2021 Leadership Summit
Lead to Flourish:
Serving the Whole Child & Whole Educator

Principal Kafele has led the turnaround of four N.J. urban schools, including Newark Tech, which transformed from a low-performing school in need of improvement into one of national recognition and named one of America's best high schools by U.S. News and World Report.
A school-leadership expert, Kafele is the recipient of more than 150 educational, professional, and community awards, including the Milken National Educator Award and the National Alliance of Black School Educators Hall of Fame Award. He is the author of 12 books, including The Aspiring Principal 50, and six ASCD best sellers—Is My School a Better School BECAUSE I Lead It?, The Teacher 50, The Principal 50, Closing the Attitude Gap, and Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life.

Andy Hargreaves is director of CHENINE (Change, Engagement, and Innovation in Education) at the University of Ottawa in Canada and emeritus professor at Boston College, United States. He was president of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement, 2017–19, was adviser in education to the Premier of Ontario,2015–18, and is current adviser to the First Minister of Scotland. He has published more than 30 books and has 8 Outstanding Writing Awards. He is ranked by Education Week among the scholars with most influence on U.S. education policy debate.
In 2015, Boston College gave him its Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award. Andy holds honorary doctorates from the Education University of Hong Kong and the University of Uppsala in Sweden. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Professor Hargreaves is an outstanding keynote speaker and workshop leader and has delivered invited addresses in more than 50 countries. His most recent books are Collaborative Professionalism (with Michael O'Connor); Moving; Five Paths of Student Engagement (with Dennis Shirley); and Well-Being in Schools (also with Dennis Shirley).

Dennis Shirley is Duganne Faculty Fellow and Professor of Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. Dennis dedicates his life to the improvement of teaching and learning for students so that they may flourish wherever they may be. He has conducted research and led professional development workshops for teachers, principals, and affiliated staff in 30 nations on 6 continents, and his work has been translated into many languages. He has two new books published with Andy Hargreaves this year; the first is entitled Five Paths of Student Engagement and the second is Well-Being in Schools.
Dennis works with educators in many countries to help with clarifying their challenges, identifying promising strategies, and implementing and assessing change. He is skilled at breaking down ill-defined problem sets to establish ambitious goals that can be attained with persistence, creativity, and dignity.
Dennis holds a doctoral degree from Harvard University. In addition to his appointment at Boston College, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London and a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Bosch Foundation in Berlin.

Thousands of educators are exiting the field of education every year, exhausted and burnt out. Frustrated by this crisis that hurts our students, LaVonna Roth set out on a worldwide mission to serve educators, authoring 8 books on brain research and engaging instruction, creating the Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.® framework, and providing professional development for educators internationally.

She has worked with educators in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Her life's passion is to empower educators like you to find the greatness within your students and the greatness within yourself so we can radically shift the traditional approach on how to educate in order to best serve our students.

As an elementary and secondary educator, keynote speaker, author, consultant, and mom, she is here to serve you so you can effectively serve your students through the lens of brain research, social-emotional needs, and the whole child!

Douglas B. Reeves is the author of more than 100 articles and 40 books on educational leadership and student achievement and has worked with numerous education, business, nonprofit, and government organizations throughout the world.

Reeves is the founder of Creative Leadership Solutions, a non-profit with the mission to improve educational opportunities for students using creative solutions for leadership, policy, teaching, and learning. He was twice named to the Harvard University Distinguished Authors Series, and received the Contribution to the Field Award from the National Staff Development Council (now Learning Forward) and was named the Brock International Laureate for his contributions to education.

Erica Battle began her career in education over 15 years ago by substitute teaching, when she discovered her passion for education. Erica has been a classroom teacher, instructional specialist, teacher mentor, and director of literacy. Through those experiences, Erica realized that she not only had a love for teaching children, but she also had a passion for helping educators realize their full potential.
Erica currently consults full-time with school districts, focusing on teaching and learning, addressing students' SEL needs, and strategic planning.
She has presented at some of the most prominent educational conferences, was featured in The New York Times, and has written and published an adolescent self-discovery book titled, Who Are You? A Guide to Help Adolescents Navigate Through the Social and Emotional Issues of Life.
Erica holds a bachelor of science from Tennessee State University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Trevecca Nazarene University, and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Lipscomb University.

Dan Heath, along with his brother Chip, co-authored four bestselling books, Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive, and The Power of Moments. His new book Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen was an instant Wall Street Journal bestseller. Dan is a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE center, which supports entrepreneurs who fight for social good. He is an entrepreneur himself, having founded Thinkwell, an innovative education company.
In 2013, Dan was included in the Thinkers 50, a ranking of the world’s 50 most influential management thinkers, and to Fast Company magazine’s list of the Most Creative People in Business. He has spoken to teachers, police chiefs, U.S. senators, interior designers, Navy admirals, health care leaders, marketers, ministers, and countless executive teams, across 26 countries on 6 continents. Dan has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Texas at Austin. One proud geeky moment for Dan was his victory in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, beating out 13,000 other entrants. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.