IMBES Conference 2007

Dor Abrahamson, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Cognition & Development at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He received his M. A. in Cognitive Psychology in 2000 from Tel Aviv University in Israel. He received his Ph.D. in Learning Sciences in 2004 from Northwestern University. Dor Abrahamson researches the nature of mathematical intuition, reasoning, and learning, relations among these, and the roles that carefully crafted artifacts play in fostering developmental trajectories from intuition to inscription. Operating in design-based research methodology, Abrahamson investigates students' engagement in problem-solving activities with mixed-media learning materials that he creates. Dor is particularly interested in instances of spontaneous multimodal coordination of distributed epistemic and material resources and in the nuanced, critical roles of teachers in facilitating conceptual insight.

Abrahamson also explores the contributions of Complexity Studies perspectives and methodologies to education research and specifically to analyzing, simulating, and responding to issues of equity in classroom participation patterns.  Dor introduced to the Jean Piaget Society the prospect of using agent-based modeling to advance theory of individual learning in social context.

Dr. Brian Alters holds an $8 million endowed chair (the Tomlinson Chair in Science Education) and project, is named Sir William Dawson Scholar, and holds appointments internationally at McGill University in Montréal, and at Harvard.  He recently won McGill University’s highest teaching award, the President’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching.  Along with producing 5 books in the last 5 years on biology, evolution, religion and education, Dr. Alters is founder and director of the Evolution Education Research Center.

Last year Dr. Alters was recruited as the only Expert Witnesses of education in the largest, most important, and highest profile federal trial on science education in the past quarter-century.  It was the landmark U.S. Federal case on the teaching of intelligent design versus evolution in public schools (aka: The Dover Pennsylvania Case, Scopes II, and Kitzmiller). The judge cited Professor Alters’ testimony 20 times in his written verdict.  His work has been reported world-wide in thousands of articles and media outlets, including Nature, ABC, CNN, CBC, MSNBC, Associated Press, The New York Times, Scientific American, MTV, and a cover story on Rolling Stone. award.

Helen Amoriggi, Ed. D., holds a Doctorate in Reading and is a professor and reading researcher in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, McGill University.  Recently, she published the results of the first academic study in Speed Reading Productivity (900 subjects).  In addition to delivering graduate courses in Monograph, Proposal, Manuscript and Thesis Preparation, Dr. Amoriggi has been actively involved in the rapidly expanding world of ‘information literacy’ and more especially, in promoting the teaching of advanced eReading and eLearning skills to educators of the future.

Antonio Battro, MD, Ph.D., is Chief Education Officer. One Laptop Per Child, OLPC.  He is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Academia Nacional de Educación in Argentina. He is a former visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.  His recent publications include Half a Brain is Enough: The Story of Nico (2000) and several co-authored books with P. J. Denham (2005).  Aprender hoy: Una colección de ideas and (2007) Hacia una inteligencia digital.  His latest work with K. W. Fisher and P. J. Léna, Editors (2007) is The Educated Brain: Essays in Neuroeducation Cambridge University Press.

Jane Bernstein, Ph.D.,is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Associate in Psychology and Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston. Bernstein is a member of the Allied Staff in Pediatric Specialties in the Department of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Bernstein is also involved in the establishment of a National Child Development Program in Trinidad and Tobago. 

Joel Bonn, Managing Director of eSpeedReading Productivity2020© has made presentations before the European Council for High Ability (ECHA) Convention for the Gifted, Budapest; the 1st International Conference on the Future of the Book, Cairns, Australia; the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletes (N4A) Conference, Providence, RI; the 4th International Conference on the Book, Cambridge, MA; and the 12th International Learning Conference, Granada, Spain. Bonn has worked in the private sector; with executives and professionals of leading multinational companies, professional corporations, military academies, and post-graduate medical and information schools in more than thirty countries. He may be reached at bonnspeed@gmail.com

Donna Coch, Ed. D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Dartmouth College and is the director of the Reading Brains Lab. She earned a doctoral degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Oregon. Using a noninvasive brain wave recording technique in combination with more traditional behavioral methods, her research focuses on the development of various aspects of the reading brain and brain-behavior correlations in both adults and children learning how to read. A goal of both her research and teaching is to make meaningful connections across the fields of developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and education.

Michael W. Connell, Ed. D. holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University.  He has been a Software Design Engineer at Microsoft Corporation, an Instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Educational Neuroscience program at Dartmouth College.  Dr. Connell’s primary research focus is on translating insights from brain and cognitive science into useable knowledge for educators.  He has applied insights from his theoretical research to develop applications in a variety of domains, including adult learning, intelligence analysis, the psychology of storytelling, and intelligent tutoring systems for K-12 classrooms.  Representative publications include “On Abilities & Domains” (in The Psychology of Abilities, Competencies & Expertise, co-authored with Kim Sheridan and Howard Gardner); “Individual Cognitive Factors” (in A Handbook of the Psychology of Analysis: for Intelligence Analysis, Managers, and Teachers, in press); and Two Motivational Systems that Shape Development (with Kurt Fischer, 2003).

Antonio Damasio MD., Ph.D., is David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California; he is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.  Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how the brain processes memory, language, emotions, and decisions and has described his discoveries in best selling books (Descartes’ Error, The Feeling of What Happens, and Looking for Spinoza) translated into over 30 languages and taught in universities worldwide.  He is the recipient of numerous awards (including, most recently, the Asturias Prize in Science and Technology, 2005; and the Signoret Prize, 2004, which he shared with his wife Hanna Damasio).  Damasio is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.  He has been named “Highly Cited Researcher” by the Institute for Scientific Information.

His current work is aimed at illuminating the brain basis of social behaviors (ranging from moral judgments and communication to economic decisions), and understanding mechanisms of creativity in art, science, and technology.(For more information go to the Brain and Creativity Institute website: http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/bci/ )

David Daniel (University of Northern Colorado) is very involved with forging reciprocal links between cognitive-developmental psychology and teaching practices/pedagogy. In addition to his publications on the field of teaching and learning, he is the coordinator of the Society for Research in Child Development's (SRCD) Teaching of Developmental Science Institute, chair of SRCD's Committee on Teaching, managing editor of the journal "Mind, Brain, and Education," was Chair of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology's task force on pedagogical innovations, and a founding Board member of the International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES). He has published in a diverse range of journals, such as JAMA, Child Development, and Teaching of Psychology and consults in the development of effective, evidence-based pedagogy. David was the recipient of "Teacher of the Year" awards several consecutive years and was eventually "retired" from contention. His interest in the development of effective teaching has informed his current efforts to develop effective pedagogical techniques that positively impact both student learning and teacher performance.

Theo Linda Dawson, Ph.D.,is the president and CEO of the Developmental Testing Service, LLC, which provides on-line developmental assessments, curriculum design, and program evaluation to governments, consultants, educational institutions, clinicians, and academics. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development (with a minor in psychometrics) from the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Education in 1998. In 1999, she received the American Psychological Association’s Division 7 Outstanding Dissertation Award for “A good education is… A lifespan investigation of evaluative reasoning about good education”. In 2002, she completed a 4-year project, funded by the Spencer Foundation, in which she developed the basis for a computerized method of determining the developmental level of texts. She has taught at UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Hampshire College.

Dawson has devised an accurate, reliable, and universally applicable measure of cognitive development called the Lectical Assessment System (LAS), which is grounded in Fischer's dynamic skill theory. The current system is the product of 14 years of research and rigorous testing. This work is widely published.

Michel Ferrari, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology and Education and the Head of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ferrari’s work looks at the development of self-awareness (i.e., self-knowledge and self concern), and how self awareness relates to expertise, ethics and conceptual change. His current research focuses on teaching for wisdom, both in North American public schools and as practiced around the world.

Kurt Fischer, Ph.D.,is Director of the Mind, Brain, and Education Program and Charles Bigelow Professor of Education and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In his research, he analyzes cognition, emotion, and learning and their relation to biological development and educational assessment. He has discovered a scale that assesses learning and development in all domains, even when the skills created in each domain are independent. His most recent books are Mind, Brain, and Education in Reading Disorders (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Human Behavior, Learning, and the Developing Brain (2 volumes, Guilford Press). Leading an international movement to connect biology and cognitive science to education, he is founding president of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and founding editor of the journal Mind, Brain, and Education (Blackwell).

Howard Gardner, Ph.D., is the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a leading thinker about education and human development; he has studied and written extensively about intelligence, creativity, leadership, and professional ethics. Gardner’s most recent books include Good Work, Changing Minds, The Development and Education of the Mind and Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons.  His latest book Five Minds for the Future was published in April 2007. 

Jeanne Marcum Gerlach, Ph.D., is Associate Vice President for K-16 Initiatives and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at Arlington.  Her research focuses on Urban Education, Business/Higher Education Partnerships, Issues in English Education, Writing As Learning, Women in Leadership Roles, Collaborative Learning, and Governance in Higher Education,  She is the coeditor of Missing Chapters: Ten Pioneering Women In NCTE and English Education and co-author of the book, Questions of English: Ethics, aesthetics, rhetoric, and the formation of the subject in England, Australia and the United States.  Dr. Gerlach has taught in England, New Zealand, France, Germany, Thailand, and Australia.  Her awards include the National Council Teachers of English Outstanding Woman in English Education and the University of North Texas’ and West Virginia University’s Outstanding Alumni Award.  She received the Fort Worth Business Press Great Women of Texas Most Influential Woman Award, 2002. 

Dr. Elena L. Grigorenko received her Ph.D. in general psychology from Moscow State University, Russia, in 1990, and her Ph.D. in developmental psychology and genetics from Yale University in 1996. Currently, Dr. Grigorenko is Associate Professor of Child Studies and Psychology at Yale and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and Moscow State University (Russia). Dr. Grigorenko has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books. She has received awards for her work from five different divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA); in 2004, she won the APA Distinguished Award for an Early Career Contribution to Developmental Psychology. Dr. Grigorenko’s research has been funded by NIH, NSF, DOE, Cure Autism Now, the Foundation for Child Development, the American Psychological Foundation, and other federal and private sponsoring organizations.

Mary M. Harris, Ph.D., is the Meadows Chair for Excellence in Education and Professor of Teacher Education and Administration at the University of North Texas.  She was formerly dean of the college of education at the University of North Dakota and as is member of the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation.  She convenes the North Texas Regional P-16 Council which organizes an research on gaps in student achievement in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and is active in the North Texas Early College Consortium, which is part of the Texas High School Project.  Her research interests are in teacher learning to collaborate with parents across cultures, development of teacher education programs for urban schools and high need disciplines, and early career teacher development.

Christina Hinton works on issues at the nexus of neuroscience and education in affiliation with the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and Harvard's Graduate School of Education (HGSE). Christina is a true trans-disciplinary expert – she holds degrees in both neuroscience and education, as well as the interdisciplinary field of mind, brain and education (MBE). Her experiences range from working in a laboratory investigating the effects of exercise on neurogensis in the dentate gyrus to teaching in a vertical 3rd/4th grade classroom. At OECD, Christina has worked on the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation's (CERI) Learning Sciences and Brain Research project since 2004. Working from OECD's headquarters in Paris, she participated in MBE conferences across Europe and Asia, and has a deep understanding of international issues in MBE. OECD's Learning Sciences and Brain Research project culminated in the publication Understanding the Brain: Birth of a Learning Science, of which Christina was a primary author and editor of the English version. Christina is now a doctoral candidate at Harvard's Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and is deeply committed to connecting MBE research with educational policy and practice.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Genizon BioSciences is also the former CEO of Phoenix International, which grew under his leadership from 20 to 2,600 employees in sixteen countries with annual revenues of $300 million. Dr. Hooper, Ph.D., has 37 years of relevant experience, including 32 at the executive level, and a successful track record managing time-sensitive R&D for profit. Dr. Hooper was twice named Entrepreneur of the Year for Quebec in the life sciences and in 2005 was made a member of the "Cercle Excelcia" for "An exceptional career and a remarkable contribution to the Quebec biotechnology and life sciences industries." Dr. Hooper received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of London.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed. D., studies the neuroscience of emotion and its relation to cognitive, linguistic and social development at the Brain and Creativity Institute/Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. She lectures nationally and abroad on the implications of brain and cognitive science research for curriculum and pedagogy, and is the North American editor for the journal Mind, Brain and Education. Dr. Immordino-Yang earned her doctorate in human development and psychology at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she was the recipient of grants from the Spencer Foundation and the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. Before returning to graduate school, she taught French at an independent high school and seventh grade science at a public junior/senior high school. Her background as a researcher, teacher, and mother has made her especially interested in the connection between learning and emotion.

Layne Kalbfleisch, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology at the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. Kalbfleisch is also the Pomata Term Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in George Mason's Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. Kalbfleisch serves as the principal investigator and lab chief of Krasnow Investigations of Developmental Learning and Behavior and is the Director of MRI Safety & Operations at George Mason University. She is an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. Kalbfleisch is also an affiliated faculty member of the Gifted Education Resource Institute in the College of Education at Purdue University. She is a contributor to the recent publication, Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science, published by the OECD-CERI, Paris, France.

Hideaki KOIZUMI, Ph.D., (Files 1, 2, 3, 4) is currently a Fellow of Hitachi, Ltd. He also holds several official positions within the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST); Director of the Brain-Science & Society Division, Director of the Japan Children's Study (JCS) under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Supervisor of Brain-Science and Education Program (I) & (II). Other public positions include, Auditor of the National Institute of Environmental Studies, member of the Curriculum Committee of the MEXT Central Council for Education, adviser of "Elucidation of a Learning Mechanism Based on the Knowledge of the Development of Brain Functions," of CREST-JST, committee member of the MEXT Super Science High School Program, committee member of the MEXT Council for Brain-Science & Education Research Initiatives, member of the JST Science and Technology for Society Forum, and a member of the Specialist Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (Japan). Internationally, he is a member of the Advisory Group to the OECD-CERI Learning Sciences and Brain Research project, and a founding board member of the International Mind, Brain and Education Society.

Koizumi’s work has contributed to over 413 patent applications of which to date, 163 have resulted in patents (74 in Japan and 89 overseas). He has published over 150 papers, and has authored/co-authored/edited over 20 books.

Soo-Siang Lim, Ph.D., is the Lead Program Officer and Chair of the Coordinating Committee for the Science of Learning Centers and the Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE/OAD), National Science Foundation.

Dr. Lobato’s research has focused on the development of an alternative approach to transfer called the actor-oriented transfer perspective. While she has attempted to respond to a number of theoretical challenges raised by numerous critiques of transfer, her work has been grounded in a series of school-based studies of mathematics learning at the secondary school level. She is particularly interested in attention-focusing or “noticing” as a way to connect features of instructional environments with the ways in which students generalize their learning. Currently Dr. Lobato is serving as editor for a special strand on transfer sponsored by the Journal of the Learning Sciences. The three-year strand seeks to attract and publish empirical and theoretical papers on the social, cognitive, affective, and cultural issues related to transfer.

John F. Loehr, Ph. D., is the High School Science Manager for the Chicago Public Schools supporting science teaching and learning at over 110 high schools. In his 14-year teaching career, John has taught science and education courses to learners ranging in age from seven to fifty-seven at various schools, colleges, and universities in Illinois and Virginia.  During his long association with the Chicago Public Schools, John has served as a science department chair, created technology infused science lessons, developed district-wide science curriculum frameworks and standardized assessments, and helped develop new district accountability policies.  In 2006, in conjunction with the American Institutes for Research, he coordinated the production of the first ever district-wide student attitude and engagement survey. His work as a classroom teacher and educational researcher has been published in the American Biology Teacher, Journal of Research and Science Teaching, Science Education Review, International Journal of Research and Method in Education, and the Handbook of College Science Teaching.  He holds a B. S. in biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a M. S. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Virginia.

Nobuo Masataka, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and the Director of the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, Japan.  Masataka’s specialization is cognitive neuroscience, particularly about language learning and its difficulty.  Masataka graduated from Osaka University and obtained a Ph.D. degree at the graduate school of Osaka University about the study of the vocal communication in nonhuman primates.  He has worked at NICHD and at NIH as a postdoctoral fellow.  His research is rooted in ethology and dynamic action theory. He argues that expressive and communicative actions are organized as a complex and cooperative system with other elements of the infant's physiology, behavior and the social environments.  He is the author of numerous articles and books, his most recent being The Onset of Language (2003) Cambridge Press. It outlines an approach to the development of expressive and communicative behavior from early infancy to the onset of single word utterances. The research elucidates the fact that expressive and communicative actions are organized as a complex and cooperative system with other elements of the infant's physiology, behavior and the social environments, and that overall, humans are provided with a finite set of specific behavior patterns, each of which is phylogenetically inherited as a primate species. However, the patterns are uniquely organized during ontogeny and a coordinated structure emerges which eventually leads us to acquire language.

Dr. Miller, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Department Chair of the Psychology and Philosophy Department at Texas Woman’s University and is a Professor in the School Psychology Doctoral and Specialist Training Programs. Dr. Miller received a Doctoral degree from The Ohio State University in 1989. His doctoral studies were a unique blend between school psychology, neuropsychology, and electrophysiology. Dr. Miller is a National Certified School Psychologist (NCSP), a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP-TX), a licensed psychologist (OH) and holds the Diplomate in School Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology and the Diplomate in School Neuropsychology from the American Board of School Neuropsychology. Dr. Miller was the founding president of the Texas Association of School Psychologists and a past-president of the National Association of School Psychologists.

Juliana Paré-Blagoev, Ed. d., has a long standing interest in effectively integrating educationally relevant research with educational practice. She recently joined the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) Institute as their Assistant Director. SERP creates and facilitates productive long-term relationships between researchers and school districts to solve critical classroom challenges. Before joining SERP, her primary research focus was on skill and language learning using a combination of brain and behavioral methodologies. This work was conducted with the explicit intent of hastening the translation of neuroimaging results on developmental and learning disorders to hypotheses that were useful and testable in a classroom environment.  She is a founding Board Member of the International Mind Brain and Education Society.  Juliana received her Ed. d. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Diane Patrick, Ph.D., was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in November 2006.  Dr. Patrick serves as State Representative for House District 94, which covers central and western Arlington in Tarrant County. Dr. Patrick currently sits on the Public Education Committee, Higher Education Committee, and the Local and Consent Calendars Committee for the House of Representatives. Dr. Patrick served as a member of the Arlington ISD Board of Trustees for 11 years, including four years as School Board President, and she served as an elected Republican on the Texas State Board of Education from 1992-1996.

After graduating in the top 10% of her class at Longview High School, Diane attended Baylor University where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in English. She went on to earn her Master of Education degree with a major in Elementary Education and minor in English from the University of North Texas.  In the mid-90s, Diane re-enrolled at UNT and graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree with a major in Educational Administration and a minor in Public Administration. She has worked as an elementary classroom teacher, served as director of educational programs at two hospitals, and provided consulting services to Arlington ISD. Dr. Patrick was a Clinical Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington from 1994 to 2007.  She is currently teaching at Texas Christian University. She is currently a member of the Arlington ISD Educational Foundation Board. She also has provided leadership in numerous other educational organizations including the Texas Center for Educational Research Advisory Board and Consortium of State Organizations of Texas Teacher Educators. Dr. Patrick has authored numerous publications on education issues in Texas and been recognized for her dedication to excellence in education by organizations such as the Association of Texas Professional Educators and American Association of University Women.

Stephen A. Petrill, Ph.D. is Professor of Human Development and Family Science at the Ohio State University.  Petrill’s research has concentrated on gene-environment processes and early reading, math, and language development.  He and his collaborators have published numerous articles examining genetic and environmental effects on the relationship between the cognitive components of reading, the relationship between reading and language skills, and the relationship between reading and math skills.  The goal of his research is to better understanding of the timing of genetic and environmental influences in these outcomes. 

Dr. Jennifer Rennie, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at Monash University. Before working in higher education, she was a primary school teacher.  Her research interests are in the fields of Reading Instruction, Primary English Education and Indigenous literacies. She is interested in how children become readers and how teachers work with all children to become competent readers in a context characterized by multimodal and culturally and linguistically diverse texts. She is also interested in how teachers enact the teaching of reading in an educational and political climate driven by standards. Making connections between the broader community, schools and higher education institutions is seen as paramount in her work. She is particular interested in the notion of equity and social justice for all learners in schools and she views diversity in classrooms as a rich resource for learning. Transitions between various contexts such as home to school, primary to high school and school to work are other areas of interest in relation to literate practices.

In 1984, David Rose, Ed. d., helped to found CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) with a vision of expanding opportunities for all students, especially those with disabilities, through the innovative development and application of technology. Dr. Rose specializes in developmental neuropsychology and in the universal design of learning technologies.

In addition to his role at CAST as Founding Director, Dr. Rose lectures at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education where he has been on the faculty for over twenty years. He has been the lead researcher on a number of U.S. Department of Education grants and now is the principal investigator for two national centers to develop and implement the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). He is the co-author of Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning (ASCD, 2002) and coeditor of The Universally Designed Classroom: Accessible Curriculum and Digital Technologies (Harvard Education Press, 2005). Dr. Rose is frequently a keynote speaker at regional and national educational conferences.

Additionally, he plays a key role in CAST’s curriculum development work and has consulted to Houghton-Mifflin, Scholastic, Tom Snyder Productions, EBSCO Publishing, Pearson, Sopris West, and other publishers. He is an author of Scholastic’s highly successful Literary Place and Wiggleworks®. Dr. Rose has testified before the U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and he advises state departments of education on policies related to the education of students with disabilities. Dr. Rose received his doctorate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Todd Rose, Ed. d., is a research scientist with the Laboratory for Visual Learning in the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), and an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Todd earned a Master’s degree (Mind, Brain, and Education) and a Doctorate (Human Development) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. His research focuses primarily on studying dyslexia and AD/HD from a dynamic developmental systems framework, where the emphasis is on quantitative variability rather than qualitative ‘disorder’. Todd lectures nationally to educators and parents on the science of learning disabilities, and the role of neuroscience in education.

Philip M. Sadler, Ed. d., earned a B. s. in Physics from MIT in 1973 and taught middle school science and mathematics for several years before earning a doctorate in education in 1992. Dr. Sadler has taught Harvard's courses for new science teachers and for the next generation of professors, doctoral students in science. As F. W. Wright Senior Lecturer in Astronomy, he carries on Harvard's oldest undergraduate course in science, Celestial Navigation. He directs one of the largest research groups in science education in the U.S., based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 1999, Dr. Sadler won the Journal of Research in Science Teaching Award for work on assessing student understanding in science deemed "the most significant contribution to science education research" in the preceding year. His research interests include assessment of students' scientific misconceptions and how they change as a result of instruction, the development of computer technologies that allow youngsters to engage in research, and models for enhancement of the skills of experienced teachers. He was the executive producer of A Private Universe, an award-winning video on student conceptions in science. He won the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's Brennan Prize for contributions to astronomy teaching in 2002. He is the inventor of the Starlab Portable Planetarium and many other devices used for the teaching of astronomy, worldwide. Materials and curricula developed by Dr. Sadler are used by an estimated twelve million students every year.

Marc Schwartz, Ed. d., is Professor of Mind, Brain and Education at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA).  He is also serving as the Vice President and Conference Chair for the International Mind, Brain and Education Society’s inaugural conference.  Marc’s current focus at UTA is to create a collaborative setting where researchers, policy makers and educational practitioners can focus on the cognitive and emotional changes and challenges that emerge and evolve for students and teachers as learning contexts change.  Marc is also an Associate Researcher in the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).  His research at the CfA focuses on how the dynamic enterprise of learning and teaching unfold in physics, chemistry, and biology education.  Here the challenges of coordinating complex ideas provide a rich context for exploring the difficulties that students and teachers face in understanding scientific concepts and the additional challenge that teachers face in helping students to construct these ideas so that they can take on personal meaning.

Michelle M. Sullivan is principal of Sullivan & Associates, a firm that works with nonprofits and private foundations to more effectively and intentionally achieve their goals.  She has recently founded Inspired Learning Environments (ILE), an organization that connects the most recent research about how children learn to the development of educational policy and environments for children.

Michelle is the Chair of the Wyoming State Board of Education.  In 2006-2007 she conducted independent research at Harvard University exploring the design of learning environments and cognition.  Michelle also served as President of the Ucross Foundation from 2004 through 2006 and as Vice President and Director of Wyoming Operations at the Daniels Fund from 2000 until 2004.  Michelle was awarded a Kellogg Fellowship in 1995 under which she examined issues related to cross-cultural conflict in a variety of international settings.  In 1994 she was awarded a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  She is a 1986 graduate of the Colorado College from which she also received an honorary doctorate in 1994 for her founding of the Snake River Institute in Jackson Hole, WY. 

Rosemary Tannock, Ph.D., holds a Canada Research Chair in Special Education and Adaptive Technology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in the University of Toronto. Also, she is a Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, a Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Special Education & Adaptive Instruction at the University of Toronto, and holds research appointments with the Graduate Departments of Education and Psychology at the University of Western Australia.

Her clinical research program investigates the causes and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with a specific focus on its cognitive manifestations and overlap with learning disabilities. Most recently she and her colleagues have developed a set of integrated multimedia resources on ADHD for teachers [Teach ADHD] that include a public-domain website [www.teachadhd.ca], a 3-program DVD about ADHD, and a Teacher’s Resource Manual.

She has received the Citizen of the Year Award for mentorship from The Research Institute of The Hospital for Sick Children, Visiting Scholar and Distinguished Visitor Awards from the University of Western Australia, and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers for her article, “Reconceptualizing ADHD,” in Educational Leadership (November 2001). In the 2004-2005 academic year she was an invited Fellow in an International “Think-Tank” on the causes and treatment of ADHD, held in Oslo, Norway at the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. During the 2006-2007 academic year she has been invited to give a series of workshops and seminars on “Teach ADHD” to professionals in health and education in Norway, Greece, Iceland, China, Singapore, and Australia.

Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa has been a teacher, counselor, and researcher for the past seventeen years in South America, Asia and Europe, working with children pre-kindergarten through university. She received her Master’s of Education from Harvard University, with distinction work in philanthropy and education, and undergraduate degrees in International Relations (BA) and Mass Communications (BS) from Boston University (Magna Cum Laude). Tracey gives dozens of workshops a year on foreign language development, learning strategies, methodologies and classroom planning for schools, parents’ groups, businesses, and the diplomatic community with an emphasis on the unique abilities of each individual. Tracey is currently the Director of Teacher Training at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador and is a Professor of Education in the Education Department. She is also the Director of the Educational Development Center (Centro de Desarrollo Educativo) in Quito which is dedicated to offering low cost teacher training programs and sharing quality information in Spanish with the public.