Rich Neimand
Neimand Collaborative

Opening Keynote
Wednesday, October 2
4:00pm - 5:30pm

Rich Neimand has built a successful career on his ability to synthesize disparate information in clear, concise and compelling ways. He is President and Creative Director of Neimand Collaborative, which works at the confluence of policy, politics and consumerism to create social change at the local, state, national and international levels. Rich specializes in strategic communications through brand and message development that aligns all stakeholders around a shared value proposition. Rich’s small firm is known for doing big work within the early childhood education community. His current clients include Nobel Prize Laureate James Heckman, whose work on the economics of early childhood education he translates for use by policy advocates; the First Five Years Fund and a number of statebased early childhood education organizations.

Dr. John Hodge
Urban Learning and Leadership Center

Closing Keynote Luncheon
Friday, October 4
11:45am-2:00pm

Dr. John W. Hodge is president and co-founder of Urban Learning and Leadership Center (ULLC), an organization focused on student achievement and reduction of the achievement gap. He has served as a reading teacher, English teacher, AVID teacher, Assistant Principal and Associate Director of AVID Center Eastern Division. He served as Director of An Achievable Dream Academy, an inner city school that piloted many of the interventions used by Urban Learning and Leadership Center. An Achievable Dream Academy is a high performing, high poverty school that has received numerous national awards.