Here we are, rolling into August—hard to believe. The Snoop is running these days—I hope your week has not been as crazy as mine! Summer is drawing to a close, and here in Texas, many teachers are reporting back to school in the next week or so, with students to follow. I don’t know where summer has gone, but we now look now forward with optimism and anticipation of good times in the coming months for our schools, our businesses, and our careers and personal growth. And, as always, we remain a community, and I am privileged to be in a position to help keep us connected. So please read on for this week’s scoops….
Colleagues and friends in new roles….
I was happy to connect this week with Dr. Dana T. Bedden, recently Superintendent of Schools/CEO of Richmond (VA) Public Schools. Many of you heard Dr. Bedden speak at EdNET two years ago—we were very honored to have him on the program.
Dr. Bedden has launched a new consulting practice, Bedden & Associates, LLC, where he will serve as Executive Consultant/Strategic Advisor. The company aims to provide leadership, administrative support, and professional development (small and large audience – presentation/keynote presenter) to organizations, school districts, schools, and departments in the areas of: school improvement, human resource management/planning, systems thinking, customer service, standards-based performance, data analysis/metric development, family & community engagement, social emotional learning, policy & procedure development, governance training, superintendent contract development, long/short term project planning, fiscal/operational planning, etc. Dr. Bedden also plans to provide executive consultant/strategic advising services to educational companies; assist organizations with the development of strong relationships and personal connections with state agencies (SEA), local education agencies (school districts, schools), and superintendents from around the country; and assist with client services, school/community engagement, product development feedback, and suggestions with current and future educational products.
With over 24 years of experience in administrative and educational leadership, Dr. Bedden has developed a results-oriented reputation for improving academic achievement, working with diverse groups, increasing parent/community involvement, implementing systems-thinking, and providing a positive school and work environment. He has demonstrated effective leadership skills in standards and performance based practices, human resource management, fiscal management, and school/community partnerships. Throughout his career he has focused on improving efforts to serve the whole-child by improving equity, increasing access to fine arts programs, social-emotional learning, career and technical education with a goal of helping students become college, career and life ready.
Dr. Bedden most recently served as superintendent of the 24,000-student Richmond (VA) Public Schools (RPS) from January 2014 until June 2017. Prior to Richmond, he served as the superintendent of the Irving (TX) Independent School District where he oversaw an economically and socially diverse school district with 4500 employees serving 35,111 students representing 90 countries and speaking over 50 languages on 38 campuses. Earlier, he served as superintendent for Richmond County (GA), as a Regional Superintendent in Philadelphia Public Schools, as High School Principal at School Without Walls Senior High School in Washington, D.C., and Subschool Principal in Fairfax County (VA) Schools.
Dr. Bedden has recently partnered with Robert Bobb Group in a bid to turn around the Gary, Indiana public schools and is looking forward to continuing work with other educational institutions and companies in our market. To congratulate him on his new venture or to learn more, contact him at dbedden@bedden-associates.com.
Daniel Hamburger has been appointed chief executive officer for Renaissance®. Daniel brings 30 years of experience in leading global businesses and driving profitable growth through technology-based innovation across the education, healthcare, technology, and services markets. Most recently, he was the president, chief executive officer, and director of Adtalem Global Education (formerly DeVry Education Group, NYSE: ATGE), a global higher education leader with $1.8 billion in revenues. He led DeVry from 2006 through 2016 and drove its transformation from a domestic, single university to an industry-leading institution serving students across multiple geographies and disciplines.
Prior to his time at DeVry, Daniel served as chief executive officer of Indeliq, a SaaS-based education division of Accenture. Before that, he served as president, Internet commerce, for W.W. Grainger. Daniel earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mike Evans, who has served as Renaissance interim CEO for the past six months while the CEO search was conducted, will continue with the company in his role of chief financial officer.
Join me in congratulating Daniel on his new role at Renaissance!
Dara Rogoff, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL was recently credentialed as a Board Certified Specialist in Child Language from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the American Board of Child Language and Language Disorders (ABCLLD). Dara, the product line manager for speech-language and occupational therapy services at PresenceLearning, is one of only 76 speech-language pathologists (SLPs) nationwide to currently hold this certification as a specialist in child language.
The Clinical Specialty Certification program provides audiologists and SLPs a formalized credential recognizing advanced knowledge and skills in the area of typical and atypical development of speech and language. It also provides the public with a way to identify practitioners with specialized clinical education and experience. Approval as a Board Certified Specialist is based on career experience, commitment to more than 100 hours of intermediate and advanced learning beyond a master’s degree, a research-based position statement on the clinician’s personal philosophy of language development, and a case study reflecting the application of those philosophies to actual clinical practice.
Dara is an experienced SLP who specializes in treating children, ages 0-21. She was a contributor to “A Think-Aloud and Talk-Aloud Approach to Building Language: Overcoming Disability, Delay, and Deficiency” by Feuerstein and Falk. Her approach to language development has assisted students with developmental delays, speech and language disorders, autism, and many other diagnoses. Dara has experience working in schools, hospitals, and private practice settings. Since 2010, she has worked for PresenceLearning, dedicating her clinical knowledge to live, online service delivery of speech therapy and other related services.
Congratulations to Dara on this accomplishment!
The EdNET participant directory is live!
EdNET’s online password-protected directory of attendees is a powerful resource, and it launched this week. The EdNET 2017 Networking Directory is available to registered attendees, and the connections are already being made! The sooner you register, the sooner you have access to the directory and social networking platform that lets attendees create their profile, search profiles of other attendees, build their personal EdNET calendar, schedule 1:1 appointments—and more!
Don’t you want to be there too?
Check out all of the companies and organizations already planning to head to Scottsdale for EdNET. Be sure you are on that list too!
Reminder that EdNET supports startups….
EdNET is the perfect place to find potential partners and investors while networking with leaders in the education technology industry and learning more about doing business in this market. To support young companies, we are again offering start-ups who qualify a special discount on EdNET to encourage their participation at the conference. See the criteria and share with your partners and friends who may benefit from this special discount.
Only ONE MORE WEEK to get the benefits of EdNET sponsorship!
Your company can still get all of the benefits that EdNET sponsors enjoy before, during and following the conference—but not for long! Be sure to get in touch with me at bighamv@aol.com if you want to know more about sponsorship opportunities and benefits. And be aware the deadline to confirm sponsorship is August 11th.
Get your badge….
Do you want a badge like mine? I mean, you can’t be the Snoop, but you can get an EdNET badge indicating whether you are an ATTENDEE, SPONSOR, SPEAKER, or ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER. Just go to the EdNET community page to get yours right now!
Whew—bring on that weekend! The Snoop so needs one. Have fun with yours, and as you know I like to say, put some memories in your memory bank. Till next Friday….Vicki, the Snoop
[Send me your scoops at bighamv@aol.com and be sure to follow me on Twitter @Snoops4Scoops #SheSnoops]
