Speakers
| Thursday, September 11th - Keynote Speaker |
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Susan Traiman
Susan Traiman is Director of Public Policy at Business Roundtable where she oversees the Roundtable’s work with chief executive officers of leading corporations interested in improving education performance and workforce competitiveness in the United States. Recently cited as “the most influential chief executive lobbying group in the U.S.” by the Financial Times, Business Roundtable members are at the forefront of public policy, advocating for a vigorous, dynamic global economy. Currently the Roundtable, working with fourteen other national business organizations, is leading the “Tapping America’s Potential” campaign to double the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelor’s degrees by 2015.
Prior to joining Business Roundtable, Ms. Traiman was Education Policies Studies Director at the National Governors Association where she worked with governors on the first National Education Summit and the development of National Education Goals. She also was a senior associate with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement where she served on the staff of the National Commission on Excellence in Education and contributed to its landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk. Before coming to Washington, D.C., she worked at the state level for a regional technical assistance center and at the local level as a seventh grade social studies teacher.
Ms. Traiman has a B.A. in American Civilization and M.S. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
| Friday, September 12th - Keynote Speaker |
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Dr. Kathryn Sullivan
Photo by Debbie Rowe
Director of The Battelle Center for Math and Science Education Policy In the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University
The first of only seven American women to walk in space, Kathryn Sullivan, PhD, is one of the first six women selected as a NASA astronaut in 1978. Logging over 530 hours in space during her three space flights, Dr. Sullivan's historic space walk took place during her very first mission aboard Challenger in 1984.
Today, Dr. Sullivan is Director of The Battelle Center for Math and Science Education Policy in the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. An experienced corporate director, she serves as Vice Chairman of the National Science Board and is an oceanography officer in the US Naval Reserve, holding the rank of Captain.
Dr. Sullivan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1973, and a doctorate in geology from Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1978. Her doctoral studies at Dalhousie University included participation in a variety of oceanographic expeditions, under the auspices of the US Geological Survey, Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute, and the Bedford Institute. Her research included the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Newfoundland Basin and fault zones off the Southern California Coast.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Sullivan is a 2004 inductee to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. She received the 2005 Aviation Week & Space Technology Aerospace Legend Award, the Public Service Award from the National Science Board in recognition of lifelong commitment to science education, the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership, and four Presidential nominations under four different administrations (1985, 1992, 2000, 2004). Dr. Sullivan has been awarded honorary degrees by Kent State University; Ohio Dominican University; Stevens Institute of Technology; State University of New York, Utica; and Dalhousie University.
| Thursday, September 13th - Keynote Speaker |
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Bob Pearlman
Bob Pearlman is the Director of Strategic Planning for the New Technology Foundation in Napa, CA, a school development organization which supports the replication of the New Technology High School model in 42 sites across the United States, including 9 STEM High Schools that launched in 2007. The New Tech model features a new shape of schooling which realizes deep learning and deep experience for all students. Pearlman consults and speaks widely in the US and the UK on 21st Century Learning.
Pearlman is the former President of the Autodesk Foundation and former Director of Education and Workforce Development at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. Pearlman previously served as Coordinator of Educational Reform Initiatives for the Boston Teachers Union, National Consultant on Educational Technology for the American Federation of Teachers, and as a founder of the Co-NECT School New American School Design Team. Pearlman has been a pioneer in designing new schools, integrating project-based learning, work-based learning, and technology into the schools, and in training teachers, administrators, and parents in the application of new technologies and their role in restructuring schools.
Pearlman is the author of many articles on 21st Century Learning, including "New Skills For A New Century" (Edutopia, June 2006), and "21st Century Learning in Schools - A Case Study of New Technology High School in Napa, CA", (published in New Directions for Youth Development, Summer 2006 Special Issue: The Case for Twenty-First Century Learning).