Speakers
As the founding partner of Lead Star, Courtney works closely with all levels of leaders — from CEOs to frontline team members. She designs and delivers development programs that drive immediate results. Courtney is also the best-selling author of Leading from the Front and has written numerous articles on behavior based leadership and organizational excellence. She’s been a dynamic guest on CNBC, FOX News, and CNN. Courtney’s efforts with Lead Star have been noted in publications ranging from Fast Company and Inc. to The New York Times. In addition to her work with consulting clients, Courtney serves as the Director of the Center for Creative Leadership’s Partner Network, convening and connecting leading consultancies with the Center’s innovative thought leadership, research and development solutions. Prior to starting Lead Star, Courtney’s professional experiences included service as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, an attorney at one of the nation’s largest law firms and a sales manager for Rational Software. She holds a law degree from William & Mary, an undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University and completed intensive studies at Cambridge University. Courtney lives with her husband and three children in Glen Allen, Virginia.
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Dr. Celine Coggins founded Teach Plus in 2009 to create leadership and growth paths for excellent teachers and help stem their attrition from high-needs schools. In her role as CEO, Celine sets the national agenda for the organization that speaks to both teacher needs and policy opportunities. Celine started her career as a classroom teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts. She went on to become a special assistant to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, working on a set of initiatives to improve the quality of the state's teaching force. Upon completing her PhD at Stanford University, Celine returned to her home state to work at Cambridge's Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, an education-focused think tank. She originally launched Teach Plus as a subsidiary of the Center.Under Celine's leadership, Teach Plus has introduced three groundbreaking programs that put teachers at the center of school- and system-level reform: The Teaching Policy Fellowship that empowers teachers to have a voice in policy discussions that impact their classrooms; the T3 Initiative designed to ensure that high-need students have access to excellent teachers; and the Teach Plus Network of more than 15,000 teachers nationwide.A nationally-recognized expert on teacher leadership, education policy standards and accountability, and union politics, Celine has addressed audiences at the Philanthropy Roundtable, the Askwith Forum at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and on NBC's Education Nation. She appears regularly in the media and has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, among many others. Celine earned a BA in psychology from the College of Holy Cross, an MA in educational research and measurement from Boston College, and a PhD in education policy analysis from Stanford University. She is a National Center for Teacher Quality advisor, an Aspen Institute Education Fellow, and a Mind Trust Education Entrepreneurship Fellow. She is the author of more than two dozen reports and journal articles and editor of three books. The New Teacher Project recently named Celine one of their favorite thinkers of 2013. Celine lives in Milton, MA
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Edward Kairiss, Ph.D., is the first Director of Faculty Development and Innovation at Bryant University. He served most recently as Director, Strategic Projects, at Yale University's Center for Teaching and Learning. An expert with more than 25 years of experience in innovative teaching and learning, Dr. Kairiss has a distinguished record of thought leadership and academic achievement. Dr. Kairiss joined the Yale University faculty in 1989 as a member of the Department of Psychology and the Interdepartmental Neuroscience program, with teaching and research interests in Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience and the biophysical basis of memory. He was awarded the Yale College-Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences (1993) in recognition of his exemplary teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In 1997, he began work in Educational Technologies at Yale, led the development of Yale’s first Learning Management System, and formed the Instructional Technology Group to support faculty and students in all aspects of the use of technology in teaching and learning. Dr. Kairiss is interested in transdisciplinary inquiry in education, heutagogy, and evidence-based practice in faculty development. His interest in brain and cognitive science encourages him to approach teaching by embracing the latest insights into how young adults learn. Kairiss holds a PhD. in Neuroscience from McMaster University and a B.Sc. in Physics from University of Waterloo. He pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Otago in New Zealand, the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope in Duarte, CA, and at Yale University.
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Dr. Megan M. Allen is a National Board Certified Teacher and the 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year. She currently is serving as the director of the Master of Arts in Teacher Leadership at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. She taught for ten years, mostly as an elementary and special education teacher, serving in Title I schools in Hillsborough County, FL. Megan enjoys blogging for the Center for Teaching Quality at Musings of a Red Headed Teacher and co-hosting #Edugeekchat on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month (visit the archives here). She is also proud to serve on the Board of Directors for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Megan has also testified, advocated, and consulted around issues of differentiated compensation, evaluation systems, teacher growth, equity, and teaching quality in state and national arenas, most recently to Congress around the impact of the sequester on high needs students. She has been featured in Ed Week, Talks with Teachers, CNN.com, Good Magazine, Go Teach magazine, Educational Horizons magazine, the Association for Teacher Educator (ATE) yearbook, the Phi Delta Kappan, and SmartBrief for the Accomplished Teacher and ASCD.
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As the founder of a professional image consulting firm, Elaine has experienced firsthand the power of a professional image and how it influenced her twenty-five year career. She is an experienced and highly effective professional Fashion Institute of Technology certified image consultant. Elaine is a Corporate Etiquette and International Protocol specialist with a proven track record as a corporate and individual advisor. She is an outstanding, engaging, and dynamic speaker with over ten years of corporate training experience. In her talks, Elaine delivers fun, interactive, and energetic workshops and training events. She understands the challenges that individuals, recent graduates, emerging young professionals, and C-Level executives face in their professional and personal life and gives them the tools required to separate themselves from the competition. Passionate about empowering women, men, millennials, recent graduates, executives, educators, and politicians to have a positive effect on their careers and lives, Elaine can be found at events, corporations, conferences, and schools speaking about the importance of standing out for the right reason.
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April's two largest passions are educational justice and yoga. For the past 10 years she has worked in the educational sector as a middle school teacher in the south Bronx and provider of after school programs in underserved communities throughout NYC. After teaching, she understood the strain and stress of being a teacher and committed herself to supporting teachers and students in managing the stress of working within the education system. In 2010 she took a transformative trip with her mother to Peru where she was introduced to yoga and mindfulness. She then created Ahimsa MY LLC, focusing on bringing mindfulness and yoga to schools and educational organizations as a means to cultivate present teachers and social emotional learning in students. April has partnered with schools across the country as well as organizations such as Teach for America, City Year, and Citizen Schools. April currently works directly with Teachers College to bring mindfulness programs to Harlem schools through meditation programs, teacher and parent workshops, and individualized support with students with special learning, behavioral and emotional needs. April is a student in the first year cohort at Columbia's Spirituality Mind Body Institute, focusing on mindfulness and yoga as a means to reconnect young people with their inner wisdom and spirit.
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