Past OKADE 2012 Keynote Speaker
Our keynote speaker for the OKADE Conference is Amy Baldwin, ground-breaking author of The Community College Experience.
Amy Baldwin earned a B.A. in English Literature at Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) and an M.A. in English and British Literature at Washington University (St. Louis, MO). Since 1996, she has been teaching student success, composition, and literature Pulaski Technical College (North Little Rock, AR). In 2007, she co-founded the National Student Success Institute with Steve Piscitelli at Florida State College at Jacksonville and Dr. Robert Sherfield at the College of Southern Nevada, which provides faculty development and resources to community colleges.
Since 2009, she serves on the Advisory Board for the newsletter Student Health 101, an online publication, which also publishes a community college version, which is sent to students all over the country and focuses on maintaining a healthy lifestyle while in college. Her other community college connections include serving as co-director of her college’s Achieving the Dream initiative and the recent appointment as a technical assistance provider (TAP) to the new Developmental Education Initiative (DEI), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Two-Year College English Association-Southwest Region. In 2006, she won the TYCA-SW Teaching Excellence Award.
Amy lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with her husband and two children. She is currently a higher education doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where she is focusing her studies on student retention.
In between her work, family, and studies, she has provided nearly 100 professional development workshops at conferences and community colleges on student success, engaging activities, academic integrity, online learning, and research writing.
Amy Baldwin earned a B.A. in English Literature at Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) and an M.A. in English and British Literature at Washington University (St. Louis, MO). Since 1996, she has been teaching student success, composition, and literature Pulaski Technical College (North Little Rock, AR). In 2007, she co-founded the National Student Success Institute with Steve Piscitelli at Florida State College at Jacksonville and Dr. Robert Sherfield at the College of Southern Nevada, which provides faculty development and resources to community colleges.
Since 2009, she serves on the Advisory Board for the newsletter Student Health 101, an online publication, which also publishes a community college version, which is sent to students all over the country and focuses on maintaining a healthy lifestyle while in college. Her other community college connections include serving as co-director of her college’s Achieving the Dream initiative and the recent appointment as a technical assistance provider (TAP) to the new Developmental Education Initiative (DEI), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Two-Year College English Association-Southwest Region. In 2006, she won the TYCA-SW Teaching Excellence Award.
Amy lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with her husband and two children. She is currently a higher education doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where she is focusing her studies on student retention.
In between her work, family, and studies, she has provided nearly 100 professional development workshops at conferences and community colleges on student success, engaging activities, academic integrity, online learning, and research writing.
Past OKADE 2010 Keynote Speaker
Dr. Gary Conti has extensive experience in education. He has served as a junior high school history teacher, administrative assistant in the Illinois Office of Education, dean of continuing education at Spoon River Community College, and as a professor of adult
education at Texas A&M University, Montana State University, and Oklahoma State University.
During his 30 years in higher education, he has received research awards from Texas A&M University and the Texas Association for Community Service and Continuing Education, the highest service award from the Commission on Adult Basic Education, the curriculum award from the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, and the prestigious Feldman Award for Excellence in Teaching from Oklahoma State University. He has served as chair of the Adult Education Research Conference and was the co-editor of Adult Literacy and Basic Education for nine years.
Dr. Conti has developed numerous instruments related to the teaching-learning process; these include the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS), the Self-Knowledge Inventory of Lifelong Learning Strategies (SKILL S), Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS (ATLAS), and Philosophies Held by Instructors of Lifelong-learners (PHIL). Collectively, these instruments have been used in approximately 150 dissertation and other research studies.
With over 100 doctoral graduates, he has worked extensively with minority communities in Illinois, Texas, Montana, and Oklahoma. He has published approximately 100 articles, chapters, and monographs related to adult learning and teaching adults, and he is the current co-editor of the Mountain Plains Journal of Adult Education.
education at Texas A&M University, Montana State University, and Oklahoma State University.
During his 30 years in higher education, he has received research awards from Texas A&M University and the Texas Association for Community Service and Continuing Education, the highest service award from the Commission on Adult Basic Education, the curriculum award from the Commission of Professors of Adult Education, and the prestigious Feldman Award for Excellence in Teaching from Oklahoma State University. He has served as chair of the Adult Education Research Conference and was the co-editor of Adult Literacy and Basic Education for nine years.
Dr. Conti has developed numerous instruments related to the teaching-learning process; these include the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS), the Self-Knowledge Inventory of Lifelong Learning Strategies (SKILL S), Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS (ATLAS), and Philosophies Held by Instructors of Lifelong-learners (PHIL). Collectively, these instruments have been used in approximately 150 dissertation and other research studies.
With over 100 doctoral graduates, he has worked extensively with minority communities in Illinois, Texas, Montana, and Oklahoma. He has published approximately 100 articles, chapters, and monographs related to adult learning and teaching adults, and he is the current co-editor of the Mountain Plains Journal of Adult Education.
Past 2009 OKADE Conference Keynote Speaker:
OKADE has hosted several successful conferences in the past. In October of 2009, over 75 developmental educators from all over the state gathered in Oklahoma City to hear Dr. Connie Staley of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs discuss the conference theme, "They're Just Not that into You: Boosting Student Engagement". Below is a video recording of her very successful keynote address.