Speakers

2008 Technology Innovators Conference: Thriving in a Global Marketplace
November 20-21, 2008, Washington DC

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Jeffrey Bigham is a Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. He graduated with a B.S.E in Computer Science from Princeton University in 2003. His work focuses on interfaces used to access web content, especially those used by blind web users. He started the WebInSight project at the University of Washington with his advisor Richard E. Ladner. As part of this project, Jeffrey has conducted studies to understand the challenges faced by blind web users and developed innovative solutions to address those problems. He invented the WebAnywhere web application to provide blind web users non-visual access to the web from any computer, even locked-down public terminals, for which he won the Microsoft Imagine Cup Accessible Technology Award and the W4A Accessibility Challenge Delegate’s Award. In 2008, he became an Osberg Presidential Fellow. 

Alan Brightman is senior policy director of Special Communities for Yahoo! Inc. Since joining Yahoo! in May 2006, he has been responsible for ensuring that Yahoo! provides an accessible user experience for all individuals, focusing especially on children and adults with disability and chronically ill children. Earlier, Alan founded Apple Computer’s Worldwide Disability Solutions Group and served as its director for 13 years. He was also the executive producer of the musical called PULSE: The Rhythm of Life, based on a Web site that he created with Apple for seriously ill children, and was the producer of an award-winning PBS television series called Feeling Free. Alan’s books for children and for adults have been translated into seven languages. His most recent book is titled DisabilityLand.

Kevin Bushweller is the executive editor of Education Week’s Digital Directions, a print and online magazine for ed-tech leaders. He also oversees technology coverage in Education Week and serves as the project editor of Technology Counts, an annual report about the state of K-12 educational technology. Kevin was formerly the assistant managing editor (Web) for Education Week, overseeing the newsroom’s role in producing higher quality online content and interactive features on edweek.org. Prior to that, he served as an assistant managing editor for Education Week in charge of coverage of technology, school safety and security, research issues, early-childhood education, and student health. Before working for Education Week, Kevin was a senior editor for American School Board Journal, Executive Educator, and Electronic School magazines.

Leslie Conery is the deputy CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) with headquarters in Washington, D.C. and operations based in Eugene. She works with ISTE around the globe as an advocate for the effective and appropriate use of information and communication technologies. She believes that visionary leadership is critical to providing effective 21st century learning environments designed to meet the needs of all learners. Dr. Conery serves as Conference Chair of the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), the world’s largest educational technology conference and exhibit. She was a member of the original National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Leadership Team for the development of NETS for students, teachers, and administrators and continues to provide leadership in refreshing these internationally recognized standards.

Chris Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. His fields of scholarship include emerging technologies, policy, and leadership. Chris has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Foundations of Educational and Psychological Assessment, a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Expert Panel on Technology, and a member of the International Steering Committee for the Second International Technology in Education Study. He serves on advisory boards and commissions for PBS TeacherLine, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, and several federal research grants. In addition, Chris is a member of the board of directors of the Boston Tech Academy, an experimental small high school funded by the Gates Foundation, in the Boston Public School system.

Gregg Downey is editor and publisher of the eSchool News. Winner of more than 30 national awards in education journalism, including three Jesse H. Neal awards, Gregg is a newspaperman who has spent much of his career in the service of education. Gregg cofounded eSchool News, the nation’s number one ed-tech print newspaper; eSchool News Online, the world’s most visited ed-tech publication Web site; and eSN-TV, a producer of video news and information for education and education supporters. He is the former editor-in-chief of The American School Board Journal, founding editor of The Executive Educator magazine, and launched the quarterly technology publication, The Electronic School. Previously, he was a writer and editor for McGraw-Hill Publications in Chicago.

Charles Fadel is global lead for education at Cisco Systems, Inc., and the Cisco board member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills where he cochairs its Standards, Assessments and Professional Development committee. Charles has worldwide responsibility for the stewardship of the Education vertical (Schools and Higher Education). He has engaged directly, or via proxies, with education ministries/boards in the U.S. and in France, Chile, Scotland, and the Dominican Republic among others. He has been quoted in or written articles in Technology & Learning, Education Week, University Business, and many other publications. Charles has expertise in video technology and has been awarded five patents.

Barry Fingerhut has been involved in the investment business for over 35 years. He has been a principal of GeoCapital LLC since 1981 and has served as president since 1986, and he has focused much of his investment experience on small capitalization companies in the education and training, publishing, media, consumer services, hydrocarbon and financial industries. In 1992, Barry co-founded Wheatley Partners, a Venture Capital partnership specializing in investments in new technologies and services and serving both corporate and public institutions. In 2004 he co-founded F/H Partners LLC, a Family and Friends Investment Partnership in New York City. In 2006, Barry formed Synconium Partners, a Venture Capital partnership investing in the fields of disabilities and “ease of use” markets. Barry has served on a number of public and private Boards of Directors, with a current position at Apollo Group International and Edufund, among others. In the non-profit sector, he currently serves as president and board member of F·E·G·S, the largest Health and Human Services agency in New York City, the Board of Overseers at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and Achievement/First Corporation, parent of the Amistad School in New Haven and New York.

Gordon Freedman is vice president of Education Strategy for Blackboard, Inc., driving strategic initiatives and building government and senior institutional relationships in K–12 and higher education and for Blackboard globally. In addition, Gordon organizes Blackboard’s research and survey efforts on the development of education. Last year, he and Blackboard’s president of North American Higher Education, Peter Segall, conducted interviews with 60 U.S. and Canadian leaders about their institutional challenges. Currently, Gordon is heading up Blackboard’s global white paper initiative exploring how economic development and employment goals can be supported by education innovation, technology usage, and adapting to millennial learners.

Mary Furlong serves as president and CEO of Mary Furlong & Associates (MFA) and is the leading authority on the baby boomer generation as it moves toward and beyond 50. She founded the firm in 2003 to help socially-conscious, consumer-conscious companies understand the real needs of this growing market. Mary founded the nonprofit organization SeniorNet in 1986 and Third Age Media in 1996. She has guided the online and offline marketing strategies for major U.S. corporations for their 45+ age markets for over 20 years. In March 2001, Fortune Small Business Magazine named Mary as one of the “Top 25 Women Entrepreneurs.” Interactive Age included her among its “Twenty-Five Unsung Heroes on the Web.” In addition, she is Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship and Women in Leadership at the Leavey School of Business at the Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California, and Associate Director of its Center on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Larry Goldberg is the director of media access at WGBH, where he oversees the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), The Caption Center, and Descriptive Video Service (together known as the WGBH Media Access Group). He has long been a pioneer and recognized world expert in the technology, policy, and business aspects of making media and technology accessible to all. He has been deeply involved in national and international efforts to ensure that the design and implementation of media and information systems address the needs of people with disabilities. In this capacity, Larry initiated the development of the recently implemented captioning system for digital television in the United States and served as the founding chair of the Working Group of the Electronic Industries Association responsible for the design of a captioning system for the country’s Advanced Television system.

Tracy Gray is the director of two Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded projects, the National Center for Technology Innovation, NCTI and the Center for Implementing Technology in Education, CITEd at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). Tracy is a nationally recognized expert in education and technology who has led numerous projects in the U.S. and abroad that examine the impact of technology on educational achievement. She has published and lectured widely on issues related to the integration of emerging technologies into the classroom, particularly those with special needs. Prior to joining AIR, she was engaged in philanthropic initiatives as the vice president for youth services at the Morino Institute. Prior to that work, Tracy served as the deputy executive director and chief operating officer for the Corporation for National Service (CNS). As part of the leadership team, she helped launch AmeriCorps to enable more than 50,000 young people to serve in over 1000 programs throughout the U.S. Tracy serves on several boards, including Cable in the Classroom, Teach for America-DC, and the U.S.-China Center for Research on Education and Excellence.

Tom Greaves is chairman of The Greaves Group, a strategic education consulting organization he founded in 2003. With 40 years of experience in the computer industry, including 26 years at IBM, Tom is recognized as a visionary in the K–12 Mobile Computing space. In 1996, he cofounded NetSchools, which focused on comprehensive curriculum integrated through 1:1 laptop solutions. He holds multiple patents and patent disclosures for student computing technologies and has been involved in hundreds of 1:1 computing projects at the district, state, and federal level. He is published widely and is currently the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) Mobile Computing Trends Watch Report editor. Tom’s recent work is highlighted by the 2006 and 2008 America’s Digital Schools surveys, which are among the most widely read and quoted educational technology reports ever produced.

Lawrence Grossman is co-chair of the Digital Promise Project, an initiative to create a Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT) that would utilize modern digital distribution technologies to support the public good, with former FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow of “TV is a vast wasteland” fame. Mr. Grossman is former president of NBC News and PBS. Before that he founded an advertising agency to serve media and not-for-profit public service clients and was vice president of advertising at NBC. After leaving NBC News, Mr. Grossman held the Frank Stanton First Amendment Chair at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and was senior fellow and visiting scholar at Columbia University. He serves on the boards of various educational, science, public broadcasting, and health organizations and is author of The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age.

Noel Gunther is the vice president of Learning and Interactive Media at WETA-TV-FM. He brings a vast array of experience in not only technology, but how technology affects education. Noel has written and produced more than a dozen award-winning national programs for public radio and TV including: Good Morning Vietnam; Gray Matters: Depression with Mike Wallace; A Tale of Two Schools, narrated by Morgan Freeman; and the five-part series Exploring Your Brain with Garrick Utley. Gunther created and developed the LD OnLine Web site, which since 1996 has been the leading Web site in the field of learning disabilities. He has also started and now oversees a group of national multimedia franchises including: Reading Rockets, a national multimedia project looking at how young children learn to read, why so many kids struggle and what we can do about it; Colorín Colorado, a bilingual project for the parents and teachers of English language learners; and BrainLine, a private-public partnership through the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine with a primary goal to address the needs of individuals with brain injury and caregivers across the lifespan.

John Horrigan serves as the associate director for research at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, where he studies the online behavior of broadband internet users, mobile internet users, and consumers of other leading edge information technology. He leads Pew’s research on the Internet’s impact on people’s social networks, news gathering habits, and consumer decisions. John is also chairman of the Board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. Prior to joining the Pew Internet Project, John was a staff officer for the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy at the National Research Council. His past research has focused on technology and telecommunications policy, including work on universal telephone service, state and local telecom policy, and U.S. R&D policy. He has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars, including appearances at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, the Associated Press Broadcast Advisory Board, and the Federal Communications Commission.

Barbara (Bobbi) Kurshan is the executive director of Curriki. She has committed her career to using technology to improve children’s learning, and, in her current position, plans to build a global community that will provide the best open source curricula just a click away. Earlier in her career, Bobbi developed the first children’s software products for Microsoft Corporation (Creative Writer and Fine Artist) and also created award-winning products for McGraw-Hill, Apple, CCC (Pearson), and others. She serves as a reviewer and advisor to research projects for the National Science Foundation and other government and business groups. Bobbi also publishes articles based on personal research exploring women’s attitudes toward technology, how kids use computers, and new ways of learning through understanding.

Anne Murphy is the executive director of the Digital Promise Project. She is also president of Linkages, a consulting firm specializing in public policy and the arts and humanities. Previous clients have included OVATION, a cable network dedicated to the arts, the National Cultural Alliance, and other individual arts and humanities organizations. From 1979-1991, Anne was Director of the American Arts Alliance where she served as a national spokesperson for the professional arts community and managed matters of public policy, legislation, and public relations. Earlier in her career she held senior positions at the Public Broadcasting Service and the National Endowment for the Arts. Anne served on the Board of Overseers for the Corcoran Museum of Art, and is currently a member of their Acquisition and Exhibitions Committee.

Chinwe Onyekere is a program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where she develops and manages programs that have the potential for far-reaching impact on people’s health, the quality of care they receive, and the systems that provide that care. Previously, Chinwe was a research coordinator for a joint Harvard Medical School and Weill Medical College of Cornell University project, “Cultural Competence in Health Care.” In this position, she worked with a team of health care experts to identify models of culturally competent care, determine its key components, and recommend interventions to improve the quality of health care. Chinwe also has research and program expertise in health care disparities, issues in pediatric chronic care, social determinants of health, and international health. She has worked on projects with the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health, Management Sciences for Health, and Children’s Hospital in Boston.

Susan Patrick is president and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL). She was previously the director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. In that role, she published the National Education Technology Plan, managed the federal government’s educational technology policies and produced two Secretary’s Technology Leadership Summits. She served as co-chair of the federal government’s Advanced Technologies Working Group for Education and Training, and as a member of the Secretary’s Rural Education Task Force. She received the 2001 Governor’s Spirit of Excellence Recognition Award for the Telecommunications Open Partnerships for Arizona (TOPAZ) initiative. In 2008, eSchool News named Susan Patrick one of the top 10 national education leaders who “have had a profound impact on educational technology” in the past decade for her work at NACOL and at the U.S. Department of Education.

Secretary Thomas E. Perez is a nationally recognized consumer advocate and civil rights lawyer. He was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley in January 2007 to serve as the State Secretary of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR). Before this appointment, he was a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Law, where he taught in the school’s nationally recognized clinical law and law and health program. He was a federal prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Thomas later served as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights under U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. Among other responsibilities, Thomas chaired the interagency Worker Exploitation Task Force, which oversaw a variety of initiatives designed to protect vulnerable workers.

Annuska Perkins is an accessibility program manager, product planner, and user experience strategist in the Accessibility Technology Group at Microsoft Corporation. Annuska has extensive experience in product planning and customer research for Windows Accessibility features, deep knowledge of Accessibility User Needs, and expertise in Accessible Technology. She drove re-design of accessibility control panel in Windows operating system; based on market data, she defined necessary changes in the end-user presentation of the Windows accessibility features and created prototypes to illustrate the new design. Also, Annuska is a former Microsoft Corporation representative to W3C Web Accessibility Initiative’s working group that defines how to design accessible web content. She is a renowned industry resource for insights into accessibility and usability.

Alex Quinn is the executive director for Games for Change, an organization that provides support, visibility, and shared resources to organizations and individuals using digital games for social change. Before joining Games for Change, Alex was executive director of the Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA), a project of the Education Development Center. ALMA produces the Emmy Award-winning television series, TV411, accompanying Web site and workbook series, and a range of multimedia literacy and life skills curricula on such topics as health, finance, and family literacy. Alex served as the principal investigator for a multiyear National Science Foundation-funded project to develop, promote, and broadly distribute a television-based basic math curriculum for adults. Alex has a background in instructional design, video production, and telecommunications policy and was the executive director for community media centers in Oregon and New York City.

T.V. Raman is an accomplished computer scientist with more than 11 years of industry experience in advanced technology development. He has written three books and filed more than 25 patents; his work on auditory interfaces was profiled in the September 1996 issue of Scientific American. Raman has leading edge expertise in Web standards, auditory interfaces, and scripting languages. He participates in numerous World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working groups and authored Aural CSS (ACSS), and in 1996, he wrote the first ACSS implementation. Raman has led the definition of Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications for the next generation World Wide Web (WWW), including XForms, XML Events, and Compound Document Formats such as X+V. Raman’s objective is to develop technologies that drive the future of the Web toward eyes-free, ubiquitous information access.

Marshall Raskind is the former director of Research and Special Projects at Schwab Learning in San Mateo, California. His research interests are in the areas of technology as well as learning disabilities across the lifespan. Previously, he served as director of research at the Frostig Center in Pasadena, California. He is associate editor of Intervention in School and Clinic. Marshall is also consulting editor to the Journal of Learning Disabilities, Learning Disability Quarterly, Annals of Dyslexia, and the Journal of Special Education Technology. Marshall is a fellow and vice president of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities; a member of the Research Committee of the Council for Learning Disabilities; and a former member of the professional advisory board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

David Rose is founder and chief education officer at Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), an organization he helped to found with a vision of expanding opportunities for all students, especially those with disabilities, through the innovative development and application of technology. David specializes in developmental neuropsychology and in the universal design of learning technologies. In addition to his role as founding director/chief scientist of cognition and learning at CAST, David lectures at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, where he has been on the faculty for 20 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 Accessibility Materials Standard (NIMAS). He is the coauthor of Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning (ASCD, 2002) and has written numerous other books and articles.

Ben Sawyer is the president of Digitalmill, Inc., a company which has designed or advised more than a dozen serious game projects on topics including science, consumer products, defense, doctor training, and corporate training. He got his first taste of serious games when he was drafted to work on Virtual U, a Sloan Foundation effort to build a game-based simulation of university management. That project, and collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, led to the cofounding of the Serious Games Initiative. Since its founding, the Serious Games Initiative has been the critical grassroots organization responsible for creating both the ideas and social network that support the use of games beyond entertainment. Ben also cofounded the Games for Health Project which focuses specifically on the use of games and game technologies to improve health and healthcare. The project is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Steven Seleznow is the deputy director of U.S. Programs for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s education initiatives, leading grantmaking for state and district partnerships throughout the United States. Previously, Steven served as partner and chief investment officer at Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) in Washington, DC, where he developed VPP’s philanthropic investment strategies, cultivated and managed the selection of new investments in nonprofit organizations, and leveraged resources and community assets to create investment partnerships. With more than 30 years of leadership and management experience in public education, Steven also led the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public Schools as deputy superintendent for education, and the District of Columbia Public Schools as chief of staff and as interim superintendent.

Rob Sinclair is director of the Accessible Technology Group (ATG) at Microsoft Corporation. As director, he is responsible for the company’s worldwide accessibility strategy to develop software and devices that make it easier for people to see, hear and use their computers. The group provides the expertise Microsoft Corporation needs to create technology that is more accessible, and makes Windows a platform that other companies can use to develop accessible products. Sinclair is one of the chief architects of Microsoft User Interface (UI) Automation, Microsoft’s innovative cross-platform accessibility model. He also has 15 patents pending, most for advances in accessible technology. While Sinclair’s team focuses on helping Microsoft Corporation and partner companies create technology that empowers individuals with disabilities and other difficulties, the benefits of those solutions are not limited to those who experience physical or cognitive impairments—and neither is his vision for accessible technology.

Jim Stovall has been a national champion Olympic weightlifter, a successful investment broker, and entrepreneur. He is cofounder and president of the Narrative Television Network (NTN), which makes movies and television accessible for the nation’s 13 million people who are blind and visually impaired people and their families. He is the author of the best selling book, The Ultimate Gift, which is now a major motion picture starring James Garner and Abigail Breslin. For his work in making television accessible to our nation’s 13 million blind and visually impaired people, the President’s Committee on Equal Opportunity selected Jim Stovall as the Entrepreneur of the Year. He was also chosen as the International Humanitarian of the Year, joining Jimmy Carter, Nancy Reagan, and Mother Teresa as recipients of this honor.

Susan Traiman is director of education and workforce policy at Business Roundtable, which has been cited as “the most influential chief executive lobbying group in the United States” by the Financial Times. She oversees the Roundtable’s activities for chief executive officers of leading corporations interested in improving education performance and workforce competitiveness in the United States. Previously, Susan was director of education policies studies at the National Governors Association (NGA), where she coordinated assistance to governors in developing and implementing systemic education reform strategies. Susan was a senior associate with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement and served on the staff of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, contributing to the development of its landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk.

Bruce Wilcox is founder and CEO of ¡Aprender!, a mobile learning services provider. He also serves as K–12 strategy director for SMARTHINKING, the leading provider of online homework help for K–20 students. Bruce launched ¡Aprender! after a successful capital formulation and launch, as CEO, of SNS Project Inkwell. His background incorporates 20 years of experience in development, sales, and successful implementation of instructional technology programs in the K–12 and postsecondary sectors. His career spans founder and senior management roles in several instructional technology companies and includes executive and senior strategy roles at Reed Elsevier’s Harcourt Education Group, a leading publisher of K–12 print-based instructional materials; and at Simon & Schuster (Pearson Education).

Mary Ann Wolf is the executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). SETDA provides national leadership on educational technology, ensures members have meaningful professional development opportunities, and engages in partnerships with the public and private sector to collaborate on how educational technology supports teaching and learning. Mary Ann has led the National Leadership Summits in which SETDA’s members and partners develop tools for the education community. She directs the Technology Assistance Partnership Program (TAPP) with nine federal evaluation grantees and oversees the National Trends Report focused on NCLB Title II D—Enhancing Education Through Technology.

Yong Zhao is a university distinguished professor at Michigan State University, where he also serves as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology as well as the U.S.-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. His is an elected fellow of the International Academy for Education. His research interests include globalization and education, digital citizenship, diffusion of innovation, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, globalization and education, and international and comparative education. Zhao has published extensively in these areas. Zhao has been invited to present to education policy makers and practitioners in many countries including Australia, Chile, China, England, Ireland, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, The Netherlands, the United States, and Vietnam.

Jeff Zimman is co-founder, president and CEO of Posit Science, leading the global team in the design, development, validation and distribution of computerized brain health programs. For the past two decades, Jeff has been involved with healthcare, information technology, and consumer products companies in implementing strategies leading to successful funding, high growth, and liquidity. Jeff is a former Venture Partner of VSP Capital, a former Managing Director of Lazard, and a former partner of Cooley Godward. In addition to running these high-growth service businesses, Jeff has served on the boards of several start-up companies. Earlier in his career, Jeff was an award-winning newspaper reporter, covering business and technology.