Keynote Speakers

MICHAEL FULLAN  ·  ANDREW HARGREAVES  ·  ANNE BRYANT  ·  JUAN ENRIQUEZ  ·  DANIEL PONTEFRACT
ERIC SHENINGER  ·  IRVIN SCOTT  ·  SARA LAWRENCE LIGHTFOOT

Monday Morning General Session

Monday, December 3
7:30 am - 8:30 am

MICHAEL FULLAN

Michael Fullan is professor emeritus and the former dean at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He is currently the special advisor to the premier and minister of education in Ontario, Canada. Fullan is recognized as an international authority on large-scale reform, leadership, and educational change. Fullan led the evaluation team that conducted the four-year assessment of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in England from 1998 to 2003. He is engaged in training, consulting, and advising governments around the world. Fullan is the author of many best-selling books, several of which are published in multiple languages. His book Leading in a Culture of Change was awarded the 2002 Book of the Year Award by the National Staff Development Council, and Breakthrough (with Peter Hill and Carmel Crévola) won the 2006 Book of the Year Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Fullan's most recent publications are Change Leader: Learning to Do What Matters Most (Jossey-Bass, 2011) and Putting FACES on the Data: What Great Leaders Do! (Corwin Press, 2012) with Lyn Sharratt.

ANDREW HARGREAVES

Andrew Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Prior to coming to Boston College, he was cofounder and director of the International Centre for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He has taught primary school and lectured in several English universities, including Oxford. He has been awarded visiting professorships in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, Japan, and Singapore. Hargreaves is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Educational Change, and leading editor of the first and second International Handbooks of Educational Change, published in 1998 and 2010. He has authored or edited more than 30 books.

His books include Sustainable Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2005) with Dean Fink, Change Wars (Solution Tree, 2008) edited with Michael Fullan, and The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change (Corwin Press, 2009) with Dennis Shirley. Hargreaves' current research is on successful educational change strategies in high-performing schools, districts, and countries; organizations that perform beyond expectations in business, sport and education; and special education reform strategies achieved through whole-school changes that also benefit all students.

 

Monday Afternoon General Session

Monday, December 3
1 pm - 2:15 pm

ANNE BRYANT

Anne Bryant is known nationally as an innovative leader, a team oriented manager, and a thoughtful and articulate spokesperson for the organizations she has both led and coached. For almost 35 years she has worked with boards of directors of non-profit organizations, helping each to create a focused, strategic vision and harness a staff team to implement the goals and strategies to effect that vision and done so while building a sound fiscal infrastructure. Bryant has served on several outside boards, where she continues to rise to senior leadership, becoming head of the Management Committee (Independent Sector), the chair of the board (Simmons College), treasurer (Universal Service Administrative Company), and co-chair (CEO Forum). Bryant was most recently Executive Director of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), which represents state associations of school boards and their 13,809 member districts across the United States. The NSBA mission is to work with and through state school boards associations to advocate for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership. In the field of education she has been called on by Congress, the administration, and numerous media outlets to speak on her views and the positions of the National School Boards Association. Bryant has a reputation as a change agent and outcome thinker who guides a high caliber team that has achieved strategic and long-term goals. Bryant has received numerous honors and awards. In 2012 she received the National Association of Music Manufacturers "support music" award, and the lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Association Executives. In 2005, Association Trends named Bryant as the National Association Executive of the Year. In 2003, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Foundation named Bryant as Executive of the Year.

 

Tuesday Morning General Session

Tuesday, December 4
7:30 am - 8:30 am

JUAN ENRIQUEZ

Juan Enriquez is one of those unique individuals who lives in the future and works on the cutting edge of discovery. He is an active investor in early stage private companies in the life sciences sector and is one of the world's leading authorities on the uses and benefits of genomic research. Enriquez is co-founder of Synthetic Genomics, a company developing breakthrough genomic-driven solutions for major global issues. They are focused on energy and chemical solutions and a wide range of business solutions in human health (vaccines) and food and water production and the environment.

Enriquez has recently co-authored an electronic book with Steve Gullans titled Homo Evolutis: A Short Tour of Our New Species (TED Books, 2011). In addition to his entrepreneurial work in the life sciences, Enriquez writes and speaks about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics, and society. He was named one of two guest curators for the 2011 TED conference.

 

Tuesday Afternoon General Session

Tuesday, December 4
1 pm - 2 pm

DANIEL PONTEFRACT

As senior director/head of learning at TELUS, Daniel Pontefract is responsible for the overarching learning strategy for the company. He has driven a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS views and experiences learning, called "Learning 2.0," that makes the shift to a social, informal, and formal learning and collaboration model for all 35,000+ team members, bringing TELUS to the forefront of learning leadership. In addition, he founded and chairs the TELUS 2.0 Adoption Council, a crossfunctional group of leaders aimed at helping drive a culture of collaboration and engagement across the organization.

Pontefract is a passionate leader in the learning and collaboration space and is uniquely skilled to ensure an organization can move from traditional learning to embrace non-traditional learning inclusive of asynchronous modalities such as social media, video, e-learning, podcasts, virtual classrooms, and other social learning/social networking opportunities.

ERIC SHENINGER

Eric Sheninger has been an educator for more than 10 years. He is currently the principal at New Milford High School in Milford, NJ, and is responsible for preparing over 650 students in grades 9–12 with essential 21st-century skills that will enable them to be successful, productive members of society. He has been recognized nationally as an administrator who once shunned technology but now welcomes and advocates for it in his home district, also helping educate other educators on how to integrate it into the classroom.

Sheninger's areas of interest are authentic learning, educational technology, Web 2.0, and professional networking. He also has a strong commitment and passion for helping all learners and teachers succeed. Each day he works to foster a school culture focused on improving student achievement and engagement and empowers his staff to take risks and actively pursue innovation.

One area he is particularly focused on is the effective integration and use of educational technology. He believes that effective communication and transparency are characteristics that embody his continuous growth as a transformational leader.

IRVIN SCOTT

Irvin Scott is deputy director for effective teaching for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's United States education division, and former chief academic officer of Boston Public Schools, where he has earned a national reputation for his leadership in significantly improving student outcomes in Boston, especially among low-income students and students of color.

For the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Scott focuses on the Foundation's work in intensive partnership sites and accelerated partnership sites, a cluster of communities focused on transforming how teachers are recruited, developed, retained, and rewarded. He also leads a portfolio of work focused on supporting teachers and ensuring their voices inform the education-reform dialogue.

 

Wednesday Morning General Session

Wednesday, December 5
9:45 am - 10:30 am

SARA LAWRENCE LIGHTFOOT

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a MacArthur prize-winning sociologist, is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University, where she has been on the faculty since 1972. An educator, researcher, author, and public intellectual, Lawrence-Lightfoot has written nine books, including The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other (Ballantine Books, 2004); The Third Chapter: Risk, Passion, and Adventure in the Twenty-Five Years After 50 (Sarah Crichton Books, 2009), which explores new learning during one of the most transformative and generative times in our lives; and Exit: The Endings that Set Us Free (Sarah Crichton Books, 2012).

In 1998, she was the recipient of the Emily Hargroves Fisher Endowed Chair at Harvard University, which upon her retirement will become the Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Endowed Chair, making her the first African-American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor.