Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator and author who has worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems, analysed education policies, and advised education reforms around the world.

He has written and spoken widely about these topics, his book “Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland” won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for an idea that has potential to change the world. He is also a recipient of the 2012 Education Award in Finland, the 2014 Robert Owen Award in Scotland, the 2016 Lego Prize, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Resident Fellowship in 2017.

He is a former senior education specialist at the World Bank, a lead education expert at the European Training Foundation, a director general at the Finland’s Ministry of Education, and a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University.

He chairs the Open Society Foundations’ Education Board and is a member of the Governing Board of the University of Oulu and the International Council of Education Advisors (ICEA) for the Scottish Government.

His recent books are “Hard Questions on Global Educational Change”, “Empowered Educators in Finland” and “FinnishED Leadership: Four Big, Inexpensive Ideas to Transform Education”.

He is a professor of education policy at the Gonski Institute for Education, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Twitter: @pasi_sahlberg.

Thomas R. Guskey is Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky where he served as Department Chair, Head of the Educational Psychology Area Committee, and President of the Faculty Council. He has been a Visiting Professor at ten universities in the U.S. and a Visiting Scholar at universities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in the Chicago Public Schools, and was the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national research center.

Dr. Guskey is the author/editor of 24 award-winning books and more than 250 book chapters, articles, and professional papers on educational measurement, evaluation, assessment, grading, and professional learning. His articles have appeared in prominent research journals including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Review of Educational Research, as well as practitioner publications such as Education Week, Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, and The Learning Professional, and School Administrator. He served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, on the task force to develop the National Standards for Professional Development, and was featured on the National Public Radio programs Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition.

His work is dedicated to helping teachers and school leaders use quality educational research to help all of their students learn well and gain the many valuable benefits of that success.

Twitter @tguskey

Ann McIntyre M.Litt, B.A., Grad. Dip.OLCD, Dip. T., CF, FACE, FACEL

Ann McIntyre is an experienced principal, superintendent and NSW state policy leader who is recognised for her work in quality teaching, leadership, and school and system improvement. She has received numerous national excellence awards and while principal, the school was acknowledged as being “on the leading edge of best practices in teaching and learning.”

As the Director of Professional Learning and Leadership in NSW, she designed system innovations and reforms that significantly influenced the work of teachers and leaders. Ann is the Australian researcher for the International Teacher Policy Study with the University of Stanford.

Her research explores the power of the alignment of teacher and leader professional learning and their impact on student learning, as well as school and system learning. Her most recent research, including “Empowered Educators in Australia” and “Empowered Educators around the world”, focuses on the interrelationship between policy and practice in examining how high performing educational systems empower teachers and leaders to achieve strong results.

As a result of her contribution to educational leadership Ann has been awarded; the Churchill Fellowship, the Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Award, the inaugural Sydney Leadership Award, the inaugural ACE Leadership in Professional Learning Award, the ACEL Patrick Duignan Award for Leadership, the ACEL Scholarship in Educational Leadership Award and the National ACEL Fellowship and the National ACE Fellowship.

Ann McIntyre is engaged as an international expert in the development of the NSW DoE's School Leadership Institute and is President of Australian Council for Educational Leaders NSW.

Jane Caro has a low boredom threshold and so wears many hats; including author, novelist, lecturer, mentor, social commentator, columnist, workshop facilitator, speaker, broadcaster and award winning advertising writer and Walkley Award recipient.

The common thread running through her career is a delight in words and a talent for using them to connect with other people. Today she runs her own communications consultancy.

She has published eight books; “The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education” co-authored with Chris Bonnor (New South 2007), “The F Word. How we learned to swear by feminism” co-authored with Catherine Fox (New South, 2008) “Just a Girl” her first novel (UQP, 2011) and “What Makes a Good School?” co-authored with Chris Bonnor (New South, 2012).

Her book “For God’s Sake! An atheist, Christian, Jew and Muslim battle it out” co-authored with Antony Lowenstein, Simon Smart and Rachel Woodlock, was published in 2013 by Pan MacMillan.“Just a Queen” (UOP) was published in May last year and “plain-speaking jane” and her latest book “Just Flesh and Blood” have recently been published. She is sought after as a speaker, MC and workshop facilitator by a wide range of organisations, in both the public and private sectors. She is a weekly regular on Channel 7 Weekend Sunrise and Mornings on Channel 9.

Jane has appeared frequently on ABC’s Q&A, Sunrise, The Project, The Drum *(See her below) and Playbox. She has also been a regular panellist on the ABC’s top-rating show on advertising “The Gruen Transfer.” She is a regular on radio and has filled in as host for RN’s iconic “Life Matters”. She remains in high demand by advertising agencies as a freelance writer and her advertising work has won many national and international advertising awards including Cannes, AWARD, London International, ATV, Asia Pacific, One Show, Mobius, Kinsale, and Caxton.