Keynote Speakers
Parents, Educators, and Community Collaboration to Promote Student Success in School and in Life
James P. Comer , MD
10:30 a.m. to 12 noon Friday, May 9, Regency Ballroom
By definition, all students are underdeveloped. Children from families and primary social networks that are marginal to mainstream society are even more so. Yet, it is good development that makes youth succeed in school and in life. Parents and educators are expected to help youth to grow along all the developmental pathways — physical, social-interactive, psycho-emotional, moral-ethical, linguistic and cognitive-academic. Unfortunately, our society does little to ensure that parents obtain good child-preparation skills. And through no fault of their own, most educators do not receive training that will enable them to apply child and adolescent development principles to their practice as teachers or as administrators. Thus, too many children receive inadequate support for development and learning at home and at school. In this presentation, Dr. Comer will discuss a model that enables parents, educators, and community to collaborate to promote good child development and learning.
Comer is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. He is known nationally and internationally for his creation of the Comer School Development Program, (SDP). He is the author of nine books, including Maggie’s American Dream, and Leave No Child Behind. His pioneering work in school restructuring has been featured in numerous newspapers, magazines and television reports; and published in many academic journals. He is a co-founder, and past president of the Black Psychiatrists of America. He has served on the board of several universities, foundations, and corporations. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a consultant to Children's Television Workshop and has served as a consultant, committee member, advisory board member and trustee to numerous local and national organizations serving children. He has received forty-three honorary degrees and has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including the John & Mary Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine Award, Rockefeller Public Service Award, Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, the Heinz Award for the Human Condition, and most recently, the University of Louisville 2007 Grawemeyer Award for Education. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Insights and Strategies for Communicating More Effectively Across Race, Class, Gender and Generation Barriers
Donna M. Beegle, EdD
8:30 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 7, Regency Ballroom
The ways in which people give and receive information for living their lives impacts their world-view, values, communication and learning styles. Understanding the preferred communication and learning styles of people increases our chances to succeed in reaching out to them, establishing relationships. Donna M. Beegle will share her personal experiences of growing up in poverty, her research, and development of curriculum for improving communication across poverty, race, gender and generational barriers.
Beegle’s keynote provides an overview of the characteristics of each communication style and introduces methods for improving communication. This session also illuminates how language shapes our reality. For the first time ever, we have four generations in the workplace. Examples that are used to explain, and references that are made are often misunderstood. Communicating more effectively across poverty, race, gender, and generation barriers requires a grounded understanding of how each of these variables impact communication and relationships. This session will also provide tools for improving communication across barriers.
Beegle is a recognized national speaker, discussion leader, trainer and author of See Poverty, Be The Difference, an inspirational book for professionals working with people in poverty. In the past 17 years, she has written numerous articles providing insights and strategies for communicating more effectively across race, class, gender and generational barriers. Her inspiring story and work have been featured in newspapers across the nation, on local television and radio. Her work on poverty is being featured in an upcoming documentary, Invisible Nation (scheduled to air this fall on PBS). She has worked with educators, justice professionals, health care providers, social service agencies, and other organizations all over the nation who want to make a difference for those living in the crisis of poverty.
Beegle is the only member of her family who has not been incarcerated. After growing up in generational migrant labor poverty, leaving school for marriage at 15, having two children and continuing to cope with poverty, she found herself, at 25, with no husband, little education, and no job skills. What followed in the next 10 years are a testament to what is possible: renewed self-confidence, a GED, an associate degree in journalism, a bachelor’s degree with honors in communications, a master’s in communications with a minor in gender studies (with honors), and a doctorate.
Beegle completed her doctorate in educational leadership at Portland State University in 2000, where she taught speech communication courses for eight years. She is now president of Communication Across Barriers, a consulting firm devoted to improving communication and relationships. Beegle is also founder and CEO of the new nonprofit, PovertyBridge, which is dedicated to changing lives for people in poverty.
I Am CYFAR (And So Can You): My Favorite Research Implications for Improving Our Work
Don Bower, PhD
8:30 to 10 a.m. Thursday, May 8, Regency Ballroom
Dr. Don Bower, who serves as department head, professor and Extension human development specialist in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia has been selected as the 2008 4-H Family Strengthening Distinguished Lecturer. Dr. Bower will present the third annual such lecture as part of the 2008 CYFAR Conference.
CYFAR project staff and other youth development professional struggle continually with resource allocation decision to help meet the needs of the most deserving populations in the most effective and efficient ways. Using the CYFAR rubric of early childhood, school-age, teen, and parent-family, this presentation will synthesize the most important (and perhaps most surprising) practice implications of recent research in each of these areas. Bower promises that everyone who attends will leave this session with practical ideas to apply in programming.
This lecture is sponsored in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which supports the idea that children do better when families do better, and families do better in supportive communities. The purpose of Dr. Bower’s keynote is to share research, especially land-grant university research, that relates to supportive families and communities when addressing youth development. Dr. Bower will discuss his own professional research as well as other pertinent research that guides his work and the work of others across the country.
Dr. Bower received his doctorate degree in public administration and family policy from the University of Georgia and his master’s degree from the University of Arizona in child and family development. He is a certified family life educator and is certified in family and consumer sciences. Dr. Bower has been awarded more than $12 million in grant funding to support his programming, and was named the 2003 University of Georgia Walter B. Hill Distinguished Achievement Fellow in Public Service and Outreach. In 2004, he was named a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations. He served as 2005-2006 president of the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences.
