Conference Secretariat
2012 Keynote Speakers
University of Vermont
Michael F. Giangreco, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Vermont in the Department of Education and at the Center on Disability & Community Inclusion. He has over 35 years in the field in a variety of capacities such as community residence counselor with adults with developmental disabilities, special education teacher, special education administrator, and researcher.
His work focuses on various aspects of educating students with developmental disabilities within general education classrooms such as curriculum planning and adaptation, related services decision-making and coordination, paraprofessional issues, and inclusive service delivery.
He is co-author of numerous professional publications, most recently the 3rd edition of Choosing Outcomes and Accommodations for Children: A Guide to Education Planning for Students with Disabilities (Paul H. Brookes Publishing, 2011). He has also created a CD set containing well over 300 cartoons depicting special education issues and research findings, Absurdities and Realities of Special Education: The Complete Digital Set (Corwin Press, 2007).
University of Birmingham
Professor John Visser is Visiting Professor at the University of Northampton having retired in 2010 from the University of Birmingham where he was programme tutor for professional development courses in the area of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at undergraduate, post graduate and doctoral levels. He is a consultant to schools, services and Local Authorities nationally and internationally in the area of special education.
Currently he is has been working in Norway, Denmark, Georgia and India on projects related to policies, practice and provision for children and young people with special educational needs in mainstream and specialist provision. He is widely known for his professionally relevant research and staff development work on classroom management; special educational needs, pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties; teaching and learning, particularly differentiation A founder of NASEN he served in a variety of national offices (including President) over a 25 year period, he also served as treasurer to the Association of Workers for Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties and the European Association of Special Education.
He was the first non-American President of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division of International Special Educators. He has served as Chair of North Somerset’s Strategic School’s Forum and their Children’s Trust. He is currently a Trustee of the Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Association, Visiting Fellow at University College Nordjylland, Denmark and a member of the Education Board for the Diocese of Bristol.
Cambridge Education Plymouth
Dan started his career as a secondary school teacher, winning a UK National Teacher of the Year award for Innovation and Creativity. He progressed through school management positions, winning the UK BECTA Secondary Leadership award in 2003. Dan joined Mott Macdonald, Cambridge Education in 2004 and gained further recognition through the Milne Awards in 2006 and BETT awards in 2007. He currently holds the positions of international ‘Director of Research and Development’ and ‘Lead Pedagogy Specialist’. In 2008 Dan became a fellow of Education Impact; an international fellowship of experts in the field of educational transformation at scale. In 2010 Dan was commissioned by Microsoft to write a series of workshops for school leaders in support of their worldwide Partners in Learning programme.
Dan has gained international recognition for his work in the field of school transformation and has provided keynotes and workshops in over 30 countries covering all aspects of the process including three day future policy envisioning workshops with ministries of education, large scale change management with school districts, advising building consortia on award winning school redesign projects, curriculum reform through the assessment of essential competencies, advising multinational corporations wishing to contribute to change in education, student voice and personalisation.
Dan is currently developing Personalisation by Pieces (PbyP): a set of tools that can be adopted easily and support transformation of education at scale and from any starting point. A number of these tools are already in use in K-12 schools in over sixty countries, others such as the solution for reliably assessing progression in ‘21st Century competencies’ through international peer assessment are at the cutting edge of transformation and are in use by some of the world’s most innovative schools covering six countries.
Dan has worked with units for visual impairment and auditory impairment. In 2009 he began a collaboration with Westfield Arts College for students with moderate learning difficulty to implement a version of PbyP that recognises, supports and evidences skill progression for all students.
Executive Director, St James Ethics Centre
Dr Simon Longstaff’s distinguished career includes being named as one of AFR Boss True Leaders for the 21st century with Carol Schwartz noting "…I don’t know one CEO or chairman in corporate Australia who has not worked with Simon Longstaff…".
Dr Longstaff has a PhD in Philosophy from Cambridge. Prior to becoming the inaugural Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre in 1991, he worked in the Northern Territory in the Safety Department of BHP subsidiary, GEMCO, lectured at Cambridge University and consulted to the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trusts.
His book Hard Cases, Tough Choices was published in 1997.
Dr Longstaff was inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum. He is Chairman of Woolworths Limited Corporate Responsibility Panel, AMP Capital Socially Responsible Investment Advisory Committee and the International Advisory Board of the Genographic Project. Dr Longstaff serves on the Australian Institute of Company Directors Corporate Governance Committee, BHP Billiton Forum on Corporate Responsibility, CSIRO Niche Manufacturing Flagship Advisory Committee and Nestle Oceania Creating Shared Value Advisory Board.
Manager, Child and Family Centres Project
Department of Education, Tasmania
Beverley moved to live and work in Hobart in 2006. Her husband and dog followed her and settled happily just beyond the city where she is attempting to grow vegetables and the occasional flower – that is when the local wallabies and possums permit her the enjoyment. She has two young grandchildren, who reside mostly in Queensland but see Tassie as their second home.
Beverley came to Tasmania to be the inaugural manager of the Disability Bureau, in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Her role was to lead the implementation of a whole-of-Government disability policy initiative. Within the field of disability Bev filled numerous professional roles in the area of disability in NSW, Queensland and Wales in UK. Before taking up the position in Hobart, Bev worked in Queensland as a service reform consultant and then helped establish the Office of the Public Advocate in 2001to serve the interests of adults with decision making disabilities.
Following the implementation of the first phase of the State’s disability policy Bev moved to the Department of Education to become the Manager of Tasmania’s Child and Family Centre (CFC) Project. This move took Bev full circle back to her first career in early childhood education.
CFCs are concerned to meet the educational, health and well- being needs of children from before birth to 5 years by empowering parents and building the capacity of local communities. Beverley will always regard her time with the CFCs as a great privilege and uplifting experience to be part of such a wonderful, innovative and potentially transformative development.
Bev’s role in the CFC project finished a few months ago and after a good break she has just returned to a National Partnership project primarily focused on issues of transition for students with disability.
Beverley gained a teaching diploma from the Sydney Nursery School Teacher’s College, a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Queensland and a Master’s Degree from the University of Wales.
Conference Convenors
