Dr. Derrick Gay is a globally recognized Belonging and Intercultural Strategist, dedicated to fostering cultures of dignity and respect. With multifaceted expertise as an international speaker, author, researcher, educator, and university lecturer, Dr. Gay empowers individuals and organizations to deepen belonging and empathy by cultivating shared language, raising awareness, and fostering inclusive personal behaviors and organizational practices and policies.

Drawing from his extensive international experience, Dr. Gay designs meaningful strategies that resonate across a broad range of industries and cultures. His approach, informed by research and practitioner experiences in over 50 countries, facilitates meaningful connections and promotes belonging on a global scale.

His educational background includes Oberlin College (BA - Romance Languages), Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM - Opera Performance), Columbia University (MA - Private School Leadership), and University of Pennsylvania (EdD - Education). Dr. Gay is also an accomplished pianist, violist, and opera singer, performing internationally and leading master classes for young musicians.

Currently, Dr. Gay serves as a board member at MERIT Music, a music conservatory that “transforms the lives of Chicago-area youth through removing barriers to high-quality music education.” He has previously served on the boards of The National Guild for Community Arts Education and Greens Farms Academy.

Myron visits schools, conferences, and districts around the world to share his 25 years of practitioner and leadership experience. He helps educators develop ideas, construct tools and navigate issues surrounding grading, assessment, reporting, student voice and generative AI.

Myron's published work includes numerous journal articles and his best-selling books, Grading Smarter, Not Harder– Assessment Strategies that Motivate Kids and Help Them Learn (ASCD, 2014) and Giving Students a Say! Smarter Assessment Practices to Empower and Engage.

Myron and his family live in Summerland, BC, Canada where he has helped local districts embrace the new provincial proficiency scale, student self-reporting and other significant shifts.

Sponsored by Wilkes University

Kristin Lowe is a former international school teacher now working as an Organizational Development Consultant and Certified Positive Psychology and Brief Solutions-Focused Coach.

Kristin is passionate about helping international school leaders, teachers, staff, and parents use the tools and principles of positive psychology coaching to develop community-wide wellbeing, energy, engagement, and teamwork while teaching, mentoring, and raising our next generation of change-makers.

She has seen firsthand how positive psychology coaching transforms lives, teams, families, and schools - empowering and equipping each person to fulfill their unique, meaningful, and positive purpose in the world.

Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

Maymouna Sakho is an educator, inclusion and equity advocate, and systems builder. 

Maymouna is the founder of Sakho Learning Consultancy - dedicated to supporting individuals and organizations to innovate through embracing and implementing equitable and inclusive practices.

Maymouna’s passion for working to create equitable and inclusive spaces comes from her experience of growing up between two cultures, having to learn a new language and system, and finding a place and voice for herself. She is a connector of people and ideas and loves to engage in conversations about inclusion and serving others - particularly children  - to reach their fullest potential. 

She serves as the Chair of SENIA International Africa Board, mentor for the AIELOC Aspiring Leaders of Color Program, and is a co-founder and co-trainer for AIELOC’s Learning Support Affinity Group For the Margins, From the Margins with Dr. MaryAnn DeRosa. Additionally, Maymouna serves as a co-chair for MSA Accreditation Evaluation Team Visits and as a member of CIS Accreditation Evaluation Team Visits.

Outside of her professional life,  Maymouna is passionate about spending time with her family and friends, traveling and exploring new countries,  cooking and discovering new places to eat, and working with individuals with a vision and desire to contribute to the ever-changing African landscape through education and advocacy. 

Sponsored by International Schools Services (ISS)

The passionate and energising tour de force behind NoTosh, Ewan leads client projects around the world and is a pioneer of design thinking for learning in the classroom. A highly-regarded keynote speaker and host, he marries intense preparatory work, dynamic presentation skills and a natural capacity to listen, shining a light on the best stories that delegates and participants have to share.

As a high school teacher of French and German in Scotland, Ewan began to look for new ways to help his students engage with his subject. With a strong belief that technology was both critical to this, and underused in the classroom, his classes became among the first in Europe to podcast and blog as part of their daily learning.

Ewan then took his transformative ideas around Scotland for three years, as the National Advisor on Learning and Technology Futures for the Scottish Government, before joining Channel 4 as their Digital Commissioner in 2008. A step in a different direction perhaps, but one that led to him taking creative insights from the media world into the education world. And that’s how NoTosh came about.

Sponsored by Clements Worldwide