Tanya Fredrich, PhD

Tanya Fredrich is the Director of Special Education and Student Services in the School District of Elmbrook located in Brookfield, WI. The School District of Elmbrook serves the communities of Elm Grove, Brookfield and a small portion of New Berlin. The district has nine schools serving approximately 7,200 students. Tanya is a graduate of UW Madison School of Education and hold a Masters degree in Special Education and Administrative Leadership. She was awarded her Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service December, 2014. Tanya has worked as a special educator with expertise in Emotional/Behavioral Disorders and Educational Autism as well as a building principal prior to her current director role. She is an adjunct lecturer at Carroll University, Cardinal Stritch University and University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Tanya lives in Oconomowoc, WI with her husband Tom and two children, Zachary and William.

Bryan Dean

Bryan is an experienced educator who has worked in the fields of alternative education, large urban high schools, and juvenile adjudication. He has been designing dynamic learning environments that have helped promote intrinsic motivation and learner agency through the partnerships of Flow Theory, Universal Design for Learning, and Motivational Investment Theory. Bryan is a Space Futurist at NorvaNivel and member of the Board of Directors for the Universal Design for Learning -Implementation and Research Network. His personal mission is to actively disrupt stagnant educational systems for positive change.

Julie Causton, PhD

Dr. Julie Causton is the founder and CEO of Inclusive Schooling. She was a Professor in the Inclusive and Special Education Program in the Department of Teaching and Leadership at Syracuse University for the past 14 years. Her teaching, research and consulting are guided by a passion for inclusive education. She has particular areas of expertise are school reform, inclusive teacher training, collaboration, humanistic behavioral supports, lesson planning, and providing invisible adult supports. Julie has also provided independent educational evaluations in due process hearings across the nation. She has both the legal knowledge and practical experience to do this work. Her published works have appeared in over 30 academic journals. She has written 6 books for school professionals about inclusive education that are widely read by school teams and teacher education programs across the country. Last year she supported schools in the area of inclusive school reform in twelve states and in several parts of Canada.

Larry Bissonette

Larry Bissonnette is a disability rights advocate and artist who lives in Milton, Vermont. He has been painting and drawing since he was a young child and exhibits his art regularly both locally and nationally. His work is in the permanent collection of the Muse de L’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland and in many private collections. In 2015, Larry had a solo exhibition, “Looking Out: The Self-Taught Art of Larry Bissonnette", at the Amy Tarrant Gallery at the Flynn Center for Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont.

Larry is both the subject and writer of an award winning film about his life, called, My Classic Life as an Artist: A Portrait of Larry Bissonnette (2005).

In 1991, Larry learned to communicate through typing and began combining words with his art to express his thoughts and ideas. Over the past 20 years, he has been a featured presenter at many national educational conferences and has written and spoken on the topics of autism, communication and art.

Tracy Thresher

Tracy Thresher is an advocate for people with disabilities. He lives and works in Barre, Vermont.

In 1990, Tracy was one of the first individuals with autism at his service agency, Washington County Mental Health Services (WCMHS), to be introduced to typing as a means to communicate. He presents at local, statewide, and national workshops and conferences. Tracy also consults with local schools, is a member of the Vermont Statewide Communication Task Force, and does ongoing work with Green Mountain Self-Advocates of Montpelier, Vermont. Now an employee of WCMHS as an advocate and educator, Tracy mentors teenagers and adults and leads trainings on communication. In 2013, Tracy was recognized as a Master Trainer by the Institute on Communication and Inclusion at Syracuse University.

Wretches and Jabberers

Roadtrip Film Sheds Personal Light on the Global Face of Autism

Oscar® winner and twice Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker, Gerardine Wurzburg, directed the feature documentary Wretches & Jabberers. Wurzburg’s compelling documentary chronicles the world travels of disability rights advocates, Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette, in a bold quest to change attitudes about the intelligence and abilities of people with autism.

Jonathan Mooney

Jonathan Mooney is a writer, speaker, and social entrepreneur with 15 years of experience developing organizations, programs, and initiatives to improve the lives of marginalized people. He holds an honors degree from Brown University, is a Harry S. Truman Scholar for Public Service, and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. He is the author of two books, Learning Outside the Lines (Simon and Schuster, 2000) and The Short Bus (Henry Holt and Co., 2007) and is currently at work on his third, The End of School: Dispatches From The Front Lines of the Learning Revolution. Jonathan is a widely sought after speaker on education and social change and has presented in 45 states, five countries, and numerous universities, including Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, Teachers College Columbia, and The University of Pennsylvania.

In 2014, Jonathan launched The School of the Future Network, a national movement building initiative designed to transform the learning environments and teaching strategies of schools to better prepare students for work and citizenship in the 21st century.

I’m a dyslexic writer, speaker, and do-gooder who did not lean to read until 12 years old. I faced a number of low expectations growing up—was told I would flip burgers, be a high school dropped out and end up in jail. Needless to say there hopeful prophecies didn’t come to pass. Opposed to being a high school drop out I became a college graduate from Brown university with an honors degree in English lit; instead of flipping burgers I ended up writing books, the first of which I wrote at the end of the 23 as an undergrad; And instead of becoming an inmate I become an advocate creating organizations and initiatives that help people who get the short end of the stick.

I’ve won many awards for all of this —The Harry S. Truman fellowship for public services, Finalist for a Roads Scholarship, LA Achievement award from The Lab school of Washington where I shared the stage with Vice President Joe Biden—and been featured in/on HBO, NPR, The New York Times, NBC, Fast company, and many other media outlets. But what I’m most proud of is not that I proved some people how doubted me wrong—but that I proved the many people—my mom, a teacher named Mr. R, my wife Rebecca—right, not just about my potential but about the potential for all of us who live and learn differently.

Julie Causton, PhD

Supporting the Behaviors of Students who Challenge Us

Behavioral management is often relegated to a tool like a “sticker chart” and rarely evolves to effectively meet the needs of students. This session shifts focus from a "behavior management" mindset to a “heart-set" approach that supports students with kindness, creativity, and compassion. By giving educators the tools to encourage deeper relationships with students, they can adequately promote desired student behavior and improve inclusive classroom community and culture. Learn to build a strategy beyond the typical ways of providing behavioral supports in schools.

Shelley Moore, Ph.D

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, Shelley Moore consults locally, provincially and beyond. Her presentations include school, district and provincial professional development days throughout British Columbia, as well as various leading conferences throughout North America, including CEC, CSSE, AERA, IRA and NCTE. Her interactive presentations are constructed based on contexts of specific schools and communities and integrate theory and effective practices of inclusion, special education & curriculum. She completed an undergraduate degree in Special Education at the University of Alberta, her masters at Simon Fraser University, and is currently a SSHRC funded PhD scholar at the University of British Columbia.

Paul Wesselmann, MA

Paul is an educator, writer, and founder of Unleash Ripples, an experiment in nurturing kindness with over 30,000 followers. After earning degrees in psychology and higher education, Paul came to Wisconsin and worked at Beloit College and University of Wisconsin-Madison while beginning to travel around the state giving professional development pep talks that focus on reaching OUT skills to help people more effectively connect with others and reaching IN skills to more consistently bring their best selves to school, work, and life. For the past twenty years he's been self employed full time as a leadership trainer and keynoter, and has spoken at hundreds of conferences, in-services, and professional development events focusing on people in the helping professions. You can get to know Paul better at http://TheRipplesGuy.com and by following him @RipplesGuy on most social media platforms.