Featured Speakers

Phyllis Fagell

Phyllis L. Fagell, LCPC is the school counselor at Sheridan School in Washington, DC, a psychotherapist who works with kids and families in private practice, and an author and journalist. She's the author of Middle School Matters and a frequent contributor to the Washington Post. Phyllis also freelances for national publications including Psychology Today, CNN, Working Mother, U.S. News & World Report and Your Teen, and her ideas have been shared in outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Edutopia, Mindshift and NPR. She’s currently working on her next book, Middle School Superpowers, Raising Resilient Tweens in Turbulent Times (Hachette, August '23). Phyllis lives in Bethesda, MD with her husband and three children. You can connect with Phyllis on Twitter @Pfagell.

Bethany Febus

Bethany Febus is a Professional Certified Life Coach specializing in ADHD and Executive Function in Seattle, Washington, USA. Bethany is passionate about supporting her clients in understanding the way their unique brain works so they can develop supportive strategies and systems that are interesting and relevant to who they are. Her work with families includes improving skills around academics management, time awareness, planning, collaborative problem solving, emotional regulation, organization, social skills and more. Bethany trains and mentors coaches at the ADD Coach Academy, an internationally recognized coach training program. You can connect with Bethany on LinkedIn at BethanyFebus or via facebook.com/CompassCoachingADHD.

Justine Ang Fonte

Justine Ang Fonte, MEd, MPH is the child of Philippine immigrants ​and award-winning health educator, a ghostwriter, and professor based in New York City. She founded the Health & Wellness Program at The Dalton School, a K-12 independent school and served as its Director for nine years. Justine received her Master's in Education in Teaching from the University of Hawai'i and her Master's in Public Health in Sexuality from Columbia University. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, NBC News, NPR, Business Insider, and USA Today for her notable teaching career in sexuality education and according to a Buzzfeed list, one of 13 sex educators teaching people what they really need to know when it comes to sex. You can learn more about her career on her website justinefonte.com and follow her on social media @imjustineaf.

Martin Griffin of VESPA

Martin Griffin is a writer and educational speaker. Martin has experience as a classroom teacher, head of faculty and in senior leadership. Martin was director of sixth form at a twice Ofsted-outstanding comprehensive sixth form in the UK, where student progress was among the top 10% in the country. He has spent much of his career teaching GCSE and A level, supporting KS4 and KS5 learners. Over the last five years, Martin has worked with his co-author and fellow teacher Steve Oakes. Together they have worked with more than two hundred schools in the UK and beyond to develop effective study-skill development systems. They are the authors of The A Level Mindset (Crown House, 2016), The GCSE Mindset (Crown House, 2017) and The Student Mindset (Crown House, 2019). You can learn more about their work with the VESPA model online and on Twitter @VESPAmindset.

Ewan McIntosh

The passionate and energising tour de force behind NoTosh, Ewan leads client projects around the world and is a pioneer of design thinking for learning in the classroom. A highly-regarded keynote speaker and host, he marries intense preparatory work, dynamic presentation skills and a natural capacity to listen, shining a light on the best stories that delegates and participants have to share.

You can connect with him on Twitter @ewanmcintosh, @NoTosh, or on www.notosh.com, and sign up for NoTosh’s The Provocation for regular updates.

Katie Powell and Stephanie Simpson of AMLE

Katie Powell is the author of Boredom Busters and the soon-to-be-released Frustration Busters and serves as the Director for Middle Level Programs for the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). Katie began teaching in 2005, first in special education and later in Title 1. This focus on providing interventions for struggling students led to the development of strategies that leverage curiosity and fun to engage students while driving learning deeper. Katie has fine-tuned these strategies to be easily deployable in virtually any instructional setting without sacrificing teachers' already-limited time or money. Katie believes in respecting the expertise of teachers and shares her creative process so they can address engagement and depth in their classrooms within their own teaching styles and content. Katie invites you to reclaim the wonder of learning! You can connect with Katie on Twitter @Beyond_the_Desk.

Stephanie Simpson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), the premier membership organization helping middle school educators cultivate the potential and possibilities of young adolescents. Stephanie is a seasoned professional association leader. She began her associations career as a policy analyst at the American Medical Association after earning a J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and B.A. in International Studies and Information Technology from DePaul University. You can connect with Stephanie on Twitter @steph_auditore.

Julie Stern

Julie Stern is passionate about synthesizing the best of education research into practical tools that support educators in breaking free of the industrial model of schooling and moving toward teaching and learning that promotes sustainability, equity, and well-being. She is a four-time, best-selling author of Learning That Transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World, Visible Learning for Social Studies, The On-Your-Feet-Guide to Learning Transfer, and Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Elementary and Secondary. She is a James Madison Constitutional Fellow and taught social studies for many years in Washington, DC and her native Louisiana. Julie moves internationally every few years with her husband, a US diplomat, and her two young sons. You can learn more about her work on edtosavetheworld.com and connect with Julie on Twitter @JulieHStern.

Joana Bárbara, Albert Fernandes, and Susana Varela from CLIP, Oporto International School

Joana Bárbara has been a teacher since 2008. She started teaching in the area of Foreign Languages and fell in love with Cooperative Learning along the way. She has taught grade 5 to grade 12 students and is currently teaching LTR (Learning through Research) in Middle School. Teaching came as an accident to Joana even though she remembers being immersed in a school environment since a small child as there seems to always be a teacher in all of her family’s recent generations. She quickly discovered a passion for teaching and supporting students in any way she could.

Albert Fernandes started his educator journey as an English teacher in Middle and Upper school, moving on to teach LTR (Learning through Research) in Middle School at Oporto International School. Albert comments, "The transition from textbook teacher to learning facilitator has been a highly reinvigorating and rewarding experience. Looking back at my younger self, I would be surprised to learn that being a teacher would be my calling, and yet, my professional journey at CLIP has undoubtedly become my passion."

Susana Varela is a committed teacher of Travel and Tourism at the Oporto International School. Along with being an experienced practitioner in the classroom, she is also an official tourist guide, and enjoys sharing her pride in her local city of Porto, in both English and French. She is passionate about empowering young people to be active advocates of their local area. Susana holds both a law degree and a tourism degree.

You can connect with Joana, Albert and Susana via info@clip.pt and read more about CLIP, Oporto International school via the school website, www.clip.pt.