Supporting Gifted Learners from Potential to Success
The Goals of the Conference are:
- To highlight thinking about a potential evolution for the field of gifted education in light of a talent development model.
- To spotlight how CFGE curricula and materials are aligned with the talent development model.
- To provide networking opportunities for practitioners related to curricular and instructional issues.
- To provide a forum for investigating issues related to new thinking in the field.
This year’s Conference will include over 32 breakout sessions on March 8 and 9 including presentations by nationally and internationally recognized speakers as well as members of the National Advisory Board who will share their perspectives and research regarding talent development, curriculum, instruction, and assessment for high-ability learners.
Download the conference short schedule (pdf).
Keynote Speakers
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Director, Center for Talent Development, Professor, Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
Dr. Olszewski-Kubilius is currently the director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University and a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy. She has worked at the Center for 28 years during which she has designed and conducted supplementary, outside-of-school educational programs for learners of all ages. She is active in national- and state-level advocacy organizations for gifted children in the Midwest. She currently is president of the National Association for Gifted Children, serves on the board of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children and the University of Washington Robinson Center for Young Scholars, and is a trustee of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. She has conducted research and published extensively on issues of talent development, particularly the effects of accelerated educational programs and the needs of special populations of gifted children. She has served as the editor of Gifted Child Quarterly and as a co-editor of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education. She has also served on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and Gifted Child International, and was a consulting editor for The Roeper Review. She currently is a member of the editorial board of Gifted Child Today and Gifted Child Quarterly. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children.
Nicholas Colangelo, Director, The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, University of Iowa
Dr. Colangelo is the Myron & Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education at The University of Iowa. He is also Director of The Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. He is author of numerous articles on counseling gifted students and the affective development of gifted. He has edited two texts: New Voices in Counseling the Gifted (with Ronald Zaffrann) and Handbook of Gifted Education, Editions I, II, and III (with Gary Davis). He has authored “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students” (with Susan Assouline and Miraca Gross). He has served on the editorial boards of major journals including Counseling and Development, Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal of Creative Behavior, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, and Roeper Review. He has presented a number of research papers at national and international conferences and has been a keynote speaker on numerous occasions. In 1991, he was presented with the Distinguished Scholar Award by the National Association for Gifted Children; in 1995, he received the Alumni Achievement Award presented by the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2000, he was elected to the Iowa Academy of Education and received the State of Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. In 2002, he received the President’s Award from the National Association for Gifted Children. In 2003, he was appointed by Governor Tom Vilsack (Iowa) to the Iowa Learns Council. Dr. Colangelo was elected President of the Iowa Academy of Education for 2005-2006. He received the Upton Sinclair Award as a Top Ten Influential Educator for 2005. In 2007, he was selected as the Association Editor for the National Association for Gifted Children (2007-2009). Dr. Colangelo received the Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty Excellence in Service from The University of Iowa in 2008. In 2010, Dr. Colangelo was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
Featured Speakers
Laurence Coleman, Department of Early Childhood, Physical and Special Education, University of Toledo
Dr. Laurence J. Coleman is the Daso Herb Professor of Gifted Education and a member of the Department of Early Childhood, Physical and Special Education. He is a special education teacher who became a teacher educator and researcher. He is past editor of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted (1994-2005) and teaches courses in theoretical analysis, gifted education, and qualitative inquiry. Among his many professional activities, he is proud of creating an innovative model of teaching as a talent; building the Summer Institute for Gifted Children in 1980 which has been ‘taken over’ by the original students and is still in operation, receiving the Distinguished Scholar award from the National Association for Gifted Children and the Outstanding Service Award from The Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children and publishing Being Gifted in Schools with Tracy Cross and Nurturing Talent in High School: Life in the Fast Lane.
Karen B. Rogers, Professor of Gifted Studies in the Department of Special Education and Gifted Education in the College of Applied Professional Studies University of St. Thomas
Dr. Rogers is Professor of Gifted Studies in the Department of Special Education and Gifted Education in the College of Applied Professional Studies at the University of St. Thomas, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instructional Systems from the University of Minnesota and also holds Master's degrees in Special Education of the Gifted and in Psychological Foundations of the Gifted.
Dr. Rogers has been an invited lecturer at several universities in the United States and Australia, and is a frequent keynote speaker for state, national and international conferences on gifted education. She is the author of more than 150 articles, 18 book chapters, and four books. More than 500,000 people worldwide have read her paper on ability grouping, written for the National Research Center on Gifted and Talented. She was co-developer of a one-week television series on the nature of giftedness, called “One Step Ahead,” which is housed in the PBS Network Library in Nebraska. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, Roeper Review, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Gifted Education International and Gifted Child Quarterly, and she is a regular reviewer for the American Educational Research Journal. She is past president of the Association for the Gifted of the Council for Exceptional Children.
Susan Johnsen, Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Baylor University
Dr. Johnsen is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Baylor University. She directs the Ph.D. program, and programs related to gifted and talented education. She is past-president of the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented. She has written more than 100 articles, monographs, technical reports, and books related to gifted education. She is a frequent presenter at international, national, and state conferences. She is editor of Gifted Child Today and serves on the editorial boards of Gifted Child Quarterly and Journal of Advanced Academics. She also coauthored the Independent Study Program and three tests that are used in identifying gifted students: Test of Mathematical Abilities for Gifted Students (TOMAGS), Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI-3), and Screening Assessment for Gifted Students (SAGES-2).
James Gallagher, Senior Scientist Emeritus, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Dr. James J. Gallagher is senior scientist emeritus and former director of FPG Child Development Institute. He has been with FPG since 1970. Gallagher is an internationally recognized early childhood development expert. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Gallagher served on Governor James B. Hunt’s planning team to develop the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics—the first residential school of its kind focusing on talented students in science and mathematics at the secondary level. It has since been emulated in a number of states and countries. Dr. Gallagher also was instrumental in updating state law and regulation to better serve gifted students in North Carolina. Prior to joining FPG, Dr. Gallagher he was the first Chief of the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped in the then U.S. Office of Education. He was promoted to Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning, Research, and Evaluation during the tenure of Commissioner Jim Allen. Dr. Gallagher also served as the assistant director of the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. While there he was one of the architects of a far reaching program to rewrite the laws concerning the education of gifted students in Illinois.
Carol Horn, Advanced Academic Programs, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
Dr. Carol V. Horn is coordinator of Advanced Academic Programs for Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia. She has worked in gifted education for over 20 years and is a National Board Certified Teacher. Carol has a Master of Education in Educational Psychology with an Emphasis on Gifted from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in Teacher Preparation and Special Education from The George Washington University. She is the 2002 recipient of the Hollingsworth Award from the National Association for Gifted Children for outstanding research study in the field of gifted education. Dr. Horn has worked extensively to develop and implement the Young Scholars model, a comprehensive approach to finding and nurturing advanced academic potential in young learners from underrepresented populations. In 2010 she received the first Outstanding Leader Award by the Center of Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary.
Tracy L. Cross, Executive Director of the Center for Gifted Education and Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education, The College of William and Mary
Dr. Tracy L. Cross is the executive director of the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary and the Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education. In August, 2009, Dr. Cross received the Mensa Education and Research Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement award for his contributions to the field of giftedness. Previously he was at Ball State University in Indiana where he served since 1993, beginning as a professor of psychology at the school’s Teacher’s College. In 2000, he became the George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Psychology of Gifted Studies. Dr. Cross also created and served as director of the doctoral program in educational psychology, executive director of the Institute for Research on the psychology of Gifted Students and associate dean for graduate studies, research, and assessment. While at Ball State, Dr. Cross served as the executive director of the Indiana Academy for Graduate Sciences, Mathematics, and Humanities - a state supported, residential school for academically gifted adolescents.
