John Baker

John Baker founded D2L in 1999, at the age of 22, while a student at the University of Waterloo. He envisioned D2L as a global software company dedicated to changing the way the world learns.

John is a strong believer in community involvement and devotes both his personal and business efforts to supporting young entrepreneurs who are developing and applying technology to improve society worldwide. He was appointed to the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is also a member (Entrepreneurs’ Circle) of the Business Council of Canada and the Business Higher Education Roundtable, is past chair of the board of Communitech, and is a board member of Canada’s National Ballet School. John has been awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Ontario for Software and Technology), the Young Alumni Achievement Medal from the University of Waterloo, and the Intrepid Entrepreneur of the Year in the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

John graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honors B.A.Sc. in systems design engineering, with First Class Honors and an option in management sciences.

Barry Dahl

Barry Dahl is the Teaching & Learning Advocate at D2L.

Prior to D2L, Barry served as the Vice President of Technology and Lake Superior Connect e-Campus at Lake Superior College in Duluth, MN, where he was the senior administrator in charge of online learning. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Instructional Technology Council that concentrates on providing useful services to member schools. He has a total of 27 years of work experience within higher education, and also milked his college student career for as long as he possibly could.

Anita Joshi

Anita Joshi is a Customer Success Specialist at D2L. She loves empowering her clients to reach every learner and guiding them through strengthening their adoption of Brightspace. Anita has a wealth of knowledge and experience in Ed-Tech, with over 15 years experience working in Customer Success, Account Management, Sales, and Training. She’s also spent time in the classroom as an elementary teacher and ran her own successful preschool before joining D2L in 2020. Anita is passionate about how technology in education can truly transform the way the world learns.

Stephen Laster

At D2L, Stephen leads D2L’s strategy, product, services, sales, and marketing teams, working alongside Founder and CEO John Baker. He is focused on delivering world-class product and customer experiences that enable D2L’s customers to reimagine learning.

Stephen has over 25 years of leadership experience in digital transformation, product development and technology enablement. Before joining D2L, Stephen was the Chief Product Officer of Ellucian, the market-leading student information system provider for global higher education. Prior to Ellucian, Stephen held critical roles including Chief Product Officer for Penn Foster, Chief Digital Officer for McGraw Hill Education, and Chief Information Officer for the Harvard Business School. He also served as a Trustee, member of the faculty, and head of innovation for Babson College. Previously, Stephen founded and ran Intelligent Solutions, LLC, a higher education technology consulting firm. Stephen has been a board member of IMS Global, Microsoft Higher Education Advisory Board, The Online Learning Consortium, and FineTune Learning.

Stephen holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. He lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife Debi and their two children.

Christian Pantel

Jack Pinette

Jeannette McNamara

Joel Guerin

Kathleen Murphy

Laura Janusek

Meera Vignarajah

Sasha Thackberry

Talithia Williams

A host of the PBS series, NOVA Wonders, Dr. Talithia Williams is a groundbreaking professor, popular TED speaker, inspiring author and passionate STEM/STEAM advocate. She has made it her life’s work to get people of all ages and backgrounds excited about the bold possibilities of a STEM education and to “STEMpower” women and minorities to enter these professions. Her latest book, Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics reflects Williams’ passion to re-brand the field of mathematics as anything but dry, technical or male-dominated. Renowned for her popular TED Talk, “Own Your Body’s Data,” she advocates for all of us to deploy data as a way of taking charge of our own health. A vibrant, engaging and energizing speaker, Dr. Williams demystifies data, statistics, probabilities and the mathematical process in amusing and insightful ways. She also passionately champions the contributions of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians and their vital role in transforming our future.

Dr. Williams is Associate Dean for Research and Experiential Learning and Associate Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, where she develops statistical models which emphasize the spatial and temporal structure of data, and applies them to real world problems. Focused on data analytics, mathematics, statistical modeling and STEM Outreach, she is the first African-American woman to achieve tenure at the college. She hosts NOVA Wonders, a PBS mini-series that explores the biggest questions on the frontiers of science. The Los Angeles Times praised the show for sending the message “that scientists come in a range of ages, genders, colors and hairstyles.” She also appeared in NOVA’s Prediction by the Numbers, a series exploring the history of probabilities and gambling which Forbes called, “an entertaining, fun piece that conveys her knowledgeable and deep interest in this predictive method.” In addition to her teaching and television work, she has partnered with the World Health Organization in developing a cataract model used to predict the cataract surgical rate for countries in Africa. Her professional experiences include research appointments at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and the National Security Agency.

An exceptional communicator and gifted teacher, Dr. Williams won the Mathematical Association of America’s Henry L. Alder Award for distinguished teaching. She also developed a 24-part college level lecture series on learning statistics for The Great Courses, an online platform for lifelong learners. Dr. Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College, a master’s degree in mathematics from Howard University and a Ph.D. in statistics from Rice University.

Described by audiences as engaging, relevant, funny, accessible, and a joy to work with, Dr. Williams captivates and inspires with her contagious enthusiasm for STEM in general and math in particular. Applying the data-driven approach made famous in her TED talk to a range of subjects, she takes sophisticated numerical concepts and makes them understandable to a wide audience, debunking perceptions with an energizing call to “show me the data!”

Topics:

• The STEM Mindset: Creating the Future Generation
• Bringing Diversity to STEM: A Lesson in Disruptive Innovation
• Becoming an Agent of Change for Inclusive Education
• Innovative Technology: Engaging Students in Mathematics
• Using Data-informed Decisions to Drive Student Success in Higher Ed
• Personal Health Data Mining: The Empowered Patient
• Data Driven Strategies for Eliminating Health Disparities
• Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics