Conference
General Session Speakers
Our General Session speakers are nationally known experts in their fields. They entertain us, inform us and inspire us. Join us at the conference general sessions to hear them and others who will be bringing their messages to our conference attendees.
John Grogan
John Grogan is a former columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, an account of his family’s life with a loopy, attention-deficit Labrador retriever. He also has released a children’s picture book and a young adult version of this No. 1 national best-seller, which was released in 2008 as a major motion picture starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson.
A native of Detroit, Grogan’s latest best-seller, The Longest Trip Home, explores his complicated relationship with his father in a universal story of one man’s journey to break free of his parents, discover a life of his own and find his way back home before it’s too late. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Jenny, and their three children. Grogan is pictured with his current dog Gracie.
Wes Moore
Wes Moore is a youth advocate, Army combat veteran, entrepreneur and author. Published in April 2010, his book, The Other Wes Moore, became an instant best-seller. He is a national correspondent and political/economic analyst for NBC News and regularly appears on Morning Joe. In August 2011, he was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine with the headline “The New Greatest Generation.”
Moore is committed to helping young people redirect their lives and supporting the parents, teachers, mentors and volunteers who care for and work with our nation’s youth. A portion of his proceeds from the sales of The Other Wes Moore are being donated to the U.S. Dream Academy and City Year.
Alice Ozma & Jim Brozina
When Alice Ozma was 9 years old, her father made a promise: To read to her every night, without missing a night, for 100 nights. But once they met that goal, they couldn’t stop — 100 became 1,000, and eventually, they decided to read as long as they possibly could.
“The Reading Streak,” as they called it, ultimately lasted 3,218 nights, finally ending on Alice’s first day of college. This father and daughter’s amazing commitment to reading, and to each other, is chronicled in Ozma’s book, The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared.
Karen Mapp
Karen Mapp presents the latest ideas concerning parent-school-community partnerships from her unique perspective on family and community engagement at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a lecturer on education and director of the Education Policy and Management Program. She currently is serving as a consultant for the Office of Parental Options and Information, U.S. Department of Education.
Her research and practice expertise is in the areas of educational leadership and educational partnerships among schools, families and community members. In 2011, she coauthored A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform with Mark Warren and the Community Organizing and School Reform Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education .
Nelson Lauver
Nelson Lauver is an acclaimed author, journalist, nationally syndicated broadcaster, and educational rights advocate. A natural communicator and humorist, Nelson is a highly regarded speaker who shares his own story as a way of helping others realize their maximum potential.
As the host and creator of The American Storyteller Radio Journal from 2001 to 2010, Nelson offered radio listeners across the country a daily 4-minute slice of the American experience. Affectionately dubbed “The Rockwell of Radio” Nelson authored and narrated over 300 short stories for AST. Most of these stories are now available to listen to and download on AmericanStoryteller.com. Ironically Nelson’s stories have now become tools for ESL learners throughout the US and around the world as well as adult literacy teachers and their students.
2011 marked the release of his award-winning memoir, “Most UnLikely to Succeed” – an inspirational story of hope and determination against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Dorothy Bush Koch
Dorothy Bush Koch, known as Doro, is the co-chairperson of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. The daughter of President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, she is the author of My Father, My President: A Personal Account of the Life of George H. W. Bush, published by Warner Books. It is a daughter’s memoir of the life of her extraordinary father, the 41st President of the United States.
Koch’s support for family literacy reflects her personal passions as well as her family’s legacy. The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy’s mission is to establish literacy as a value in every family in America by helping them understand that the home is the child’s first school, the parent is the child’s first teacher and reading is the child’s first subject. Koch is the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy Maryland Initiative, which raises money to support family literacy programs all over the state of Maryland. She holds a degree from Boston College and currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland.