2023 Conference Speakers
Opening Keynote: Ted Dintersmith
Ted Dintersmith is a change agent focused on the impact of education and innovation on the future of civil society. His professional background spans technology, entrepreneurship, and public policy. He was ranked by Business 2.0 as the top-performing U.S. venture capitalist for 1995-1999. In 2012, President Obama appointed him to represent our country at the United Nations General Assembly. He has been the executive producer of several films that have premiered at Sundance, including the acclaimed Most Likely to Succeed. Ted’s most recent book What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America is based on an immersive trip he took to all 50 U.S. states during a single school year. In 2018, he received NEA’s prestigious “Friend of Education” Award. Ted earned a PhD in Engineering from Stanford and an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary, with High Honors in Physics and English. When he's not visiting schools, he lives in central Virginia.
What School Could Be What School Could Be is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a robust collection of resources for educators interested in innovative practices and placing students at the center of their learning. Educators have endured endless top-down edicts that they have no voice in and don’t believe in. We believe in educators -- in their power to take small steps that lead to big change. We support educators in their journey through our online community of tens of thousands of members, providing free professional learning resources including courses, events, our Innovation Playlist, coaching, and connection to educators involved in this work all over the world. We also partner with others to provide micro-credentialing, an affordable Master's degree program, and bespoke coaching services for schools and districts who are leading for change.
Find Ted & What School Could Be: website, Facebook, Twitter @schoolcouldbe, and on YouTube
Closing Keynote:
Mirna Valerio
“The Mirnavator”: Ultra Runner, Adventurer, Author
Mirna Valerio is a native of Brooklyn, NY, a former educator and cross-country coach, ultramarathoner, cyclist and skier, DEI practitioner, and author of the memoir, A Beautiful Work in Progress. She began running in high school, recommitted to the sport after a health scare in 2008 and started her blog Fatgirlrunning—about her experiences as a larger woman in a world of thinner endurance athletes— while training for her first marathon. Mirna's athletic story has been featured in the WSJ, Runner’s World, on NBC Nightly News, CNN, and in the viral REI-produced documentary short, The Mirnavator. Her writing has been featured in Women’s Running Magazine, Self Magazine Online, Outside Online, and Runner's World Magazine. In 2018 she was chosen as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and in early 2020 appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show and Access Daily, and most recently was featured on the Today Show. Her partners include LLBean, Ford Bronco, Lululemon, Salsa Cycles, InsideTracker, and Garmin. She currently lives and trains in Vermont and is wholeheartedly enamored and obsessed with downhill skiing.
Find Mirna: website, Facebook, Twitter @TheMirnavator, Instagram
Featured Speaker: The Jane Group
Jim Hulbert, J.D. & Dr. Tekakwitha Pernambuco-Wise
The Jane Group
The Jane Group is a unique communications firm and a leader in independent school communications. We know independent schools in a way that the average public relations firm does not. The Jane Group is the only firm that specializes in crisis communications and training exclusively for independent and private schools. We have spent decades working with every type of school, not only domestically, but also in 38 countries around the world including North America, Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia (including the Middle East region). We are allies with education associations throughout the world and are the only crisis communications firm that has been on retainer to NAIS for 20 years, a distinction of which we are proud.
Find The Jane Group: www.thejanegroup.biz
Jim Hulbert, J.D.
Jim Hulbert, J.D., is a partner at The Jane Group and a labor and employment lawyer by training. Jim is the CEO of the firm and manages the ongoing caseload. With an expertise in board matters, Jim is the lead consultant on governance and complex legal matters. Jim works closely with board chairs and executive committees advising on complicated issues involving governance matters and best practices; leadership transitions; sexual misconduct investigations; employment disputes and DEI(JB) cases; as well as managing a response to social media campaigns against schools. He has presented at numerous domestic and international education conferences, working with schools in 38 countries on five continents since 2015.
Dr. Tekakwitha Pernambuco-Wise
Born and raised in British Guiana (now Guyana), Tekakwitha M. Pernambuco-Wise graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Mathematics, having completed her junior year abroad at The University of Sussex, UK. Whilst at Brown, she spent summers teaching in Mexico, New York and on a Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. She taught mathematics at The Agnes Irwin School and whilst there, studied in the graduate education department of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her Master’s in Educational Philosophy from The University of Toronto, Canada and her Doctorate from St. Mary’s College of California with her dissertation concentration on the experience of female heads of NAIS schools. In 2018, she earned a Klingenstein Fellowship for Heads of Schools at Columbia University and in 2019 was elected to membership of the Heads Collegiate Forum. Dr Pernambuco-Wise has led Full-Service Schools in Florida, ran the residential life programme at Mid-Pacific Institute in Hawai`i and was a High School Head and Middle School Head at two schools in the San Francisco Bay area before her first Headship at Sea Crest School in Half Moon Bay, CA followed by an Acting Headship at Helios School (CA). She is an executive coach to school heads and senior administrators, a consultant with The Jane Group and began Headship at Wyndcroft School (PA) in July, 2021. Dr Pernambuco-Wise has presented at numerous national and international conferences on topics such as online/blended learning, leadership, governance, boarding school life, school transformation, inclusion and full-service schools. She was a faculty member of NAIS’ Fellowship for Aspiring School Heads for 6 years and is currently on the faculty of THN’s Women in Leadership Seminar. She has served on the Boards of Trinity School (CA) and Archbishop Mitty High School (CA). She is the Secretary of the NAIS Board and serves on the boards of THN and the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools. She holds a third-degree black belt in Judo and was an international competitor and national champion for Guyana. During her years in Hawai`i, she danced hula, including competing in the highly selective Merrie Monarch Festival.