2025 Conference Speakers & Honorees

Dr. Rose Cardarelli
Keynote Speaker 2025
Dr. Rose Cardarelli, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the non-profit Education for All Coalition, which brings people, organizations, and resources together to develop sustainable solutions. Her background in international cooperation, combined with her firsthand experience in civil society development in a variety of crisis/post-crisis settings, has made her an influential advisor to international institutions and governments worldwide. Her experiences are deeply rooted in her service as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the U.S. Army and as a government civil servant and Professor of Human Security.

She currently serves as the Rotary International Representative to UNICEF and has held key NGO Representative roles with the United Nations, UNHCR, UNESCO, and several educational and humanitarian organizations. She has earned the following degrees: Bachelor of Science in Human Services at Fitchburg State University; Master of Education at Boston University; Master in Healthcare Administration at Baylor University; Doctor of Education in Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership at The College of William and Mary. Her earned certificates in Diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa are from Georgetown University and the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre on Force Migration. Her book, Children and the Climate Migration Crisis was released in 2024 by Emerald Publishing. Rose was the keynote speaker at the Presidential Peace Conference for Rotary International in Istanbul, Turkey in 2025.

Dr. Kelly Brown
Cocking Lecture 2025
Dr. Kelly Brown is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, bringing valuable experience as a former teacher and administrator in the Houston area. Her research focuses on developing participatory methods that enable schools to meaningfully engage families and communities of historically marginalized groups in the process of school transformation. Through the use of community impact assessments, she works collaboratively with schools to align their practices with community cultural wealth and needs, ensuring sustainable change through genuine stakeholder buy-in.

​Dr. Brown's approach to educational leadership centers on the belief that transformative change requires a symbiotic school-community partnership. By elevating voices traditionally left out of school decision-making, her work aims to shift mindsets, validate student identities, and directly address systemic barriers and opportunity gaps. As a dedicated scholar, writer, and advocate, she leads efforts to shape educational policy and enhance practices at the intersection of racial equity and school improvement. Her commitment to ensuring all students, regardless of background, have access to quality education drives her mission to foster equitable learning outcomes and empower future educational leaders to create schools that communities truly deserve.

Dr. Caryn Wells
​Living Legend 2025
Dr. Wells is a Professor at Oakland University, in Rochester, MI. In addition to teaching leadership courses in the Department of Organizational Leadership, she integrates mindfulness in all of her graduate courses. She has introduced mindfulness to the doctoral students in the School of Education and Human Services, and the medical students at the William Beaumont School of Medicine at OU. Caryn has a complete list of mindfulness-related presentations, available online. These workshops are sponsored through Oakland University.- Professional Adult and Continuing Education (PACE) https://oakland.edu/pace/

Dr. Brad Bizzell
​Creighton Publishing Award Winner 2025

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Dr. Sarah Hall
​Morphet Award 2025
Dr. Sarah Hall spent 19 years teaching every grade K-12 and 6 years as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She is now a State Regional Literacy Director with the Florida Department of Education. Her work includes contributing to passed state legislation, speaking at multiple press conferences alongside Governor DeSantis, and advocating for statewide changes in assessment and increased education-based budgets. She supports future teachers as Past President of the Florida Association of Teacher Educators.

During her coursework, she was nominated for the Order of Pegasus, which is the highest honor a UCF student can receive and named the 2025 UCF School of Teacher Education Distinguished Alumni of the Year. She was the recipient of the Scholar Leader Award and won first place for her articulation of her research in a university-wide contest. Sarah graduated with her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from UCF in May 2025.​