Key Session Speakers
Bob Edwards
Host, "The Bob Edwards Show"
Former NPR host of "Morning Edition"
Bob Edwards is the host of "The Bob Edwards Show" on Sirius XM Radio and "Bob Edwards Weekend," distributed to public radio stations by Public Radio International (PRI). Both programs feature in-depth interviews with newsmakers, journalists, entertainers and other compelling figures.
Before joining Sirius XM in 2004, Edwards hosted National Public Radio's (NPR) "Morning Edition" for 24-and-a-half years, attracting more than 13 million listeners weekly. He joined NPR in 1974 and was co-host of NPR's evening news magazine, "All Things Considered," until 1979 when he helped launch "Morning Edition."
Following service as a broadcaster in the U.S. Army, Edwards moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as an anchorman for WTOP-AM, an all-news CBS affiliate. At age 25, he became a correspondent with the Mutual Broadcasting System.
He is the author of three books, Fridays with Red, which chronicled his radio friendship with legendary sportscaster Red Barber, Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism and his most recent book, A Voice in the Box: My Life in Radio.
Edwards has won the duPont-Columbia Award for radio journalism, a George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting and the Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding contributions to public radio. He serves as national first vice president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). In November of 2004, Edwards was inducted into the national Radio Hall of Fame.
He is a graduate of the University of Louisville and holds a master's degree from American University in Washington.
Seth Godin
Author and Entrepreneur
Named one of the top 21 speakers for the 21st century by Successful Meetings Magazine, Seth Godin draws on his best-selling books and years of being a marketing pioneer to bring audiences of all kinds to their feet.
Continuing to push the envelope and make waves in the marketing and publishing worlds, one of his latest endeavors, The Domino Project, completely excludes a traditional print publication for his book, Poke the Box. Hailed as "the kick in the pants you need to shake up your life," Poke the Box urges everyone to do just as The Domino Project does, move away from conformity and toward ingenuity, toward answering unknown questions for ourselves.
Furthering The Domino Project, his latest book, We Are All Weird (Sept. 2011) printed only 11,000 hardcover copies for sale on Amazon, with no plans to print more. This model encourages readers to use the digital platform, and also creates a scarcity effect that drives demand for the limited copies available, underlining the importance of the book. The book itself calls for the end of mass and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique, albeit sometimes weird, values.
Godin's first book Permission Marketing, was a New York Times best-seller that revolutionized the way corporations approach consumers. Fortune Magazine named it one of their Best Business Books and Promo magazine called Godin "The Prime Minister of Permission Marketing."
Sylvia Manning
President
Higher Learning Commission
Appointed by the board in 2008, Sylvia Manning assumed the presidency at the Higher Learning Commission effective July 1, 2008, following the retirement of the commission's long-term president, Steven Crow.
Manning's vision has been to strengthen participation of the commission's institutional leaders in helping to create the voice of the commission on issues of state, regional and national importance. She is committed to keeping accreditation timely, relevant and accountable for members of the public and, most importantly, for the students served by HLC accredited institutions. Her commitment to student learning and to excellence is clear, direct and authentic.
She strives to continue the commission's commitment to academic and service quality improvement and to peer review.
Manning previously served the University of Illinois for almost fourteen years, the last eight as chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 1994 as vice president of academic affairs, Manning served in a number of faculty and senior leadership roles at the University of Southern California and at California State University, Hayward.
Manning has a doctorate and a master's degree from Yale University in English language and literature and a bachelor's degree in English from McGill University.
Dan Pink
Author
Dan Pink is the author of four provocative books about the changing world of work, including the long-running New York Times best-seller, A Whole New Mind, and the #1 New York Times best-seller, Drive. His books have been translated into 32 languages.
His latest work, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, uses 50 years of behavioral science to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation. Pink shows that carrot and stick motivators have been oversold and that high performance depends much more on the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things and to do better by ourselves and the world. Drive is a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times best-seller as well as a national best-seller in Japan and the United Kingdom.
In A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Pink charts the rise of right-brain thinking in modern economies and explains the six abilities individuals and organizations must master in an outsourced, automated world. The book spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times main and extended best-seller lists and has been a freshman read selection at several U.S. colleges and universities.
Pink's The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need is the first American business book in the Japanese comic format known as manga. Illustrated by award-winning artist Rob Ten Pas, the book was one of the best-selling graphic novels of 2008 and the only graphic novel ever to become a Business Week best-seller.
His first book, Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, was a Washington Post best-seller that Publishers Weekly says "has become a cornerstone of employee-management relations."
Pink's articles on business and technology have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Sunday Telegraph, Fast Company and Wired. He has provided analysis of business trends on CNN, CNBC, ABC, NPR and other networks in the U.S. and abroad. He also advises both Fortune 100 companies and startups on recruiting, innovation and work practices.
A free agent himself, he held his last real job in the White House, where he served from 1995 to 1997 as chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore. He also worked as an aide to U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich and in other positions in politics and government.
Pink received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a juris doctorate from Yale Law School.
DeRionne P. Pollard
President
Montgomery College
DeRionne P. Pollard serves as president of Montgomery College, a three-campus community college in Montgomery County, Md. In this role, she oversees the education and student services for 60,000 credit and noncredit students. Pollard assumed leadership of Montgomery College in 2010, following a national search by the college's board of trustees. At her inauguration, she launched the Montgomery College Innovation Fund to inspire faculty and staff to develop new ideas for educating students. Private funding through the Montgomery College Foundation supports the fund.
As president, she is passionate about working with the college and community to increase student completion. Under her leadership, Montgomery College was selected one of 40 community colleges nationwide to pilot the Voluntary Framework of Accountability to determine how best to benchmark student success at community colleges nationwide.
Pollard has been active in developing and strengthening partnerships with government, businesses, nonprofit organizations and other educational institutions. She serves on two commissions at the American Association of Community Colleges. She represents AACC on the Washington Higher Education Secretariat's Working Group on Persistence and Completion, and she serves on the Presidents' Round Table of the National Council of Black American Affairs. She is a member of the Advisory Board for O.P. Jindal Community College (India). Locally, she serves on several boards, including Maryland Campus Compact, Montgomery County Business Development Corporation, Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Universities of Shady Grove, the Tech Council of Maryland, and IMPACT Silver Spring. She is a member of the board of directors for Strathmore, an arts center in North Bethesda, and she has joined other area women leaders as a member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Women's Leadership Forum. In addition, Leadership Montgomery recently selected Pollard for its Class of 2012.
Pollard formerly served as president of Las Positas College in Livermore, Calif. Under her leadership, Las Positas College experienced a nearly 15 percent enrollment increase, implemented an aggressive $230 million facilities modernization program, and experienced a highly successful reaccreditation.
Her community college career began at College of Lake County (Ill.) as a faculty member in English. She developed the institution's award-winning New Faculty Institute and its Center for Teaching and Learning. After several progressive administrative positions, she was selected as the vice president of educational affairs, where she served until her appointment as president of Las Positas College.
Pollard is a frequent speaker with a deep-rooted commitment to teaching and learning, equity and access, and professional development. Her awards and honors include Washingtonian's 100 Most Powerful Women, 25 CEOs You Need to Know from The Gazette of Politics and Business, East Bay Woman of Distinction Award, the Outstanding Young Alumna Award from Iowa State University, the YWCA Woman of Achievement, and the Most Influential African American of Lake County (Chairman's Award).
Pollard received her doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies in higher education from Loyola University Chicago, and her bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Iowa State University.
Andrew Rosen
Chairman and CEO
Kaplan
Andrew Rosen is chairman and chief executive officer of Kaplan, Inc., one of the world's leading providers of educational services. Rosen joined Kaplan in 1992 and was named chairman and CEO in November 2008. Kaplan, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO), is a diversified educational company with more than $2.9 billion in revenue in 2010 and accounted for more than half of the parent company's revenue.
Throughout his career, Rosen has embraced an outcomes-based approach to education, focusing on student achievement and success. As CEO of the company's largest business, Kaplan Higher Education (KHE), Rosen redefined the higher education landscape, bringing online and campus-based learning opportunities to working adults. Under his leadership, KHE has grown to account for more than half of Kaplan's revenue and today provides postsecondary education to nearly 80,000 students.
Rosen is a pioneer in the burgeoning online education market. As president of Kaplan University, he led the school's growth from 34 students in 2001 to more than 53,000 online students today. He also oversaw Concord Law School, the first fully online law school in the United States.
His first book, Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy, was published in October 2011. In it he clearly and entertainingly details how far the American higher education system has strayed from the goals of access, quality, affordability and accountability that should characterize our system, and offers a prescription to restore American educational preeminence.
Rosen came to The Washington Post Company in 1986 as a staff attorney for The Washington Post newspaper and moved to Newsweek as assistant counsel in 1988. When he moved to Kaplan, he served as center administrator, regional director and vice president for field management prior to assuming the role of chief operating officer in 1997. He was named president of Kaplan in 2002 and assumed leadership for Kaplan's higher education operations in 2004.
Before joining The Washington Post Company, Rosen served as law clerk to the Hon. Levin H. Campbell, Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston. He holds an bachelor's degree from Duke University and a juris doctorate from Yale Law School. Rosen currently serves on the boards of Enterprise Florida, the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, the Broward Workshop and the Council for Educational Change. He is also a member of the CEO Council for the Broward Alliance.
David Rubenstein
Philanthropist and Co-Founder, The Carlyle Group
David Rubenstein is a co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Prior to forming the firm in 1987, Rubenstein practiced law in Washington, D.C. with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw Pittman). From 1977 to 1981, during the Carter administration, he was deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. From 1975 to 1976, he served as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1973 to 1975, he practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Among other philanthropic endeavors, Rubenstein is the chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, president of the Economic Club of Washington and on the boards of directors or trustees of Duke University (vice chair), the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, the Brookings Institution (vice chair), the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Rubenstein is also a member of several advisory boards including the Harvard Business School Board of Dean's Advisors, the board of trustees of the Young Global Leaders Foundation, the advisory board of School of Economics and Management Tsinghua University and the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum.
Rubenstein is among the group of American billionaires who have pledged to donate more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charities as part of The Giving Pledge.
Rubenstein is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Following Duke, he graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School.
Bernard Shaw
Journalist
On Feb. 28, 2001, Bernard Shaw stepped back from his daily routine as CNN's principal anchor, ending his co-anchoring duties on Inside Politics—the nation's only daily program devoted exclusively to political news—with Judy Woodruff.
In 1991, Shaw was one of three CNN reporters who captivated a worldwide audience with continuous coverage of the first night of the Allied Forces' bombing of Baghdad during "Operation Desert Storm." Shaw was in the Iraqi capital to update his exclusive interview with President Saddam Hussein conducted in October 1990.
As a result of that unprecedented coverage, Shaw received numerous international as well as national awards and honors. In July 1991, he received the Eduard Rhein Foundation's Cultural Journalistic Award, marking the first time that the foundation presented this award to a non-German. Later that year the Italian government honored him with its President's Award, presented to those leaders who have actively contributed to development, innovation and cooperation. He is also the recipient of the coveted 1991 David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication from Barry University. In addition, he is the recipient of the 1990 George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award for distinguished service and the 1991 Golden Award for Cable Excellence (ACE)—the cable industry's most prestigious award-from the National Academy of Cable Programming. Shaw personally received the ACE for Best Newscaster of the Year. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) presented him its 1991 Chairman's Award for Outstanding Journalistic Excellence in January 1992. Over the next decade, Shaw won numerous awards for his groundbreaking news coverage.
Shaw's reporting/anchoring has taken him to 46 countries spanning five continents. He has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)—the highest distinction the Society gives to journalists for public service. In June 1995, he was inducted into the SPJ Hall of Fame. In June 1999, he was named an inductee into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.
Shaw anchored much of the network's special events coverage, including the handover of Hong Kong to China at the stroke of midnight, June 30, 1997, and the funeral of Princess Diana. On Jan. 17, 1994, he was the first correspondent/anchor to break the news of the major earthquake—measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale—in Los Angeles, Calif, where he happened to be for another assignment. He was on the air eight minutes after the earthquake struck at 4:31AM (PT).
He also covered major political events, including primaries, party conventions, debates and national election nights.
From 1971 to 1977, Shaw was a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of CBS News. A journalistic coup during that period was his exclusive interview with Attorney General John Mitchell at the height of the Watergate crisis.
Before joining CBS News, Shaw served as a reporter for Westinghouse Broadcasting Company's Group W, based first in Chicago, and later in Washington, as White House correspondent. He began his career in 1964 as an anchor/reporter for WNUS-Chicago, one of the nation's first all-news radio stations.
Shaw studied history at the University of Illinois. On April 27, 1991, the University of Illinois Foundation announced the establishment of the Bernard Shaw Endowment Fund, creating scholarships at the University's Chicago campus in his honor. He has personally contributed more than $300,000 to the fund—his way of "giving back" some of what has been given to him. The unrestricted grants are awarded annually to qualified students needing financial aid, with preference given to minority and women liberal arts majors who best represent those values and interests exemplified by Shaw. In May 1993, the university awarded Shaw an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for his outstanding contributions and endeavors. He also holds honorary doctorates from Northeastern University and Francis Marion College.
Lap-Chee Tsui
President
University of Hong Kong
Lap-Chee Tsui is the fourteenth vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.
Prior to his present appointment in September 2002, Tsui was geneticist-in-chief and head of the Genetics and Genomic Biology Program of the Research Institute, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He was also the holder of the H.E. Sellers Chair in Cystic Fibrosis and university professor at the University of Toronto.
After a brief training in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he joined the Department of Genetics at The Hospital for Sick Children. He received international acclaim in 1989 when he identified the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis, which is a major breakthrough in human genetics. He has also made significant contributions to the study of the human genome, especially the characterization of chromosome 7, and, identification of additional disease genes. He has 290 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 65 invited book chapters and papers.
Tsui has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding work over the years. His honors include the titles of Distinguished Scientist of the Medical Research Council of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Fellow of Academia Sinica, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Honorary Fellow of Royal College of Physicians (UK) and Honorary Fellow of World Innovation Foundation. In addition to many national and international prizes, including the Killam Prize of the Canada Council, Gairdner International Award, Cresson Medal of Franklin Institute, and Mead Johnson Award, he was awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the University of King's College, University of New Brunswick, Chinese University of Hong Kong, St. Francis Xavier University, York University and Tel Aviv University.
Professor Tsui has served on the editorial boards for 20 international peer-reviewed scientific journals, numerous scientific review panels, and many national and international advisory committees, including the Medical Research Council of Canada, Canadian Genome Research Task Force Committee (chair), Scientific Steering Committee of the National Institute of Biological Science, Scientific Advisory Committee of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development and Human Genome Organization (president 2000-2002).He is currently a member of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, Council for Sustainable Development and Executive Committee, and Executive Committee of the Commission on Strategic Development of the Hong Kong SAR Government. He received the Order of Canada (officer rank), the Order of Ontario and the title of Justice of the Peace (HKSAR).
Tsui was awarded his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979.
Sherry Turkle
Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A professor, author, consultant and researcher, Sherry Turkle has spent the last 20 years researching the psychology of people's relationships with technology. She is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the founder and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, a center of research and reflection on the evolving connections between people and artifacts.
One of the few researchers in this field, Turkle offers a unique perspective on meaning and mechanisms on humans and technology and social interaction. Her latest book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, describes technology's influence on new, unsettling relationships between friends, lovers, parents and children, and new instabilities in how we understand privacy and community, intimacy and solitude. She is the author of several books including Psychoanalytic Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French Revolution, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, and Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. She is the editor of Evocative Objects: Thinking With Things, Falling for Science: Objects in Mind, and The Inner History of Devices.
Profiles of Turkle have appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American and Wired magazine. She is a featured media commentator on the effects of technology for CNN, NBC, ABC and NPR, including appearances on such programs as "Nightline" and "20/20."
Turkle received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University and is a licensed clinical psychologist.
