Heather Carmody

Rebecca L. Mann

Richard M. Cash

Sidney M. Moon

Felicia A. Dixon

Megan Nelson

Julie Donaldson

Terry Neu

Elizabeth Fogarty

Jack Palmer

Catherine Fraser Riehle

Nielsen Pereira

Jillian Gates

Scott Peters

Marcia Gentry

Kevin Simms

P. Susan Jackson

Penny Britton Kolloff

Benjamin Lacina

Jamie MacDougall

Richard M. Cash, Ed.D., is the Director of Gifted and Talented Programs, K-12, for the Bloomington Minnesota Public Schools, and teaches graduate level courses at Concordia University and Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Prior to his work as a district administrator and college-level instructor, Richard taught first and sixth grade in an urban elementary school for gifted children. Richard also worked for many years as a children's theater director. He is co-author of four highly acclaimed children's plays with Claudia Haas.

Richard was elected as a US delegate to the World Council on Gifted Education and has presented workshops at the International Biennial Conference on Gifted Education. Nationally, he is actively involved with the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) serving on its Membership Committee and is a frequent presenter at the annual NAGC convention. Richard is also involved with the International Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) where he serves on the Leadership Council and has presented at the ASCD annual convention and exhibit. Locally, Dr. Cash is the President of the Minnesota Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (Mn ASCD) and Past-President of the Metro-Chapter for the Minnesota Educators of the Gifted and Talented (MEGT).

Dr. Cash also works as a private consultant for many school districts around the U.S.  Most recently he was a featured speaker for the Lake County, Illinois Annual Conference on Differentiated Instruction. His areas of expertise are gifted learners and programming, curriculum development, differentiated instruction, creativity, and brain compatible classrooms. Richard is widely known for his theatrical and engaging presentation style, as well as his informative workshops.

www.nrichconsulting.com

Felicia A. Dixon is associate professor of educational psychology at Ball State University . She directs the master's degree program in educational psychology and the license/endorsement in gifted education. She received her doctorate from Purdue University and specializes in gifted education. Author of more than 20 articles and chapters, Felicia Dixon received the Early Scholar Award from NAGC in 2004. She is a member of the Board of Directors of NAGC. Her research interests include critical thinking, cognitive abilities, self-concept of gifted adolescents, perfectionism, and curriculum. Her special interest is in the advancement of gifted education for secondary students. E-mail: fdixon@bsu.edu.

Julie Donaldson is a Middle School Gifted Specialist for Bloomington Public Schools in Bloomington, Minnesota. Prior to this position, she taught high school English and Honors English. She was fortunate enough to study under Marcia Gentry at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where she earned her Master’s Degree in Gifted Education. Donaldson has presented at the National Association for Gifted Children Convention, Purdue University’s Discover! Summer
Institute for Educators, and the Minnesota Education Association’s State Convention.

In her current position, she oversees the middle school component of Dimensions Academy of Bloomington for Highly and
Profoundly Gifted Students, working closely with esteemed colleagues Dr. Richard Cash and Barbara Dullaghan, as well as the dedicated teachers in the Dimensions Academy program. She also provides overall
district staff development on differentiation strategies. Her favorite aspect of the specialist job, however, is consulting and collaborating with teachers on best practices in differentiation. According to Donaldson, nothing great is created in a vacuum. The best, most creative ideas, are hatched when several minds come together in the best interest of children.

Elizabeth Fogarty is an Assistant Professor of Elemetary Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at East Carolina University. Her primary research interests include the education of gifted learners, differentiation, and effective professional development practices. Before coming to East Carolina University, she worked at the National Research Center of the Gifted and Talented assisting with a large Javits Grant to study the effectiveness of using gifted pedagogy with all students in teaching reading. This project, the SEM-R (Schoolwide Enrichment Model – Reading Project) has enabled her to study differentiation in reading classrooms. She intends to continue her research with an emphasis on effective educational practices for use with rural gifted students. Dr. Fogarty was named a 2006 Doctoral Student of the Year in gifted education by the National Association for Gifted Children.

Jillian Gates - Bio coming soon!

Marcia Gentry is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute at Purdue University . She came to Purdue in 2004 after 8 years as a professor at Minnesota State University where she directed graduate programs in gifted education and taught research and gifted education courses.

She is a member of the National Association for Gifted Children's board of directors and recipient of its 2002 early scholar award for her significant contributions in conducting and reporting research regarding the education of gifted children. Marcia has focused her work on the use of cluster grouping and differentiation, the development of student attitude measures that address constructs central to meaningful learning, using gifted education ideas as a means of improving general education while recognizing and advocating for special services required to educate gifted and talented youngsters, and applications of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model. She is currently in the middle of an extensive qualitative study in which she is investigating a vocational technical secondary school that emerged in her instrument development research as exemplary.

She is a frequent contributor to the gifted education literature and a regular participant and regional, state, national and international venues gifted education and educational research. She serves on the editorial boards of 3 journals in her field. Prior to her work in higher education, Marcia taught math, science, general curriculum and gifted education to middle and elementary school students. She also served as coordinator of gifted programs, math and science, professional development, and curriculum for a regional area in Michigan.

P. Susan Jackson is the Founder and Therapeutic Director of "The Daimon Institute for the Highly Gifted" in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada . She is also the District Coordinator of “Programs to Support Gifted and Talented Students” in Langley BC Canada . She has extensive educational and mental health response background in all areas of gifted education. Her research interests and clinical experience focus on development, mental health and educational response for highly and profoundly gifted learners. She is an international speaker and consultant who specializes in advanced development and differential diagnosis and treatment for disintegrative states such as depression and anxiety. Sue has great interest in dual exceptionalities and personality development. She has studied both Jung and Dabrowski extensively. Sue is a poet, a nature lover and mother of two highly gifted children.

Penny Britton Kolloff is retired from the faculty at Illinois State University.  She completed her Ph.D. at Purdue University and served as Assistant Director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute.  She also directed the Program for Academic and Creative Enrichment (PACE) based on the Purdue Three-Stage Model. From 1981-1990, Penny was a faculty member at Ball State University and director of the Center for Gifted and Talented. She worked with the Indiana Department of Education to implement several state-wide initiatives for gifted children and their teachers.  Penny served two terms on the board of directors of the National Association for Gifted Children and received both the Early Leader award and the Outstanding Research Paper award from NAGC.  She is past president of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children and a member of advisory boards for the Gifted Education Resource Institute at Purdue University, the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University, and the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities.  She publishes book chapters and articles on curriculum and programs for gifted, literacy, and gifted females.

Benjamin Lacina is the Curriculum Integration Coordinator at Fred Moore Middle School Center for the Arts in Anoka, Minnesota, where he specializes in being extremely busy and overextended. Over the past seven years he has developed and produced more than 10 original interdisciplinary musicals with elementary school students. In 2003 he was commissioned by Anoka Children's Theatre to compose lyrics and an original score for "Dreams of a Cobbler's
Son: A Musical Fantasy on Young Hans Christian Andersen". Benjamin is founding Musical Director and Director of Education and Outreach for the Youth Arts Initiative in Saint Paul, Minnesota, an organization whose mission is to bring the creative world of performing arts to at-risk youth across the Twin Cities. He is a member of the Educational Advisory Board for the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and recently completed his Master of Science Degree in Gifted Education and Talent Development with a focus on interdisciplinary curriculum.

Jamie MacDougall has been teaching Language Arts for the past 7 years in rural Minnesota schools to the urban scene in Indianapolis. Currently, she is talking books with 7th graders at Tecumseh Middle School in Lafayette, IN. She is the Advocacy Co-Chair for the Indiana Association for the Gifted and is a doctoral student in Educational Psychology: Gifted Education at Purdue University.

Rebecca L. Mann is an Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Gifted education Resource Institute of Purdue University. Her interest in students with high intellectual ability and concomitant learning disabilities led her to earn a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with specializations in Gifted and Talented Education and Special Education.  As a research associate with the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, she worked with a team on a national study designed to increase achievement in underachieving high-ability students. Prior to her doctoral studies she was a gifted and talented coordinator and resource teacher and an elementary classroom teacher in Colorado and New Hampshire, where she was named the 2001 Educator of the Year of the Gifted. Becky’s published works reflect her interest in students with high spatial ability.

Sidney M. Moon is Director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute (http://www.purdue.edu/geri) and Associate Dean for Learning and Engagement in the College of Education at Purdue University.  She has been active in the field of gifted education for almost 25 years.  In that time, she has contributed more than 60 books, articles, and chapters to the field.  Her most recent book is The Handbook of Secondary Gifted Education.  Sidney is active in the National Association for Gifted Children where she has served as Chair of the Research and Evaluation Division and a member of the Board of Directors.  Her research interests include talent development in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), underserved populations of gifted students, and personal talent development. Correspondence should be addressed to Sidney M. Moon, Purdue University, Gifted Education Resource Institute, Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education, 100 North University Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098 or geri@purdue.edu.

Terry Neu received his Ph.D. from the Talent Development Program at the University of Connecticut and currently serves on the faculty of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. He has done extensive work with gifted students with disabilities, modifying the classroom environment for these students as well as developing a challenging Dually Differentiated Curriculum (DDC) to meet their unique needs. Dr. Neu was a secondary science and history teacher for seven years, four of which were spent working with secondary gifted and talented students.

Dr. Neu's research interests include science, curriculum, teaching strategies for gifted students with disabilities, the gifted with emotional or behavioral disorders, paleontology, bow hunting, and herpetology.

Jack Palmer - Bio coming soon!

Nielsen Pereira - Bio coming soon!

Scott Peters - Bio coming soon!

Kevin Simms served nine years in the U.S. Navy before turning to teaching as a career. For fourteen years he has worked with urban and rural school districts developing programs for children with behavioral issues and as a math teacher stretching the mathematical minds of young people. His passion for gadgets has made him a regular at Confratute at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches a strand on Digital Technology. He is a graduate of the Three Summers Masters program from the University of Connecticut and currently a gifted coordinator for Salem City Schools, in Salem VA.

Tom Turpin - Bio coming soon!

Vicki L. Vaughn is principal of Edgelea Elementary School and Coordinator of Gifted Programming for the Lafayette Indiana School Corporation. She is Second Vice President of the Indiana Association for the Gifted, editor for the state gifted journal Images, and serves on the Indiana Department of Education's Integrated Services Team. She currently serves or has served as an editorial reviewer for Roeper Review, Gifted Child Quarterly, and The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education. Dr. Vaughn is an instructor of graduate courses in gifted education for Purdue University . She presents at local, state, and national conferences and presents professional development inservices for many schools and has published several articles in the field of gifted education.