Due to unavoidable circumstances, Dr. Guinevere Eden and Dr. William Rieck have had to cancel for this year. However, Dr. Gordon Sherman
speaking with Deardra (Dee) Ledet-Rosenberg will replace Dr. Eden and Dr. Ed O'Leary will replace Dr. Rieck.
Dr. Ed O'Leary will be replacing Dr. William Rieck as a luncheon speaker on Friday, January 23rd. All tickets will
be honored and there are no exchanges or refunds. We are confident you will enjoy Dr. O'Leary. The title of
Dr. O'Leary's luncheon presentation is "The Courage to Change."
We're excited to announce an excellent line up of 2009 Courage to Risk conference keynote and invited speakers.
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- Brian Bryant, Ph.D.
- President
Psycho-Educational Services
Austin, Texas
Lecturer, College of Education
Department of Education
University of Texas
Austin, Texas
Brian R. Bryant lives and works in Austin, Texas. After teaching special education in the Maine public schools,
Brian obtained his doctorate in general special education at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests
are in learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. He is a former President of the Council for Learning
Disabilities.
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- Diane Pedrotty Bryant, Ph.D.
- Professor, Learning Disabilities/Behavior Disorders Program
Department of Special Education
University of Texas
Austin, Texas
Diane Pedrotty Bryant is a Professor in the Learning Disabilities/Behavior Disorders Program in the Department
of Special Education and a Fellow, Cissy McDaniel Parker Fellow Fund, at the University of Texas-Austin. She is
the author/co-author of numerous articles, chapters, books, and tests and a former president of the Council for
Learning Disabilities. Her research interests include developing and validating interventions for students with
mathematics difficulties and disabilities.
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- Kay Cessna, M.A.
- Kay Cessna is an educator with a broad range of experience. Kay has taught at the preschool through the
university level. She has worked nationally in the fields of learning disabilities and emotional disturbance.
Kay has written numerous articles and monographs designed to assist teachers in meeting the needs of students
and increasing student achievement. Kay served as a senior consultant with the Colorado State Department of
Education Special Education Unit for 19 years. She then served as Executive Director of Intervention Services
for Jefferson County Public Schools for 9 years. She is currently working as an educational consultant. Kay is
President of Creating Caring Communities.
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- Steve Graham, Ed.D.
- Professor and Currey Ingram Chair of Special Education and Literacy
Department of Special Education
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Steve Graham, Ed.D. is the Currey Ingram Professor of Literacy at Vanderbilt University. His research
focuses on identifying the factors that contribute to writing development and writing difficulties, developing
and validating effective instructional procedures for teaching writing and the use of technology to enhance
performance. He is the current editor of Exceptional Children and the past editor of Contemporary Educational Psychology. He is the author of the Handbook of Writing Research, Handbook of Learning Disabilities, Writing Better, Making the Writing Process Work, Best Practices in Writing Instruction and Powerful Writing Strategies for all Students. Steve also has
authored Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in the Middle and
High School, a meta-analysis of writing intervention research for grades 4 through 12 conducted by Carnegie
Corporation of New York. Steve has received numerous awards including: Career Research Award from the
International Council of Learning Disabilities, Distinguished Researcher Award from the special education
interest group of the American Educational Research Association, Don Johnston Lectureship award for Career
Contributions to Literacy. From 1991 to 2002, he was the most productive scholar in journals in
educational psychology.
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- Janette Klingner, Ph.D.
- Professor, Department of Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity
School of Education
University of Colorado at Boulder
Janette Klingner, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Colorado. Before earning her doctorate in reading and
learning disabilities from the University of Miami, she was a bilingual special education teacher for ten years.
Currently, she is a co-Principal Investigator on the Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) Project, an IES funded
efficacy study. She has published more than 80 articles, book chapters, and books. She is an active member
of numerous professional organizations in special education, literacy, bilingual education, and multicultural
education. In 2004 she was honored with AERA’s Early Career Award for outstanding research.
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- Stevan Kukic,Ph.D.
- Vice President
Sopris West Educational Services
Longmont, Colorado
Steve Kukic is Vice President of Professional Support and Sales for Sopris West Educational Services, a company
specializing in reaching the tough to teach with proven and practical products, programs, professional development
and consultation. He is the current chair of the Professional Advisory Board for the National Center for
Learning Disabilities. He worked two years as an independent consultant, primarily with Franklin Covey
Company’s Education Division, facilitating the use of principals based on 7 habits of Highly Effective
People with individuals and organizations. Before that, he was Director for At Risk and Special Education
for the Utah State Office of Education for 11 years, providing leadership for state and federal programs for
these children and youth in need. Dr. Kukic was President of the National Association of State Directors
of Special Education during 1991 and 1992 and for five years prior to that, he directed a statewide center
for technical assistance related to the education of students with disabilities.
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- Dee Ledet-Rosenberg
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Dee Ledet-Rosenberg has been the Director of Education at the Newgrange for the past eight years and is the current
President of the NJ Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. She received her Masters in Learning Disabilities
from Montclair University and is a certified Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant with over twenty years of classroom
experience as a regular and special education teacher, and educational diagnostician. She is a certified teacher trainer
of Wilson Language Program, Developing Metacognitive Skills, and LETRS.
Dee consults with school districts and trains teachers nationally to improve student achievement using good assessment
and research-based literacy programs and lecturing internationally about improving literacy and issues related to special education.
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- Gordon F. Sherman, Ph.D.
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Dr. Sherman received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychobiology from the University of Connecticut in 1980, has over 25 years
of research experience related to the development of the brain and the understanding of developmental dyslexia, and is the
author and editor of over 80 scientific articles, reviews, and books.
Before joining Newgrange he was Director of the Dyslexia Research Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston,
and faculty member in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and is a former President of the International Dyslexia Association.
He speaks internationally to parents, teachers, and scientists about cerebrodiversity, learning differences, brain development,
and the enlightened classroom.
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- Dr. Ed O'Leary
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Dr. O'Leary received his Doctorate from the University of Illinois in
Vocational Technical Education/Special Needs (1991) and his Master's
degree in Special Education from Drake University. His most recent
experiences include working as a Program Assistance Consultant for
Mountain Plains Regional Resource Center for the past eight years;
teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in special education and
vocational rehabilitation; and delivering presentations, trainings,
and workshops in a number of States across the nation. Prior to his
work with the Regional Resource Center, he spent over 20 years working
in the public schools as a special education consultant, transition
specialist, high school special education teacher, and work experience
coordinator. He has also been very involved with and has held
leadership positions in the Iowa Governor=s Planning Council on
Developmental Disabilities, the Council for Exceptional Education
(Iowa and National), the Iowa Association of Vocational Education
Special Needs Personnel, the Iowa Division of Career Development, and
ARC/Iowa. He has received distinguishing awards from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on
Developmental Disabilities, and Heartland Area Education Agency for
leadership and exemplary professional practice and service delivery to
students, parents, and professionals.
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