Authors & Presenters

Susan D. Dixon is a speech and language pathologist supporting elementary-aged children in the Monroe County Community School Corporation in Indiana. She also works for the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University.

Victoria Francis, MEd, EdS, spent over 40 years teaching high school across Idaho, New Mexico, and Hawaii. Her work inspired a passion for working with “underdog” students—those who others felt had poor future prospects.

Heather serves as the superintendent of schools in Fox Lake District 114 in the northern Illinois suburbs. Her work focuses on ensuring learning for ALL in schools.

Amy Gluck is assistant superintendent of teaching and learning in Grayslake CCSD 46 in Illinois. Her work focuses on ensuring all students achieve high levels of learning.

Yvonna Graham, MEd, is a literacy advocate and founder of Mumbling Marmot Tutoring in Durango, Colorado. Specializing in dyslexia intervention and research-based reading instruction, she authored Dyslexia Tool Kit: What to Do When Phonics Isn’t Enough, Expanded Edition.

Cate Hart Hyatt has spent more than 30 years as an educator, teaching preschool through graduate school students. She is a research associate for the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University.

Brandon Jones, an author and consultant, works with educators to implement the Professional Learning Communities at Work® and RTI at Work™ processes. As a practitioner, he has served as a high school teacher and assistant principal, as well as a principal at the elementary, middle, and secondary level.

Belinda Dunnick Karge, PhD, is a professor in the doctoral studies program at Concordia University Irvine and a professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton. She has also served as a K–12 teacher and administrator.

Toby J. Karten is an experienced educator who has worked in the field of special education since 1976. She has been a resource teacher, staff developer, adult educator, and inclusion consultant in New York, New Jersey, and Texas schools and in many other districts nationally and globally for students and educators in grades preK–12 and beyond.

Paula Maeker is an educator, consultant, and advocate for learner-centered education. She has more than twenty-three years’ experience as an elementary teacher, literacy specialist, instructional coach, Title 1 program coordinator, campus administrator, director of elementary literacy, and director of instructional design.