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SESSION TYPE: Featured Speaker SESSION TITLE: 21st Century Skills: The Latest STRAND: Whole School Issues DAY: Friday TIME: 11:15 - 12:30pm LOCATION: Nassau Suite, 2nd floor |
***BOOK SIGNING AT ONSITE BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSTORE TO FOLLOW SESSION (click here for schedule)
BIOGRAPHY
David Byer manages education policy and strategic relations for Apple. Byer joined the company in 2000 after serving as executive director of the Web-based Education Commission, a bipartisan Congressional commission focused on the Internet and learning.
Byer previously served as vice president of government affairs for the Software & Information Industry Association, and held advocacy positions with the American Society for Training and Development, National School Boards Association, and National Association of College and University Business Officers. He began his career on Capitol Hill as an assistant to former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island.
Byer serves on the boards of the National School Boards Foundation and the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training, and chairs the Partnership for 21st Century Skills National Policy Task Force and International Society for Technology in Education’s Public Policy Committee. He holds BA and MBA degrees from the George Washington University.
Charles Fadel is Global Lead, Education at Cisco Systems, and the Cisco board member at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, of which Cisco was a founding member. He has consulted with a wide variety of education ministries/boards including Massachusetts, France, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Tunisia, and the Dominican Republic, to name a few, and has worked on education projects with more than thirty countries and states.
Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships Pearson Solutions and Pearson Foundation, is a 35-year veteran of the education industry. She has served in senior executive positions with PLATO Learning, The Learning Company, Skillsbank, and IBM. She works across Pearson with sales and marketing on major opportunities as well as the Pearson Foundation on education-related initiatives on a domestic and international scale. In 2003, Hurley was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Hall of Fame for her achievements and service to the education publishing industry. She is based in Washington, D.C., where she works closely with education policy associations. In this capacity, she currently serves on several key industry and education advisory boards, including, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) Board Chairman, the National School Boards Foundation (NSBF), the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET), the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) board where she participates on the International Committee.
Michelle Mann is the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Adobe Systems, Inc. and the Executive Director of the Adobe Foundation. She has held positions at Intel Corporation and Kaiser Permanente in the areas of community and government relations. Michelle also worked in the public sector and was responsible for intergovernmental and community relations for the City of Mountain View, CA. She is active in community organizations such as 1ST ACT and the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
John I. Wilson, a long-time special education teacher and Association leader, became executive director of the National Education Association on November 1, 2000. The nation’s largest teachers union, NEA also represents education support professionals, higher education faculty, school administrators, retired educators, and education students who plan to become teachers. In all, NEA has 3.3 million members, a staff of 555, and an annual budget exceeding $300 million.
Since coming to NEA, Wilson has championed a minimum salary of $40,000 for every teacher and a living wage for Education Support Professionals (ESP). He also launched an NEA initiative to engage the best teachers in sharing ideas on staffing high-poverty, low achieving schools with the most accomplished teachers.
Wilson has chaired the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a coalition of 33 businesses and education groups that advocates for every child in America to graduate from high school with 21st century skills. The 3E Institute presented him with the Educator 500 President’s Award in 2006 for being “a true entrepreneurial educator.” Wilson has also chaired the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 18 leading education organizations with more than 10 million members dedicated to improving student learning in America’s public schools.
Prior to assuming the highest staff position at NEA headquarters, Wilson served the Association as president and executive director of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). With Wilson at the helm of this NEA state affiliate, NCAE strengthened teacher training systems, professional development programs, teacher compensation, and teacher recruitment. His accomplishments include the development of new support systems for teachers pursuing certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. As a result, today North Carolina has more National Board-certified teachers and candidates than any other state. In addition, Wilson led a successful campaign that raised North Carolina teacher salaries from 43rd to 23rd in the nation, and he helped establish the North Carolina Teacher Academy, a state-funded program that provides high-quality teacher professional development.
Wilson has been an NEA activist since his days at Western Carolina University, where he served as president of the NEA student chapter. As a middle school teacher of special needs students, Wilson was an active Association leader throughout his 20-year teaching career. He served as president of the Raleigh Association of Classroom Teachers and the Wake County Association of Classroom Teachers, and also served on the NEA Board of Directors and the NEA Executive Committee.
A true North Carolinian, Wilson was born in Burlington, North Carolina. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in education and received a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina.
Wilson loves mystery novels and is a voracious reader. He “lives and breathes politics” and is an avid Tar Heel fan.
