Speakers & Presenters

CS4NJ Director &

Warren Hills Regional High School

Daryl Detrick is a computer science teacher at Warren Hills Regional High School. He has been helping lead the computer science advocacy efforts in New Jersey for the past 9 years through the Computer Science Teachers Association of NJ (CSTANJ) and as co-Director of CS4NJ Coalition.

Madison Middle School

Jason Erdreich is a 6-8 Technology, Engineering, and Design educator and K-12 STEAM Coordinator in the public school district of Madison NJ. Teaching courses that range from graphic design, to materials processing, rapid prototyping, biotechnology, electronics, and various forms of computer science, Jason strives to offer real-world problem solving experiences for his students by creating opportunities to incorporate passions into our everyday tinkering and learning.

Elementary Technology Coach Livingston Public Schools

Currently Ellen is an elementary educational Technology Coach and STEAM teacher in the Livingston Public School System. She received her certification in General Business education and have taught high school and middle school business, personal finance, and technology education courses.

College Board

Dianna Frank is a Senior Director leading the College Board activities in New Jersey. Dianna and her team assist districts, schools and education organizations across the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. Through her work, Dianna supports and collaborates with large and small districts, in additional to State Departments of Education, to identify equitable opportunities for all students to succeed in high school, guiding them to post-secondary education, training and career exploration.

NJ Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell

Mandy Galante is the Education Outreach Coordinator for the NJ Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell with a mission to help young people find their path into the cybersecurity field and to increase diversity.

NJCCIC

Michael Geraghty is the State of New Jersey’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Director of the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC). In these roles Director Geraghty is responsible for the development and execution of the State’s cybersecurity strategy.

University of Kentucky

Dr. Judy Goldsmith received her degrees in Mathematics from Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She held post-doc at Dartmouth College and Boston University, an assistant professorship at the University of Manitoba, and is currently a full professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of Kentucky. She has received teaching awards at the department, college, and university level. Goldsmith has taught classes in recent years on artificial intelligence, theory of computing, discrete math and logic, comparative decision making studies, and "science fiction and computer ethics". The book related to this class, Technology and Computer Ethics: Engaging with Science Fiction, by Emanuelle Burton, Judy Goldsmith, Nicholas Mattei, Cory Siler, and Sara-Jo Swiatek, is forthcoming from MIT Press in 2023.

Spotswood High School

Gary has been teaching computer science for the past 19 years at Spotswood High School. He is also a facilitator for Code.org's CSD curriculum, and will be piloting and facilitating their AP CS A curriculum as well.

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Evan Koblentz is a writer and historian. He currently teaches CS-485/History of Computing at NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing.

Coding Rooms

Joe Mazzone is Coding Rooms' Customer Success / Product Manager and is passionate about ensuring that the Coding Rooms product is meeting the needs of all its customers. Joe is an experienced Computer Science Educator and president of Rhode Island’s local CSTA chapter. He has a long history of creating open-source curriculum content and resources, facilitating professional development for teachers, and working with state departments of education to expand Computer Science education in schools across the US.

Rutgers University

Janice McDonnell is the Science Agent in the Department of Youth Development at Rutgers University where she focuses on developing and implementing high quality STEM programs for young people. Janice’s background is in marine sciences and has been a marine science educator in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences for twenty-five years.

Unity Charter School

Amy is currently the technology integration specialist at Unity Charter School in Morristown, NJ. She is also an adjunct at Kean University and Bridgewater State University working with our preservice teachers in technology integration in all classroom settings. She is a doctoral student at University of New England focusing on Universal Design for Learning and concepts of sustainability.

Edgar Middle School

Roseanna Misuraca is a computer science teacher at Edgar Middle School in Metuchen, NJ. She is a facilitator for Code.org’s CS Discoveries curriculum and a consultant for both the Rutgers EIR project and CS HUB. Roseanna was a contributing member of the NJSLS K-12 CS Standards writing team.

Rutgers University

Thu D. Nguyen is a Professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University – New Brunswick (RU-NB), and is currently serving as Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences. Historically, his research has been in the area of designing and building efficient computer systems. More recently, he has started learning about and developing research in CS education. Nguyen is especially interested in advancing DEI in CS education, and is interested in collaborating with K-12 schools and 2-year colleges to create pathways toward CS education at Rutgers (and other 4-year universities) and recruit students from underrepresented minority groups. He has worked with colleagues at RU-NB and Bridgewater-Raritan High School to create a dual enrollment course for Data Structures. He is working with Associate Dean Sangya Varma and RU-NB CS Associate Chair Rich Martin to explore partnerships with other high schools.

Dr. Andrew B. Torres (he, him, his, el) is an Afro-Boricua father, husband, poet, educator, activist, and scholar, who was born and raised in the Bronx. Over the last nine years Dr. Torres has worked as a teacher, instructional coach, tutor, and workshop facilitator. His work in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) began in 2016 during his doctoral program in Social Justice Education where he studied and researched many of the theories associated with DEI work today including antiracism, antibias, social constructs, disrupting systemic inequities, and different forms of oppression. During the pandemic he worked as a high school social justice team lead, teacher, and instructional coach while completing his dissertation. For Dr. Torres, teaching is a vocation that is grounded in centering the brilliance and culture of youth. Using trauma-informed, culturally sustaining pedagogies and mindfulness practices rooted in the arts he continues to implement DEI strategies and systems in educational spaces.