, and in higher education in Indiana, Georgia, and Virginia. He also provides professional development to many schools and organizations.
Dr. Donna Walker Tileston has served education as a leader in teaching, administration, research, writing, software development, and national consulting for the past thirty years. Her administrative responsibilities have included curriculum development, management, technology, finance, grants management, public relations, and drug abuse prevention programs. For the past fifteen years Dr. Tileston has been actively involved in brain research and the factors that inhibit learning or increase the brain's ability to put information into long-term memory. To date Dr. Tileston has made over 500 presentations on her research and materials at state, national and international conferences.
Paul Lawrence, a retired administrator/teacher who has been in public education for over 34 years. He believes that every student has the potential to learn and can be successful. His passion is to share ideas he has learned about teaching and learning with other professionals throughout the United States. To help him meet this goal he has published a book titled Good Connections for Testing and offer highly energized, professional, customized workshops for districts and schools throughout the United States. Paul is on the road approximately 200 days per year and is booked up to a year in advance
Lee Jenkins is President of From LtoJ Consulting Group; he works full-time as an author, speaker, and consultant in the educational field of standards, assessment, accountability and data-based decision making. During the fourteen years he served as a school district superintendent, he studied extensively the principles of quality organizations and wrote a book entitled, Improving Student Learning. Dr. Jenkins has addressed educators in most states plus several other countries regarding his passion: improving our classroom, school and school district systems for the benefit of student learning accompanied by enthusiasm for learning.
Don Deshler is a professor in the School of Education and director of the Center for Research on Learning (CRL) at the University of Kansas. The work of the CRL focuses on the validation of academic and social strategies for at risk adolescents. Deshler and his colleagues at the CRL have designed and validated the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) - a comprehensive instructional model for improving student outcomes. Through the center's International Professional Development Network, over 400,000 educators have been trained to use different components of the SIM model. Deshler's (along with Keith Lenz) most recent text, Teaching Content to All: Evidenced-Based Inclusive Practices in Middle and Secondary Schools, details several of the instructional practices validated through CRL research. Deshler is the recipient of the J. E. Wallace Wallin Award from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Learning Disabilities Association Award from the Learning Disabilities Association of America for outstanding research and service for at-risk populations.
Clifton Taulbert, a Pulitzer nominated author and the President and Founder of the Building Community Institute speaks throughout the world on the critical issue of building community, a set of emotionally satisfying relationships, within all the places of our living...creating an environment branded by Respect, Affirmation and Inclusion. He is also the author of the internationally acclaimed book, Eight Habits of the Heart, a book that provides the framework on which to build, maintain and sustain a powerful, effective and caring Community.
Michael R. Hattman Masters Degree Marshall University 68 Political Science;Manhattan University 97 Educational Leadership. Outstanding Educator: National Catholic Educational Association 98. Principal Belpre HS Belpre OH. Presenter at HSTW, NCA and NCEA conventions. Author of six self published books and the resource "authority' for teachers in the movies. 
Hope Blecher-Sass and Sharon Russell-Fowler have co-presented at various state venues. Together they have spoken about freebies for teachers, New Jersey Do-Nows, overcoming the roadblocks to teacher collaborations, and cooking with character. Their work includes both in person and published collaborations.
Nancy Dean, Ed.S., is an assistant professor at the P.K. Yonge Developmental School, University of Florida. In her 32 years of teaching, she has taught middle and high school, remedial, regular, ESOL, and Advanced Placement classes. In 1989, she was the Crown Region teacher of the year; and in 1995, she was the state English teacher of the year. She is a consultant in secondary literacy; director of Leadership Through Reading, a cross-age tutoring program; and author of Voice Lessons: classroom activities to teach diction, detail, imagery, syntax, and tone.
Dr. Todd Risley of the University of Alaska explores the impact of early family experiences on children's language development and subsequent academic abilities.Drawing from his thought-provoking study with Dr. Betty Hart, Dr. Risley published world renowned books such as Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children and The Social World of Children Learning to Talk.
Dr. Hui Fang Huang "Angie" Su is a Program Professor of Innovative Teaching in Mathematics Program and Professor of Mathematics Education for Nova Southeastern University's Fischler Graduate School of Education. She is the creator of Project MIND - Math Is Not Difficult®, a K -12 mathematics enhancement project currently being implemented in several school districts throughout the United States. Project MIND was a multi-million dollar project funded by the South Florida Annenberg Challenge, the Toppel Family Foundation, the Quantum Foundation, National Science Foundation, JM Family Enterprise, Inc., the School District of Palm Beach County, Broward County Public Schools, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.
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