The Gary Hermance Speaker will be Paxton Williams, executive director of the George Washington Carver Birthplace Association in Diamond, Mo. The Iowa State University grad is an actor and playwright of a one-person play, Paxton Williams Presents Listening to the Still Small Voice: The Story of George Washington Carver. George Washington Carver was Iowa State University’s first African-American graduate and faculty member. Find more about Paxton Williams in the November/December 2008 issue of Signals, page 6.
The Monday, June 8, luncheon will feature James Autry, an author, poet and consultant, whose work has had significant influence on leadership thinking and has been a vital force in promotion of the arts. Autry is former senior vice president at Meredith Corp. and has authored 10 books. He coauthored The Book of Hard Choices after interviewing a variety of leaders about tough decisions they've made on the job. He was president of the magazine group of the Meredith Corporation. His books include The Servant Leader, Real Power and bestselling Love and Profit. He is currently a consultant with Fortune 500 firms and a popular lecturer on leadership and business ethics. Find more about James Autry in the November/December 2008 issue of Signals, page 6.
The Reuben Brigham Award recipient will be Kenneth Quinn, executive director of the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines and former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia. Ambassador Quinn, a native of Dubuque, Iowa, is a long-time veteran of the U.S. State Department. In December 2008, he will receive an honorary degree from Iowa State University.
Julie K. Little, Director, Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development, will be the 2009 Bill Murphy Distinguished Speaker at the 2009 ACE-NETC Conference in Des Moines. Little will speak during lunch, Tuesday, June 9.
Little has devoted the past 20 years to exploring and integrating information technologies in teaching, learning, and research practices. Her research interests focus on faculty development, facilitating communications and collaboration in distributed learning environments, and designing effective uses of instructional technologies.
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association with a mission to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. EDUCAUSE helps those who lead, manage and use information resources to shape strategic decisions at every level. A comprehensive range of resources and activities is available to all interested employees at EDUCAUSE member organizations, with special opportunities open to designated member representatives. EDUCAUSE programs include professional development activities, applied research, strategic policy advocacy, teaching and learning initiatives, online information services, print and electronic publications, special interest collaborative communities and awards for leadership and innovation.
Recently Little served as Interim Assistant CIO and Executive Director of Educational Technology and the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee. A participant in two EDUCAUSE professional development institutes (Frye and Management), Little has served on the Apple distinguished educator higher education leadership team and the distance education advisory board and accreditation committee for the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Higher Education.
She holds an Ed.D. In curriculum and instructional/technology from the University of Tennessee, an M.A. in teaching from the University of South Carolina (USC) and a B.A. with majors in government and international studies from USC.
The Bill Murphy Distinguished Speaker honors William F. Murphy Jr., a member of the Virgina Tech faculty for almost 25 years, who died in 2001. Murphy's work included many firsts for extension. He designed the first national auction and sale of feeder cattle via satellite and audio technologies and developed and produced the first graduate class for extension field personnel to be distributed on a national network. Murphy was also heavily involved in the first National Extension Technology Conference, held at Virginia Tech in 1986, and served on the planning committee for the next several conferences. This conference is now the major educational event for technology enthusiasts in Cooperative Extension nationwide. Each year NETC remembers Bill Murphy by recognizing a distinguished speaker in his honor.