OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Jimmy Casas
Author and National Advisor
CEO and President, J. Casa & Associates and ConnectEDD
Jimmy Casas has been an educator for over 30 years, serving twenty-two years as a school leader, including fourteen years as Principal at Bettendorf High School. Under his leadership, Bettendorf was named one of the Best High Schools in the country three times by Newsweek and US News & World Report.
Jimmy was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as runner-up NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. Jimmy is also the author of nine books, including the best-selling books Culturize: Every Student. Every Day. Whatever It Takes;Live Your Excellence: Bring Your Best Self to School Every Day; and Handle with Care: Managing Difficult Situations in Schools with Dignity and Respect. Jimmy’s newest release, Recalibrate the Culture, is already a top-selling book on Amazon.
Jimmy is the owner and CEO of J Casas & Associates, where he serves as a professional leadership coach for school leaders across the country. In January 2020, Jimmy launched ConnectEDD, a publishing company aimed at giving back to the profession by supporting educators to become published authors.
Alyssa Gallagher
Education Author and Speaker
Head of Education, North America at BTS Spark
Alyssa Gallagher is an education author, leader, and speaker. She is the Head of Education at North America at BTS Spark, a global education non-profit focused on developing the next generation of educational leaders. Alyssa has worked with a wide spectrum of leaders, ranging from early career professionals in her local school district to seasoned executives in Fortune 500 Companies. Regardless of position or sector, Alyssa enjoys working with all leaders to help them leverage the capability, creativity, and intelligence of everyone on their team.
In addition to being a collaborator on Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, Alyssa is the co-author of Design Thinking for School Leaders: Five Roles & Mindsets That Ignite Positive Change (2018) & Design Thinking at Play: An Action Guide for Educators (2020).
Kim Samuel
Founder and CBO, Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness
Educator, Author, and Fulbright Canada Ambassador
Kim is an activist, educator, and a leading voice in the global movement for belonging. She founded the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, which works with advocates and researchers to fight social isolation and build belonging around the world. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at Green Templeton college, Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), and the Fulbright Canada Ambassador for diversity and social connectedness. Kim is the author of On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation, an exploration of the crisis of social isolation and our birthright of Belonging.