Speakers

A Senior Researcher at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. She studies the underrepresentation of students of color and females in CS education as a window into segregation, systemic bias and inequality. She is the lead author of Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing (2002) and Stuck in the Shallow End: Education Race, and Computing (2008). In 2016 Margolis was awarded the Obama White House Champion of Change award for her work in CS education.

Director of Research of the UCLA Computer Science Equity Project. She previously worked with the Tinkering Studio of the San Francisco Exploratorium. Her research focuses on equity issues in STEM and computing education through qualitative examinations of student learning and educator pedagogy in both public schools and out-of-school contexts. Dr. Ryoo works in research-practice partnerships that explore topics regarding youth identity, agency, and engagement in relation to culturally responsive and sustaining STEM/computing education.

Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech

Lien Diaz is a founding director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech. Bringing an essential core foundation of equity in access and opportunity to computer science education, her role as Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership helps establish the Constellations Center as a leader in expanding computer science education through an equitable and comprehensive approach in national/international, state, and local education systems.

Bryan Cox is the Computer Science Program Specialist at the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). Prior to working for the GaDOE, Bryan spent 8 years as a High School STEM teacher, teaching mat, computer science, and engineering courses. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Instructional Technology from Georgia State University with a research focus on educational games for computational thinking. He also received a M.A.T. in mathematics from GSU and a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Florida A&M University. He has spent time working as a network designer and computer technician as well as working with after-school and summer youth programs.

Terry has taught computing courses, provided computing professional development to teachers in multiple school districts in Georgia, led an afterschool program, and run computing summer camps at Georgia Tech. Terry is presenting on the Student Panel: Then and Now and Lessons Learned for Inspiring Youth in CS Education. He will be facilitating the prize drawings as well as breakout sessions during the summit.

Destini Deinde-Smith is an Atlanta based Software Engineer at Google. She grew up in the ATL Metro Atlanta area where she attended Hillgrove High School. She then went to the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she majored in Computer Science and double minored in Spanish Language and Science Fiction Studies. Her first introduction to computer science was during senior year of high school. She hadn’t seriously considered studying STEM in college before that. However, with support from a really great CS teacher and outreach programs like Georgia Tech’s Rise Up, she started down a path towards software engineering. Destini is presenting on the Student Panel: Then and Now – Lessons Learned for Inspiring Youth in CS Education.

Amber Jones is presenting on the Student Panel: Then and Now – Lessons Learned for Inspiring Youth in CS Education.

Jimaurus Johnson is presenting on the Student Panel: Then and Now – Lessons Learned for Inspiring Youth in CS Education.

Frieda McAlear brings her skilss as a social science researcher and her passion for working with and for marginalized and underrpresented communities, at the Kapor Center. She has nearly a decade of experience managing projects, developing evaluation and research methodology and building nonprofit technology capacity with socially progressive organizations in the Bay Area, Europe, and Southern Africa. Freida is presenting on the panel titled K12 Equitable CS: Practices, Implementation, and a Vision for the Future.

Bryan Twarek (BT) is Director of Education at the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). He builds and leads programs to support computer science teacher communities across the nation. Formerly, BT directed the expansion of CS education in San Francisco’s public schools. During his tenure with SFUSD, he oversaw policy, curriculum development, and teacher training and support. BT also served as a lead writer for the K–12 CS Framework and CSTA K-12 CS Standards, co-chaired the development of California’s CS standards, contributed to California’s CS strategic implementation plan and is a member of the CSTA/ISTE CS educator standards writing team. BT is presenting on the Panel: CS Coaching – For Teachers With Teachers and the session titled Next Level CS Teaching And Learning: Coaching Tools and Practices.

Shana is a former classroom teacher for 16 years, and now serving as Senior Associate, CS Equity and Justice Initiatives at the Kapor Center. She is working on Equitable CS initiatives, supporting both CSforCA and CSforGA, and working with stakeholders in Georgia to improve teacher professional development and increase participation and success for students of color in K12 CS courses. Shana is presenting on the panel titled K12 Equitable CS: Practices, Implementation, and a Vision for the Future.

Betia Bentley currently teaches broadcasting at Bennet’s Mill Middle School in Fayette County School Systems and is among 30 educators from 21 states chosen to be part of an artificial intelligence pilot program. As part of Code org’s CS Discoveries curriculum, her students work with datasets to create machine learning models to explore new technologies. Students in all grade levels will later be able to learn AI. Betia is presenting on the Teacher Panel: You Can’t Grow Schools Without Growing Yourself First.

Mr. Marekus Fluellen is an Atlanta native with a focused goal of integrating the real world into education. As a mathematics, computer science, and music technology teacher, academics are approached from students’ interest and connected to academic learning standards. Mr. Fluellen has been integrating cross-curricular learning for 9 years and looks to take the teaching style to the collegiate post-doctorate degree. Favorite Quote ” You can hit two birds with one stone…If you throw a big enough rock! Marekus is presenting a concurrent session titled Picasso Script and will be on the Teacher Panel: You Can’t Grow Schools Without Growing Yourself First.

Macoyia Bates is the Middle School CS Program Specialist of Clatyon County Schools. Macoyia has instructed all levels of middle school CS courses as well as instructing professional development in relationship to these courses, and worked with Georgia Tech CEISMC to develop CS curriculum. In addition she has been a lead in the Clayton County Schools CS endorsement program. Macoyia is co-presenting a session titled Student Centered Computing: Beyond The Name.

Sonya Glasper joined LEGO Education with 18+ years of educational technology and media sales experience. In 2005, Sonya returned to her first love, educational technology, with senior roles at Tom Snyder Productions/Scholastic and SMART Technologies. Her role at LEGO Education truly brings her passions and expertise together; where she helps districts articulate and implement their vision for hands-on STEM/STEAM, Early Childhood, and Robotics instruction. Sonya will be co-presenting two sessions: STEM & Storytelling With LEGO Education, and Computational Thinking And Physical Computing With SPIKE Prime!

Jennifer Campbell is a curriculum developer at CodeHS. She has over 12 years of teaching experience (in Georgia) that includes face to face schools as well as fully online schools. Jennifer has been a virtual-teacher trainer for over 6 years and has helped many teachers make a full transition to virtual teaching or a blended approach. She loves to share efficiency tricks to avoid mundane teacher tasks which opens up time for the more important tasks such as personalization and communication. Jennifer’s session is titled Support Student Choice With CodeHS Computer Science Pathways.

Matt Chilbert, CodeJoy’s co-founder and robot puppeteer is an educational media producer with 10+ years of classroom experience and 20+ years of experience in filmmaking, including working at Sesame Workshop and the Jim Henson Company. He specializes in creating story-driven learning experiences that use filmmaking techniques to keep kids’ minds focused on learning goals. Matt will be co-presenting the session Play and Learn, Robot Mini Golf with CodeJoy.

Valerie is an experienced teacher with a demonstrated history of working in secondary education and correctional industry. She is skilled in Business and Computer Science Education, Public Health Education, Classroom Management, and Differentiated Instruction. She brings strong facilitation and instructional leadership skills. Valerie is presenting in the session titled Next Level CS Teaching & Learning-Coaching Tools & Practices.

Sofía De Jesús is the Associate Program Manager for CMU CS Academy and Spanish Outreach lead. She is the author of Applied Computational Thinking with Python: Design algorithmic solutions for complex and challenging real-world problems, and an education professional with over 20 years of experience teaching mathematics and computational thinking subjects to students grades five through college. In her career, she has combined her love of development and curriculum design with her love for teaching. Her areas of interest are computer science and computational thinking in K-12, equitable and accessible assessment practices, and equity in the curriculum. Sofia will be presenting a session on Accessible Python Courses for MS and HS.

Kelsey Derringer, CodeJoy’s co-founder and on-screen teacher, is an educator with 15+ years of classroom and professional development experience. She specializes in teaching robotics and coding to non-CS teachers, helping them bring creative robotics into other subject areas. Kelsey will be presenting a session titled Play and Learn, Robot Mini Golf with CodeJoy.

Lysandra Donigian (La-son-dra Doh-nig-ian) has spent more than 15 years at Google where her career has focused on building a more representative tech industry. During her tenure Lysandra has built teams and programs focused on providing both agency and access to student and industry professionals alike. Prior to Google Lysandra worked in higher education and nonprofit organizations, with a focus on programming, development and volunteer board management. Lysandra is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University.

Douglas Edwards is a STEAM educational researcher at Georgia Tech CEISMC. His research focus includes culturally relevant CS curriculum and teacher professional development. Dr. Edwards is co-PI on two NSF CS grant projects and CS coach for the GoSTEAM project. Douglas is presenting a session titled Student Centered Computing: Beyond The Name.

Dan Gallagher is an educator originally from Philadelphia, PA now living in New Jersey. He currently is a Technology Facilitator in Millburn Township Public Schools. He has over fifteen years of experience in various positions including 4th grade classroom teacher, elementary technology teacher, technology coach and teacher resource specialist for technology working in elementary, middle, and high school. Dan holds a Master’s of Education in Instructional Technology from Arcadia University, is a Google Certified Trainer with a variety of certifications and ambassadorships from various edtech platforms including Tynker’s Distinguished Educator. Dan will be co-presenting a session titled Driving The Move To Text Coding In Middle School.

Dr. Holly Gerlach has dedicated her career to serving and working in various educational settings across the United States. Prior to joining LEGO Education, she had a successful career in public education in different capacities including a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, STEM coordinator, and district administrator where she led transformative changes in public schools to provide well-rounded educational opportunities for all learners through magnet and specialized programming efforts. Dr. Gerlach’s is presenting two sessions: STEM & Storytelling With LEGO Education, and Computational Thinking And Physical Computing With SPIKE Prime!

Lakecia Gray attended Jacksonville State University and the University of Georgia and has a background in IT application and support. She has been in education for 6 years. She enjoys encouraging and motivating students to become future IT professionals. Lakecia will be co-presenting a session titled Bringing Cybersecurity through CyberStart.

A recognized speaker, curriculum consultant, and workshop leader, Laurie’s experiences have included serving on the keynote panel for Learning 2.0 in Shanghai, China, a Keynote speaker for the Maths and Science conference in Queensland, Australia, and presenting at various conferences throughout the United States, including ISTE and OETC. She is a Certified LEGO Robotics Instructor, Quality Matters Certified, Makey Makey Certified trainer, and Raspberry Pi Certified Educator. Laurie will be co-presenting the session on Integrating CS and ELA: Code a Vocabulary Word.

David Guy is Teaching Computer Science and Geometry. His first year was the 2019-2020 school year and has learned a great deal. Before teaching, David worked for 7 years as an actuary and utilized computer science techniques to streamline data processing and help catch anomalies and errors in census data. Having this real world experience of applying the concepts learned in computer science has been invaluable when working in the classroom.

Melody has led workshops for numerous projects, including EDC’s Science + C, UVa’s Tapestry and Lighthouse programs, Project GUTS, Code.org’s CS in Science, and NMSU’s CompThink. She has served as an officer for New Mexico’s chapter of the CSTA, and has been recognized for her work in the classroom with several awards, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico Excellence in Teaching Award. Melody will be presenting a session titled Integrating CS and ELA: Code a Vocabulary Word.

Steve Hayman is a National Consulting Engineer with Apple’s Application Development Team, based in Toronto, Canada. He’s been at Apple for 29 years and got his start doing object-oriented development when working for NeXT, a company Apple acquired in 1996. He still finds it amazing that those tools and systems from NeXT have turned into Xcode and that he can now write apps that run on his watch. Prior to NeXT, Steve was a network administrator for Indiana University and the University of Waterloo, where he obtained both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Math, which he now concedes is way more math than you actually need to know. He founded and, for 22 years, led Argonotes, the Toronto Argonauts Band, which he thinks is possibly the finest band in the Canadian Football League. Steve’s session is titled Building Apps In Swift.

VIctor “Coach” Hicks is the founder and director of Coding with Culture, an HBCU focused computer science & STEM program for students in grades K-8 and the proud STEM teacher at St. Thomas More in Decatur, GA. Coach Hicks is dedicated to closing the digital divide by providing exposure to Historically Black Colleges and Universities for students in the K-8 space. Mr. Hicks’ innovative approach to computational and design thinking in his classroom are featured in several digital publications and podcasts, including the honor of being named one of the “30 STEM Influencers to Follow in 2022” by EdTech magazine. Coach Hicks will be presenting on Coding With Culture: Creating A Kdg-HBCU Pathway In CS.

Sarah Judd is the Curriculum Manager for Open Learning at AI4ALL. Sarah brings a track record of creating inclusive and culturally responsive CS curriculum in roles as a Computer Science teacher in classrooms ranging from 2nd-10th grade, a curriculum developer at Google CS First and Girls Who Code, and in after-school programs including Bootstrap and FIRST robotics. Sarah has also worked as a web engineer, and holds a BS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sarah will be presenting a session titled Teaching Technical AI Without Math or Programming.

Melanie Kimes is the Community Manager for Google’s Code Next, a free computer science program for Black, Latinx, and native high school students in Oakland. Previously, she has played many roles in advocating for equitable resources and funding for students in her hometown of South Central Los Angeles. Since graduating from UC Berkeley in 2013 majoring in African American Studies and Sociology, Melanie has spearheaded campaigns that has successfully brought funding to South Central high schools and has directed culturally relevant summer reading programs for over 150 Los Angeles youth. Fun Fact: Melanie is a certified massage therapist! Melanie is presenting on the session titled Building And Leading Student-Centered Computing Programs.

Leandra Mcgriff is an educator community specialist at Tynker. She has a background in Computer Science and was a teacher for 6 years. She has taught for Dothan City Schools (Alabama) and has taught internationally. She loves teaching kids how to bring their imagination to life through coding. Leandra will be presenting a session titled Driving The Move To Text Coding In Middle School.

Amber has been in the teaching profession for over 15 years. She currently works in an AI themed school as the AI specialists where she helps teachers use AI ideas in their lesson plans. She is also the Computer Science teacher and Robotics coach. Amber’s session is titled Unplugged Coding In The Elementary School.

Amy is a Professional Specialist with Five Star Technology Solutions. She is a Google Certified Trainer with 10 years of experience in public education. Amy draws from her time as a former visual arts teacher and eLearning Coach to help others innovate, encourage creativity and provide opportunities for student choice. Her experience coaching and teaching students of all grade levels informs her belief that technology can be truly transformative in all classrooms. Amy is always listening to a podcast, and enjoys reading, making art with her family, and exploring nature with her dog.

Jared O’Leary is a multiplicity who creates content for drummers, gamers, and computer science educators. At BootUp PD, Jared is the Director of Education & Research, where Jared creates 100% free elementary coding curricula and collaborates on research initiatives. Visit JaredOLeary.com to view Jared’s latest podcasts, presentations, publications, free resources, and to connect on other platforms. Jared’s session is titled Engineered Inequality & Rethinking Relationships To CS.

Philip Peavy is the CTE department chair of the Paul Duke STEM Academy in Gwinnett County Schools. Philip also leads the CS department and has instructed all levels of high school CS courses as well as instructing professional development in relationship to these courses, and worked with Georgia Tech CEISMC to develop CS curriculum. Philip is co-presenting a session titled Student-Centered Computing: Beyond The Name.

April Pelfrey piloted the Cybersecurity Pathway for GCPS and has help build the program at 3 other high schools within the district. Her passion is finding opportunities to get more girls and minorities involved in Computer Science and Cybersecurity. She spent 15 year working as a contractor to the Department of Defense prior to teaching and has been teaching in Gwinnett County for 7 years. April’s session is Bringing Cybersecurity through CyberStart.

Jacki is a public educator with 10 years of teaching experience in Prek-5 in Texas and Colorado. She currently lives in upstate New York with her family of 5. She loves positively impacting others and changing life trajectories for students to thrive in their adult lives. Jackie will be presenting three sessions: CS + Creativity, CS + Math, and Make CS Extreme – Marketing CS To Stakeholders.

Dr. Emmanuel Schanzer is a leader in Integrated CS Education. After spending several years as a program manager and developer before becoming a public high school teacher and middle school academic coach in Boston. He is the founder and Chief Produce Officer of Bootstrap, the nation’s largest provider of integrated computing since 2007. He has long been involved in connecting educators and technology, connecting parties at CSTA, Code.org, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, NCTM, ASA, universities across the country. He holds degrees in computer science and curriculum development, and completed his doctoral studies at Harvard with a research focus on using programming to teach algebra. Emmanuel is presenting the session titled Integrated Data Science across the Curriculum.

Anona Shugart Walker builds partnerships and leads technical education outreach initiatives in Metro Atlanta for Google. Prior to joining Google, Anona launched and managed partnerships at Achieve Atlanta and Fulton County Schools. She currently serves as a founding board member of Atlanta Thrive Parent Institute. Anona is a panelist in the session titled: Building And Leading Student-Centered Computing Programs.