SPEAKERS
We will reimagine and redesign School and learning, also considering its various aspects with speakers who have built innovative models in their fields.
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We will reimagine and redesign School and learning, also considering its various aspects with speakers who have built innovative models in their fields.
Valerie Hannon is a global thought leader, inspiring systems to re-think what ‘success’ will mean in the C 21st, and the implications for education. The co-founder of both Innovation Unit and of the Global Education Leaders Partnership, Valerie is a radical voice for change, whilst grounded in a deep understanding of how education systems currently work.
Formerly a secondary teacher, researcher and Director of Education for Derbyshire County Council; then an adviser in the UK Department for Education (DfE) she now works independently to support change programs across the world.
Currently, she is also Senior Adviser to the OECD in its Education 2030 project. Valerie is a regular keynote speaker and facilitator at international conferences and workshops, drawing upon her substantial research and collaborative publications, including:
Valerie is the 2020 author of The Australian Learning Lecture on the subject of The Future School, which will appear as a new book in late 2021. Her last book, THRIVE: the purpose of schools in a changing world (2021) was published by Cambridge University Press. Also in 2021 Valerie was given the Outstanding Achievement in Education Award by EduFuturists.
Dr. Fisher has worked for 30+ years as a leader, teacher initially of students but now of teachers and leaders. Her doctoral research focused on the impact of culture on effective leadership practices.
Darlene’s current work includes working with the IB on developing and facilitating ‘The Essentials of International Leadership’ suite, and is a Lead Educator and workshop designer. She also leads accreditation teams, and coaches for NEASC as an International Accreditation Leader. Her last full-time post, was Director of Enka Schools in Istanbul, which she held for 6 years up to 2012.
She has worked with teacher training for ECIS and Cambridge (CIE), as well as mentoring heads of school and consulting on curricula and teacher development across Asia, Middle East and Europe. Darlene is now working with schools and leaders across the globe to develop strong and effective learning communities in a fast changing an increasingly culturally diverse world.
Doç. Dr. Zeynep B. Erdiller Yatmaz graduated from Hacettepe University, Department of Sociology in 1997. In 1998, she went to the United States to study for a doctorate in Early Childhood Education at Indiana University, Bloomington, with the Ministry of National Education’s Overseas Graduate Education Scholarship. She returned to Turkey in 2003 after completing her doctorate education. During her doctorate education, she completed her minor education in the field of family studies, which is based on family-child relationships in early childhood, in addition to the field of early childhood education. She worked as a lecturer at the Middle East Technical University between 2003-2009 and at Maltepe University between 2009-2011 in the Preschool Education Programs. Since 2011, she has been working as a faculty member at Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Education, Department of Basic Education.
Her main areas of study and research are teacher education, professional development of teachers, history and social aspects of childhood, sociology of childhood and children’s rights. With the birth of her first son in 2006, she stepped into the world of children and began to hear the child’s voice. With the birth of her second son, she realized that she could not turn her ears to this voice, and focused her scientific studies on this field and made it her mission to be a child’s human rights defender. In this direction, the main purpose of her professional identity is to transform the world under adult hegemony into a world that includes children and recognizes the child’s voice and decisions.
Gitte Miller Balslev holds a PhD in collaborative innovation in public sector education from Roskilde University, Denmark. She is currently a Postdoc in educational science at SDU, University of Southern Denmark and develops her research on educational change through national reforms, educational leadership in reform realization, collaborative innovation and ecosystems as educational networks – The NetEduProject. The NetEduProject is a cross-national research and development project across 10 nations investigating the potential of educational networks.
Building on long practical experience and strong bonds to the Danish public educational system, Gitte builds on Engaged Scholarship (Van de Ven 2007) and forms research projects as collaborative endeavours between multiple practitioners, professions and researchers. Gitte has built up social capital in the areas of education, innovation and organization by facilitated major changes stretching from institutional to municipal and national level. At SDU Gitte also works with developing university teaching with connection to the UN goals and has developed new master programs on pedagogical change management in and around public schooling.
Dr. Peggy Pelonis is President of the American Community School of Athens Greece (ACS Athens). She has worked in upper school administration for over twenty years. She is also a transnational Psychotherapist that has been director of a mental health community center in California and has worked as a trauma counselor for major businesses and organizations including the 2004 Olympic Games. Dr. Pelonis has been on the faculty of the Master’s Psychology programs for the University of Fullerton & the University of LaVerne USA and has taught at the University of Malta.
Dr. Pelonis is the author and co-author of numerous journal articles, book chapters and magazine & newspaper articles, as well as four books: Resilience & the International Mobile Family; navigating Changes and Transitions, with Dr. William Nicoll, Change in the Journey of Life, Everything Changes (currently published in Greek), Adlerian Group Counseling and Therapy: Step-by-Step with Dr. Jim Bitter and Dr. Manford Sonstegard and author and editor for a premier reference book on online learning: Handbook of Research on K-12 Blended and Virtual Learning Through the i²Flex Classroom Model with Dr. Maria Avgerinou. Articles and book chapters focus on educational leadership and managing educational change. Dr. Pelonis has extensive experience in international accreditation and was recently invited to join the Commission of Middle States Association. She has led numerous accreditations across the globe and helped lead her school to become the first international school accredited by Middle States action research protocol, Sustaining Excellence. She holds a BA and MA in Psychology & English literature, an Executive MBA, from the United States, a Doctorate in Education from the University of Bath, UK and School Management Certification from the Harvard School of Education and the Harvard Business School. Her vision is to educate young people to use knowledge, skill and ethical decision making to improve life and living on the planet
Jaclyn George has been a passionate educator and conservationist for ten years. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Resource Management from the University of Windsor, Canada, and completed her teaching qualifications in Upper School Sciences. She has studied and taught in Australia, China, and Indonesia. Jaclyn currently holds many roles at Green School Bali, Indonesia. She acts as a project manager for the Middle School team, teaches Environmental Science and Green Studies classes in both the Middle School and the High School programs. She has designed the Science and Green Studies program for Middle School and an Environmental Science program for High School at Green School Bali.
She is passionate about experiential education and is an advocate for project-based student-led learning experiences. She is the head of the Green Studies department for the entire school. She also helps to coordinate an 8th-grade semester-long capstone project called Quest. She has co-facilitated a program that allows students to activate in the community through student-led projects called LEAP junior. She has run the Green Generation program for several years, and program coordinator at the UN Conference Of Parties 2018 (COP 24). She aspires to enhance educational programs through memories and connections to nature and encourages students to embrace, honour and develop their relationship to the natural environment.
Jeremy Spielman is an experienced teacher, principal, system administrator, and school-transformation agent. His educational philosophy is founded on asking questions rather than forcing answers, and on building consensus rather than driving an agenda. Before joining the National Paideia Center as the Assistant Director, Jeremy served as Asheville City Schools’ Director of Professional Development, Digital Learning, and AIG programming.
Previously, Jeremy has served schools across the state as a District and School Transformation Coach with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, as well as, an Advisor, Start-Up School CEO, School Principal, Program Coordinator, and Classroom Teacher.
Jeremy’s Executive Highlights include:
▪Leading Change ▪ Instruction and Curriculum Engineering ▪ Public Speaking ▪Facilitating Civil Discourse ▪Inspiring Action through Development ▪Policy Research & Development ▪Forming Strategic Partnerships ▪Strengthening Agency Value with Stakeholders ▪Efficacy Development
Jeremy aims to inspire and provoke self-efficacy in a manner that invests in people to make the collective whole better. He has an entrepreneurial mind and believes that the right questions can unlock the creative designs, solutions, and experiences necessary to change the static reality of public education.
When Jeremy is not in the world of work, he can be found enjoying life with his family, reading books, riding waves, climbing rocks, designing dreams, and failing forward in challenging new endeavors. He also enjoys a good discussion, coffee, spicy food, random acts of kindness, and just about any spontaneous adventure!
Feyza Eyikul graduated from Yıldız Technical University Political Science and International Relations Department. She worked for companies that operate in foreign trade and international fields between 2002 – 2010.
As of 2010, she turned her focus to civil society and education by participating Başka Bir Okul Mümkün – BBOM (Another School is Possible) movement. She took part in the installation processes of the first BBOM School Mutlu Keçi and BBOM Teacher’s Village. With the lessons she learned from these experiences, she leaned towards community instruments such as Nonviolent Communication, Rehabilitative Systems, Inclusive Decision-Making, Sociocracy, etc., since 2013. She continues to professionally share the inspiration she gained while she experienced and learned these instruments with civilian communities.
Pınar Gökbayrak has been a founding partner of PAB Mimarlık, which has been operating since 2007, together with Ali Eray and Burçin Yıldırım. She was born in İstanbul. After completing her secondary education at Uskudar American Academy, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in architecture at İstanbul Technical University in 2004. She studied at Eindhoven Technical University in the Netherlands during her undergraduate education. She was awarded in the 2nd Architectural Researches Anthology of the Architecture Foundation with her master’s thesis completed in 2007 as part of the Architectural Design Program of İstanbul Technical University.
Besides being granted various national and international awards, Gökbayrak was selected for several national and international architectural anthologies. In 2015, she received Arkitera Young Architect Award. She took part in the World’s Most Successful Young Architectures Anthology in the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale. She served as an editor at Betonart architecture magazine between 2004 and 2012. She continues to write articles for architecture publications as well as being a jury member in various universities. Pınar Gökbayrak managed several projects at İstanbul Technical University and Osmangazi University. She is currently managing projects at Özyeğin University. She performs multidisciplinary research and architectural studies on educational spaces under the umbrella of PAB Mimarlık with the pabedu group which cooperates with numerous partners.
Günel, Murat (b. 1976, Turgutlu, Manisa), educator and manager. Murat Günel has served as general manager atthe Koç School since 2018.
He studied physics education at Balıkesir University Necatibey Faculty of Education after graduating from industrial vocational high school. Günel earned a scholarship from the Ministry of National Education while working as a science teacher in İstanbul and went to the USA for postgraduate study. He received his master’s (2003) and doctorate (2006) degrees in science education at Iowa State University. He worked as an academic member at Atatürk and Ahi Evran universities. He was promoted to the ranks of associate professor and professor in 2008 and 2014, respectively. He was appointed as the general manager of the Koç School in 2018.
Prof. Günel currently conducts national and international educational projects and serves as the editorial board member in international science education journals as well as contributing to numerous books and journals with his articles.
Prof. Dr. Jordi Diaz Gibson is an edupreneur with an ecosystemic and research background. Her is interested in weaving learning ecosystems to co-design and co-implement solutions for a better world. Her teacesh in the Education Degree in Blaquerna, Ramon Llull University (Barcelona, Spain), and leads the www.neteduproject.org.
The NetEduProject is a worldwide community of scholars and practitioners that are committed to co-create and weave learning ecosystems capable of disrupting existing practices, setting students in the center of a collective and networked action. In the last years the groups has published diverse impact papers on educational leadership and educational change from a collaborative and eco-systemic perspective. The team is working on launching the SchoolWeavers Tool, an online platform that claims to support leaders to transform their schools into learning ecosystems by assessing and improving trusted relationships and collaborative and innovative climates.
Selçuk Doğan has been an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University since 2019. He does research and carries out educational initiatives on teachers’ professional development and building learning communities.
With the research grants worth $1.000.000 he earned as a team in the last two years, he conducts research studies and instructs students in online MA programs. Between 2017 and 2019, he was awarded twice for the undergraduate courses on STEM he designed at the University of Florida, once for “innovative course” and once for “impactful course”. He has published more than 20 scientific articles with different researchers around the world on the topics of course design, program development, and learning in the top 5 education journals in the field in the last four years.
Meral Olcay received her bachelor’s degree in English Teaching from Marmara University Faculty of Education in 2000 after graduating from Çapa Anatolian Teacher Training High School in 1995. She obtained her master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies in Education at the State University of New York in 2016. Olcay completed International School Management Training Program of Principal’s Training Center in 2017. She is currently a participant of the Advanced Education Leadership Certificate Program provided by Harvard University, Faculty of Education.
Meral Olcay started her teaching life by working as an English teacher at P. Narin High School from 2000 to 2001. She joined Hisar School in 2001. She served as a primary school English teacher until 2006 and as a primary school English Coordinator between 2006 and 2013. Meral Olcay became Primary School Manager in 2013. In 2020, she was appointed as the Strategical Planning and Governance Assistant General Manager. She still holds her Primary School Management position until a new appointment is made.
He stepped into the media world, his childhood dream, in 1995. He informed readers and the audience about technology and trends in a series of newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and digital platforms. He carried and directed many broadcasts in this field to the internet.
He carried out leading content projects in the digital agency he co-founded.
He still continues to create content about technology and trends on various platforms and gives speeches in this context.