Ed Summit
2019

Hope Azeda

Christian Picciolini

Christian Picciolini is an award-winning television producer, a public speaker, author, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist.

After leaving the hate movement he helped create during his youth in the 1980s and 90s, Christian’s life has been dedicated to helping others overcome their own hate. He now leads the Free Radicals Project, a global extremism prevention and disengagement network. He has spoken all over the world, including on the TEDx stage, sharing his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion.

May Samali

Based in San Francisco, May Samali is passionate about investing in people and ideas that can change the world. As COO, New Ventures at High Resolves, May is leading a new initiative to build a technology platform and ecosystem for citizenship education across the US.

May has a decade of extensive experience advising technology start-ups and nonprofits across the US and Australia. She is currently a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, a network-driven venture capital firm. She was formerly an investor at the Urban Innovation Fund, a Director at Tumml, and a corporate lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills in Sydney.

May holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and Bachelors of Laws and Economic & Social Sciences with First Class Honors and the University Medal from the University of Sydney. She is a John Monash Scholar and an Australian American Young Leadership Dialogue Fellow. She was a Gleitsman Leadership Fellow and a New World Social Enterprise Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.

Mehrdad Baghai

Mehrdad Baghai is a world-renowned strategy and leadership expert and is the author of three international management bestsellers. He is the chairman of Alchemy Growth, a boutique advisory firm. Previously, he completed a three-year term as an Executive Director of the CSIRO and before that, he was the co-leader of the worldwide growth practice at McKinsey & Company.

With his wife Roya, Mehrdad founded High Resolves, an international not-for-profit that has empowered over 200,000 Australian teenagers to be purposeful global citizens and leaders. Mehrdad has reduced his business interests to serve as CEO of High Resolves and to drive its expansion into Canada, the U.S., Brazil and China.

Mehrdad earned an M.P.P. as a Kennedy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a J.D. with high honours at Harvard Law School, as well as a B.S.E. with highest honours at Princeton University.

Dr. Mark Zelman

Mark holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and has more than fifteen years of experience in the field of educational assessment and monitoring. He was employed at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ serving in a number of roles including a co-primary of the Praxis development group, PAEG development group in the Test Development Division, the head of the automatic item generation team in the Research & Development Division and a faculty of the Global Institute at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ.

Mark has participated in the development of tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), the Prueba de Admisión para Estudios Graduados (PAEG), which is a graduate admissions test in Spanish, the Praxis Series, and SAT I, at Educational Testing Service (ETS)/Princeton.

Mark has significant international experience in assessment in education and development projects funded by the World Bank, USAID, British Council, IADB, and the Educational Testing Service. He has worked in the USA, Finland, Republic of Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Thailand, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Republic of Kosovo, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, S. Sudan and Uzbekistan on projects to aid those nations in developing national testing and assessment systems.

Dr. Zelman’s research applies developments in technology, statistics, and cognitive science to practical problems in assessment. Mark’s publications include several patents related to automated item generation and application of the Evidence-Centered Design framework with incorporated Bayesian Networks to simulation-based assessments.

Prof. Prashant Loyalka

Prashant is a full-time Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Research Fellow at the Rural Education Action Program, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. He has conducted more than a decade of research that seeks to address inequalities in the education of youth and improve the quality of education received by youth in multiple countries including China, India, Russia, and the United States. In the course of addressing educational inequalities, Prashant examines the consequences of tracking financial and informational constraints, as well as social and psychological factors in highly competitive education systems.

Prashant’s work on educational quality is built around research that assesses and compares student learning in higher education, high school, and compulsory schooling. He also conducts large-scale evaluations of educational programs and policies that seek to improve student outcomes.

Hamish Curry

As the Executive Director of the Asia Education Foundation (AEF) at Asialink, Hamish Curry collaborates with an incredible team to develop the intercultural knowledge and skills of Australian students and educators. The AEF co-designs and delivers intercultural professional learning, youth forums, digital services, and uses extensive networks throughout the Asia-Pacific region to involve schools in reciprocal experiences.

Hamish has a rich background in leading education and design learning. Previously based with the international design thinking firm, NoTosh, Hamish worked closely with schools, businesses, and cultural organisations around Australia and Asia in designing better learning through immersive processes and prototyping. Hamish has also worked at the State Library of Victoria as the leading Education Manager where he developed numerous successful and award-winning learning programs for education and public audiences alike. Hamish started his career as a classroom teacher working in the UK, Japan, and leading a Year 9 Melbourne city campus program.

Ahmed Hassan

Ahmed Hassan is a passionate and respected advocate for Melbourne’s multicultural community, working with government, Victoria Police and industry to highlight the issues faced by disadvantaged youth. Born in the northern suburbs of Melbourne to parents from Somalia and Eritrea, Ahmed is driven by a passion for social cohesion and bridging cultural divides.

At 18, he became the co-founder and Director of Youth Activating Youth, a not for profit organisation helping young people with education and employment.

He works hard to empower and motivate young people to break the cycle of disadvantage, with his efforts recognised by appointments to the Multicultural Youth Network, African Australian Community Taskforce and Deputy Chair of the Victorian African Action Plan Implementation Committee.

Louise Dube

Louise Dube has been the Executive Director of iCivics since July 2014.  

Louise discovered the power of education in the early 1990’s as a co-founder of CASES, a New York alternative-to-incarceration program for youthful offenders where education helped re-shape lives.  Inspired by a continuing deep commitment to ongoing learning, she has devoted her career to ensuring that all students are prepared for active and thoughtful citizenship and life. 

Louise has successfully led growth organizations that make and deliver engaging educational technology and digital media. Most recently, she was the Managing Director of Digital Learning at WGBH. At WGBH, Louise helped launch PBS LearningMedia, a platform with more than 87,000 classroom-ready digital resources reaching 1.5 million educators. Previously, Louise served as President of Pangea Tools, an educational software start-up successfully acquired by Houghton Mifflin, and as VP of Marketing at Time To Know, a 1:1 curriculum platform, now distributed by McGraw-Hill Education. As President of Soliloquy Learning, Louise structured the sale of the company to Scientific Learning where she served as Vice President and General Manager of Speech Products.

Louise began her career as an attorney in Montreal, Canada, and holds a law degree from McGill University, as well as an MBA from Yale.   

Anthony Mackay AM

Anthony Mackay AM, is CEO of the Centre for Strategic Education. He is Chair of the Australian Council for Educational Research, Deputy Chancellor Swinburne University, Melbourne, Chair of the International Advisory Board for the National Institute for School Leadership, Washington DC, and Deputy Chair of New Zealand’s Education Council.

He is an expert consultant to OECD and consultant advisor to Asia Society’s Global Cities Education Network, Co-Chair Global Education Leaders Partnership, Board Director of the Innovation Unit, UK and Senior Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne.

He was Inaugural Chair of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and the Inaugural Deputy Chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.