Myk Garn
NSF AI and Adult Learning
Myk Garn
Myk Garn is an academic innovator and strategist with over 30 years’ experience developing and leading change in postsecondary education. He has worked at colleges, state systems, regional collaboratives, and national organizations on instructional, organizational, policy, and strategic model designs and deployments. Dr. Garn’s work provides new prisms and perspectives through academic leaders can envision, reimagine, and recast their core educational activities.
As an educational strategist, he focuses on New Learning Models that occur in the opportunity spaces where teaching and learning are catalyzed by technology. A past Executive Director of Kentucky’s Virtual Campus he currently leads the Precision Academics initiative for the University System of Georgia, is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for 21st Century Universities at the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a Senior Associate at the Georgia Research Alliance where he is Principal Investigator for the National Institute of AI for Adult Learning and Online Education (AI-ALOE), an NSF funded AI research.
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Inge Molenaar
Radboud University
Inge Molenaar
Inge Molenaar is associated professor Educational Sciences at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University in the Netherlands. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of technology enhanced learning taking multiple roles from entrepreneur to academic. Her research in the Adaptive Learning Lab focuses on technology empowered innovation to optimize students’ learning.
Dr Molenaar envisions Hybrid Human-Systems that augment human intelligence with artificial intelligence to empower learners and teachers in their quest to make education more efficient, effective and responsive. In this endeavor collaboration between governments, schools, research and industry is essential to develop the next generation educational systems.
Dr Molenaar has just received an ERC Starting Grant to develop the first Hybrid Human-AI Regulation system to train young learners’ Self-regulated learning skills with the help of AI and she also recently became a Jacobs Foundation Fellow.
Dr Molenaar holds Master’s degrees in Cognitive Psychology and International Business studies and a PhD in Educational Sciences (University of Amsterdam).
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Rahim Rajan
Deputy Director, Solutions
Rahim Rajan
Rahim Rajan leads the Postsecondary Success strategy’s Solutions team, responsible for developing and delivering high-impact, evidence-based solutions that can help transform postsecondary institutions close opportunity gaps for Black, Latino, Indigenous students and students from low-income backgrounds so that race and income are no longer predictors of outcomes and success and to increase social mobility and value of their postsecondary education. This includes portfolios that focus on undergraduate digital learning and digital learning infrastructure, technology enabled advising and holistic student supports, and reforms in developmental education.
Rahim came to the foundation from roles at ITHAKA, and JSTOR, where he focused on helping higher education institutions, learners, and the global scholarly community take advantage of advances in innovation, R&D, and emerging technologies. Born in Rwanda, Rahim is both a first-generation American and college graduate. Rahim holds degrees from the University of Chicago, the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London), and the University of Cambridge. Rahim was a former board observer for Carnegie Innovations startup Acrobatiq (acquired in 2018 by Ingram) and currently serves on the board of the Seattle Colleges Foundation, the Global Learning Council. He is based in Seattle, WA.
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James Lester
NCSU, NSF AI and Future of Education Center
James Lester
James Lester is Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Educational Informatics at North Carolina State University. He is the Director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning. His research centers on transforming education with artificial intelligence. His current work spans AI-driven narrative learning environments, virtual agents for learning, and multimodal learning analytics. He is the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award and numerous Best Paper Awards.
His foundational work on pedagogical agents has been recognized with the IFAAMAS Influential Paper Award by the International Federation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education and on the 2020 National Educational Technology Plan Technical Working Group for the US Department of Education. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
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Lester-Irabinna Rigney
University of South Australia
Lester-Irabinna Rigney
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney, BEd, MEd, PhD (Flinders), MACE, Professor of Education, University of South Australia, Centre for Research in Education, Education Futures Academic Unit.
One of Australia’s most internationally respected Aboriginal educationalists, Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney is Professor of Education in the Pedagogies for Justice Group in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion, Education Futures, University of South Australia. He is member of the Scientific Committee, Foundation Reggio Children Centro Loris Malaguzzi Italy and was Distinguished Fellow at Kings College, London, Menzies Australia Institute.
He is a citizen of the Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri Sovereign Nation peoples of South Australia. He is a recognized expert on Aboriginal and minority Education of the Pacific. His research focuses on Aboriginal children’s rights and education, Indigenist epistemologies, teachers' work, Aboriginal education, Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignty, Treaty and school reform. He has been involved in national research and Australian Research Council funded projects on teachers' learning; Indigenist Epistemologies and School; Aboriginal Higher Education; and Towards an Australian culturally responsive
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Maria Langworthy
Microsoft
Maria Langworthy
Dr. Maria Langworthy is the Worldwide Director of Education Research at Microsoft. Currently, she leads Open Education Analytics, an international community of education systems collaborating to develop open-source data solutions. Prior to OEA, she led early-stage product development for Microsoft products such as Education Insights, Reflect, and Career Coach.
Prior to joining Microsoft in 2016, Maria was the Senior Officer of Strategic Data for Education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, Maria served as the Global Director of New Measures for the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning project led by Michael Fullan. This project is an international collaboration of education systems working together to implement competency-based approaches to teaching and learning. Maria also initiated and ran the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research project. ITL Research was an 8-country study investigating innovative teaching and students’ development of the ‘new’ competencies. The “21st Century Learning Design” program she initiated based on ITL Research methods is used by teachers and schools in over 30 countries to redesign learning experiences towards these competencies.
Dr. Langworthy holds a M.A. degree in International Relations and a Ph.D. in Political Sociology, both from Boston University.
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Uta Wilkes
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Uta Wilkes
Uta Wilkens is Full Professor in Work, Human Resources and Leadership and Director of the Institute of Work Science at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Germany. In 2018 she was Guest Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, at Atlas Institute (Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society).
Since April 2021 Uta Wilkens is speaker and scientific director of the ”Human-centered AI network” HUMAINE – a competence center in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. HUMAINE is founded with 8 Mio Euro by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). The competence center develops and distributes new methods in AI development and AI usage in the workplace. In her research Uta Wilkens faces the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation and how to cope with them on organizational and individual level.
She specifies dynamic capabilities and individual competencies in organizational change processes. Current research builds on human-centered AI in the workplace and the social acceptance of AI. Her expertise includes different branches coping with digital services and smart solutions, e.g. healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture.
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Sidney D’Mello
UC Boulder, NSF AI Research Center: Student and AI Teaming
Sidney K. D’Mello
Sidney D’Mello (PhD in Computer Science) is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Cognitive Science and Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is interested in the dynamic interplay between cognition and emotion while individuals and groups engage in complex real-world activities.
D’Mello has co-edited seven books and has published more than 300 journal papers, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His research has received 16 awards at international conferences and has been funded by numerous grants.
D’Mello serves(d) as Associate Editor and on the Editorial Boards of 11 journals. He leads the NSF National Institute for Student-Agent Teaming (2020-2025), which aims to develop AI technologies to facilitate rich socio-collaborative learning experiences for all students.
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Blazenka Divjak
University of Zagreb
Professor Blaženka Divjak
Professor Blaženka Divjak, PhD, is a Full Professor of Mathematics and Information Science at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics. She served as Vice-Rector for students and study programs at the University of Zagreb (2010-2014). She was the Croatian Minister of Science and Education (2017-2020), leading four major reform processes: curricular reform of general education, reform of vocational education and training, enhancement of relevance of higher education and excellence of research.
She chaired the EU Council of ministers for education and Council of ministers for research and space during the Croatian presidency (January - June 2020). In that period, she coordinated the EU response to the COVID-19 crises in education and research. She has been a coordinator and a researcher in over 30 (inter)national projects.
Currently, she coordinates the "Relevant assessment and pedagogies for inclusive digital education" Erasmus+ project, as well as a work package within the "Digital and entrepreneurial skills for European teachers" Erasmus+ project, both of which research learning analytics.
https://www.foi.unizg.hr/en/staff/blazenka.divjak
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Xiangen Hu
The University of Memphis
Xiangen Hu
Dr. Xiangen Hu is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department at The University of Memphis (UofM) and senior researcher at the Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS) at the UofM and is professor and Dean of the School of Psychology at Central China Normal University (CCNU).
Dr. Hu received his MS in applied mathematics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, MA in social sciences and Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Hu is the Director of Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Partnership Laboratory at the UofM, and is a senior researcher in the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior.
Dr. Hu's primary research areas include Mathematical Psychology, Research Design and Statistics, and Cognitive Psychology. More specific research interests include General Processing Tree (GPT) models, categorical data analysis, knowledge representation, computerized tutoring, and advanced distributed learning.
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