THEME: Promising Practices for South Carolina Schools

Embassy Suites & Convention Center
5055 International Boulevard,
North Charleston, SC 29418
843.747.1882

Keynote SpeakerS

Darlene Clark Hines, Ph.D.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Keynote Opening Plenary
Darlene Clark Hines, Ph.D. author
Board of Trustees Professor of African American Studies and Professor of History

Darlene Clark Hine is the John A. Hannah Professor of American History at Michigan State University. She will become the Board of Trustees Professor at Northwestern University next year. Her most recent publication is "Black Professionals and Race Consciousness: Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, 1890-1950," published in The Journal of American History.  

During her Radcliff Institute fellowship, Hine will investigate the history of the black professional class, paying special attention to physicians, nurses, and lawyers during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation and discrimination. She will explore the process of class formation and the impact of constructions of gender and race in social movements. She poses the question, How did African American communities, specifically black professionals, acquire the institutional and ideological resources needed to overthrow white supremacy and achieve equality of opportunity? Hine will also concentrate on the emergence of the first full generation of black women lawyers and physicians. She is interested in how professional identities and practices were complicated by the intersection of race, class, and gender.

Hine has served as president of both the Southern Historical Association (2002-2003) and the Organization of American Historians (2001-2002). She has held fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California, and at the National Humanities Center, and she won a Ford Foundation grant for Comparative Black History PhD Degree Program in 1991. She has also been recognized for her scholarship with a Lavinia L. Dock Book Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing.  

Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D

Friday, October 27, 2006

Luncheon Keynote Speaker
Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D
Betts Chair of Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University, Nashville Tennessee

 Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D., is Betts Chair of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and teaches in the Department of Special Education.  Donna earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Urban Education (educational psychology) (1991).  Professor Ford conducts research primarily in gifted education and multicultural/urban education.  Specifically, her work focuses on: (1) recruiting and retaining culturally diverse students in gifted education; (2) multicultural and urban education; (3) minority student achievement and underachievement; and (4) family involvement. She consults with school districts and educational organizations in the areas of gifted education and multicultural/urban education.

She is the author of Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students (1996) and co-author of Multicultural Gifted Education (1999) and In search of the dream: Designing schools and classrooms that work for high potential students from diverse cultural backgrounds (2004). Ford, D.Y. and Milner, H.R. (2005). Teaching culturally diverse gifted student.  Donna has written over 100 articles and chapters, and made hundreds of presentations at professional conferences and school districts.

Donna is a board member of the National Association for Gifted Children, and has served on numerous editorial boards, such as Gifted Child Quarterly, Exceptional Children, and Roeper Review.

Ronald Rochon, Ph.D.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Luncheon Keynote Speaker
Ronald Rochon, Ph.D.
Dean of the School of Education and Associate Vice President for Teacher Education Buffalo State College

Ronald S. Rochon, Ph.D., is a native of the southside of Chicago.  He currently serve as the Dean of the School of Education and Associate Vice President for Teacher Education at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York.  Prior to this he served at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as the Director of the Research Center for Cultural Diversity and Community Renewal (CDCR) and Director of the Master of Education Professional Development Program (MEPD).

He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Sciences from Tuskegee University and my Master of Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an emphasis in reproductive physiology.  He developedan interest in teaching and decided to further his formal education by obtaining a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Rochon’s primary focus is assisting students in examining and deepening their understanding of the ways in which socio-cultural factors influence American educational thought, theory, and practice.  His work investigates the current educational curriculum controversy regarding multiculturalism as well as the role of public schools in addressing questions of ethnic identity.

As a life-long learner, his intensive work with students in K-12 settings, and throughout the community, consistently reminds Dr. Rochon of the necessity of systemic community building and empowerment paradigms.