D2L Fusion 2019 Speakers
Mainstage speakers
Special guest keynote
Bonnie St. John
Paralympic Ski Medalist, Former White House Official and Best-Selling Author
Bonnie St. John
“One of the five most inspiring women in America” – NBC Nightly News
Paralympic Ski Medalist | Fortune 500 Business Consultant | Rhodes Scholar | Former White House Official and Best-Selling Author
Despite having her right leg amputated at age five, Bonnie St. John became the first African-American to win medals in Winter Olympic competition, taking home a silver and two bronze medals in downhill events at the 1984 Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. In recognition of this historic achievement, St. John was honored at the White House by President George W. Bush.
In addition to her success as a paralympic athlete, she is a best-selling author, a highly sought after keynote speaker, business owner and a Fortune 500 leadership consultant. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University, and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, taking an Master of Letters degree in Economics. Upon her return to the United States, St. John was appointed by President Bill Clinton as a Director for Human Capital Issues on the White House National Economic Council.
Today, St. John travels the globe as a leadership consultant, keynote speaker and facilitator for international summit conferences for senior-level executives. She frequently donates personal appearances to schools, homeless shelters, community groups and other organizations. In 2010, St. John once again represented the United States as a member of President Obama’s official delegation to the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
The celebrated author of seven books, St. John’s most recent book, Micro-Resilience: Minor Shifts for Major Boosts in Focus, Drive and Energy, outlines a quick, easy and immediately effective program of tools and techniques to give you a competitive edge in today’s dynamic world of changes and challenges.
In 2015, St. John was inducted into the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Hall of Fame.
Special guest keynote
Heather E. McGowan
Future Work Strategist, #1 Voice Globally for Education on LinkedIn
Heather E. McGowan
Future of Work Strategist | #1 Voice Globally for Education on LinkedIn | Internationally known Speaker, Writer, and Advisor
As a Future of Work Strategist, Heather has worked with diverse teams to address these challenges. Recognizing that business innovation begins with education, specifically learning faster than your competition, she has worked with university presidents and C-Suite executives including corporate human resources managers to prepare graduates and workers for jobs that do not yet exist.
At Becker College, she crafted the Agile Mindset learning framework used to prepare students to work in an uncertain future. She assists corporate executives in rethinking their business models, teams, and organizational structures to become resilient in changing markets while helping academic, nonprofit, and foundation leadership rethink education and philanthropy.
Her think tank is called Work to Learn because McGowan believes that in the 3rd industrial revolution we learned (once) in order to work and now, in the fourth industrial revolution, we will work in order to learn (continuously). The Future of Work is Learning.
Special guest speaker
McClain Hermes
Paralympic Swimmer, Student at Gwinnett Online Campus
McClain Hermes
Paralympic Swimmer | Student at Gwinnet Online Campus | Philanthropist | Speaker | Motivator
McClain has spent the past 11 years dealing with issues related to retina detachments and numerous surgeries in an attempt to save her eyesight. She is now completely blind in the right eye, and only has a limited amount of light perception remaining in her left eye. She has a diagnosis of Wagners Syndrome which not only caused the retina detachments, but also led to her being color blind, completely night blind, having glaucoma, and her progressive vision loss.
McClain has turned her disability of being legally blind into her ability in the pool. She is a Paralympic swimmer that currently holds 20 American Records, 5 Pan American Records, and 1 World Record. At the age of 15, she was the youngest member of the 2016 USA Paralympic Team. In 2018 McClain won 2 gold and 4 silver medals at the Pan Pacific Championships, and she is currently the National Champion in the 400 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, and 200 IM.
Not only is McClain a talented athlete, but she is an intelligent and motivated student who attends high school through Gwinnett Online Campus, and has accepted a Presidential scholarship to study at Loyola University in Baltimore Maryland beginning the fall of 2019. She is a member of the National Honor Society and named a USA Swimming Scholastic All American.
As a philanthropist, McClain and her father began Shoes for the Souls as a small service project in 2009. That “small service project”, started by an eight-year-old, has now collected and donated over 27,000 pairs of shoes to The Atlanta Mission, which serves homeless men, women, and children.
As a speaker, McClain continues to motivate others to see beyond their perceived disabilities and pursue their dreams with perseverance and dedication. She hopes that other young people hear her message about Shoes for the Souls and realize that it doesn’t take large sums of money or you don’t have to be an adult to make a positive impact on your community.
Keynote speaker
John Baker
D2L President and CEO
Solutions spotlight
Cheryl Ainoa
D2L Chief Operating Officer
Solutions spotlight
Nick Oddson
D2L Chief Technology Officer
Community spotlight
Barry Dahl
D2L Teaching & Learning Advocate
Featured speakers
Speakers
Rosanne Abdulla
D2L
Ginger Ackerman
Jigsaw
Sheena Allan
D2L
Dayna Armstrong
D2L
Mike Bailey
Course Merchant
Marijean Ballard
ACCESS Virtual Learning/The University of Alabama
Steve Bentley
University of Huddersfield
Jessalyn Berchin
Proctorio
Douglas Black
Palmer College of Chiropractic
Risa Blair
Southern New Hampshire University
Mary Bollash
Collins Aerospace, Division of United Technologies Corporation, (formerly UTC Aerospace Systems)
Brady Boswell
Indiana Wesleyan University
Terry Boyle
D2L
Martin Bradley
Xitracs
IV Bray
The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Jordan Burnett
Deakin University
Caitlyn Calvert
Texas A&M AgriLife
Ben Campbell
D2L
Carrie Carr
Accenture
Lin Carver
Saint Leo University
Joseph Chapman
D2L
Lori Christianson
Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies
Dan Cira
D2L
Amy Clark
St. Petersburg College
Brett Clayton (He/Him)
Durham College
Jeff Collins
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
R Craig Collins
Temple College
Dan Congdon
D2L
Erin Cooke
Southern New Hampshire University
Kevin Cormier
New Brunswick Community College
Barry Dahl
D2L
Georgia Davis
University of Arizona
Nicole Davis
Southern Illinois University
Brendan Desetti
D2L
Maridelys Detres
Saint Leo University
Chelsie Dubay
East Tennessee State University
JP Dunn
Southern Illinois University
Sandra Earl
D2L
Bart Everson
Xavier University of Louisiana
Mark Felix
University of Arizona
Sean Fitzgibbons
D2L
Mike Flewwelling
D2L
Steven Furusho
Respondus
Kristy Gamble
University System of Georgia eCampus
Rebecca Gidjunis
Eastern University
Kevin Graham
HWDSB
Kiara Graham
D2L
Whitney Green
Texas A&M AgriLife
Kim Grzybala
Cengage
Joel Guerin
D2L
Matt Hadgis
Qwickly
Karen Hahn
Saint Leo University
Susan Halick
Michigan State University
Dennis Hampton Jr
Michigan State University
Christa Hardy
D2L
Kathleen Hayes
VitalSource
Michelle Hernandez
D2L
Margaret Heyward
Turnitin
Kayla Himmelwright
Southern New Hampshire University
Nakita Hogans
USG eCampus
Megan Homeyer
Texas A&M AgriLife
Joey Homminga
Proctorio
Curtis Hunter
D2L
Royce Jacomen
Pellissippi State Community College
Mani Jagadeesan
ShuffleLabs
Anjli Jain
Unifyed
Paul Janzen
D2L
Christina Kalel
University of Arizona
Justin King
DigitalEd
Matt Koss
Michigan State University
Erna Kotkamp
TU Delft
Charles Kroger
Minnesota State
Jon Kruithof
McMaster University
Rajnish Kumar
Proctortrack by Verificient
Karen LaPlant
Hennepin Technical College
Jennifer Long
Harvard Business Publishing
Ron MacLean
Harvard Business Publishing
Mark Magrini
ACCESS Virtual Learning/The University of Alabama
Mazhar Malik
University System of Georgia
Mansour Mansour
Qurtuba Consulting Services
Matias Marabotto
D2L
Michel Marcheterre
University of Ottawa
Colin Marlaire
Northcentral University
Lisa McDaniel
Radford University
Emily McLellan
Bongo
Colleen Mcllroy
Saint Leo University
Dick McMullen
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Jeannette McNamara
D2L
Mathew McNeeley
D2L
James Medway
Six Nations Polytechnic STEAM AAcademy
Kerrie Meister
Texas Christian University
Mike Mendenhall
Indiana Wesleyan University
Amy Miele
The Virtual High School (vhslearning.org)
Wes Miller
Simple Syllabus
Dr. Kara Mitchelmore
Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education
Michael Monteiro
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Gregory Moore
MGH Institute of Health Professions
Mike Moore
D2L
Kyle Motsinger
University of Central Oklahoma
Keya Mukherjee
Saint Leo University
Joe Musicco
Sheridan College
Frances Oblander
South University
Laura Osborne
Stephen F. Austin State University
Christian Pantel
D2L
Janet Pierce, MBA, FCPA, FCMA
Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education
Jack Pinette
D2L
Michelle Pollington
HWDSB
Lee Poteck
D2L
Teddy Quintoro
McGill University
Daniel R. Morales
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia
Angela Reid
USG eCampus
Bob Richardson
You-Attend
Tonya Riney
IntelliBoard
Steve Rogalsky
D2L
Craig Romanec
D2L
Kelly Ross
University of Central Oklahoma
Jeff Rubenstein
Kaltura
Greg Sabatine
University of Guelph
Jeff Salin
D2L
Jen Sands
University System of Georgia eCampus
Stephanie Saunders
TechSmith Corporation
Kara Schimmelfing
D2L
Suzanne Schlangen
Minnesota State colleges and universities
John Scott
Dan Semi
D2L
Christopher Sessums
D2L
Charles Severance
University of Michigan
Alison Sharman
University of Huddersfield
Megan Shuker
D2L
Lauren Smith
Southern New Hampshire University
Jordan Snider
D2L
Jake Stanford
Chattanooga State Community College
Tasheka Steverson
SoftChalk
Meredith Stewart
D2L
Sarah Stewart
LoneStar College- Tomball
Greg Stilson
Aira
Paul Stisser
ReadSpeaker
Ian Story
Deakin University
Andres Taborda
Honorlock
Carlos Tanori
Explorance
Amrita Thakur
D2L
J.C. Turner
Riverland Community College
Paul Turner
D2L
Stephanie Tweed
East Tennessee State University
Frank Vazquez
CCCOnline, Colorado Community College System
Rebecca Villagrán Seoane
Fundação Getulio Vargas
Thuan Vinh
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Kim Vossen
Minnesota State colleges and universities
Jason Wagner
Wilkes University
Claire Walker
McGill University
Megan Walker
D2L
Amy Waters
The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Jon Watson
Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, MUN
Joanne Weiss
Aspen Group, Inc
Lori Wendt
You-Attend
Karen Wenz
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Jonathan Werth
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Holly Whitaker
D2L
Darcy White
D2L
Stephanie Wickman
Front Range Community College
Matthew Willingham
Course Merchant
Steve Woodard
D2L
Sue Yavor
Eastern University
Navid Zaer
Aleafia Health Inc.
Fiona Zhang
D2L
Yinning Zhang
University System of Georgia eCampus