Speakers

Jimmy Casas served twenty-two years as a school leader, including fourteen years as Principal at Bettendorf High School. Under his leadership, Bettendorf was named one of the Best High Schools in the country three times by Newsweek and US News & World Report.

Jimmy was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as runner-up NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. Jimmy is also the author of eight books, “What Connected Educators Do Differently,” “Start. Right. Now. – Teach and Lead for Excellence, the best-selling book “Culturize – Every Student. Every Day. Whatever it Takes,” “Stop. Right. Now. – The 39 Stops to Making Schools Better,” Live Your Excellence: Bring Your Best Self to School Every Day, “Daily Inspiration for Educators – Positive Thoughts for Every Day of the Year, Volume 1 and Volume 2” and his latest release, “Handle with Care: Managing Difficult Situations in Schools with Dignity and Respect.”

Jimmy is the owner and CEO of J Casas & Associates, where he serves as a professional leadership coach for school leaders across the country. In January, Jimmy launched ConnectEDD, a publishing company aimed at giving back to the profession by supporting educators to become published authors.

Professor John Hattie is a researcher in education. His research interests include performance indicators, models of measurement and evaluation of teaching and learning. John Hattie became known to a wider public with his two books Visible Learning and Visible Learning for teachers. Visible Learning is a synthesis of more than 800 meta-studies covering more than 80 million students. According to John Hattie Visible Learning is the result of 15 years of research about what works best for learning in schools. TES once called him “possibly the world’s most influential education academic”.

John Hattie has been Director of the Melbourne Educational Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, since March 2011. Before, he was Project Director of asTTle and Professor of Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Sarah Johnson has been serving in educational leadership in Northwest Wisconsin since 2004, first as an English Teacher and then as a building principal at all building levels. Sarah is passionate about leadership and developing educators into the best version of themselves to lead at home, work, and life.

Sarah is a co-author of Balance Like a Pirate: Going Beyond Work-Life Balance to Ignite Passion and Thrive as an Educator and contributed to Peter DeWitt’s Collaborative Leadership: Six Influences that Matter Most and Adam Welcome’s Run Like a Pirate. She is a state and national conference speaker around topics of balance, resilience, faith. She is passionate about amplifying and empowering women through the IN AWE Podcast, which she hosts through In AWE, LLC, a business she founded to amplify and empower women.

Maria Lewis Ramadane brings over twenty-five years of professional experience in nonprofit management, government, and education. For the past nineteen years Ms. Ramadane has worked in public and private education teaching students from Pre-K – post secondary education. Her career in education began as a teacher of students with special needs. This year will mark her thirteenth year as a building level administrator. She served as an adjunct instructor for Shenandoah University teaching Curriculum and Instruction.

As a building principal, Ms. Ramadane has led over one hundred certified and classified staff and served as an instructional leader for over 1,000 students. While serving as a middle school principal, Ms. Ramadane was honored with the Prince William County Human Rights Award in partnership with the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc Prince William County Chapter (NCBW-PWCC) for offering a mental health awareness program. Ms. Ramadane is currently the middle school representative on the Advisory Council on Equity and the Safe Schools Advisory Council. She also serves as a leadership coach for new principals.

Ms. Ramadane earned a Post Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership and a Master of Education from George Mason University.

Janelle Vanasse is the newly appointed President of Alaska Pacific University. She has twenty-nine years of education experience in Alaska, most recently serving as superintendent at Mt. Edgecumbe High School since 2016. She previously held a range of education roles in the Bethel area, as director of secondary education for the Lower Kuskokwim School District and as founding director of Yuut Elitnaurviat—the People’s Learning Center.

Vanasse earned a doctorate in educational leadership from Gonzaga University, a superintendent endorsement from UAS, a master’s in educational leadership from the UAA, and a bachelor’s in special education at St. Cloud State University.

Tamara Van Wyhe has proudly served as an Alaskan educator since arriving in the state in 1995. After two years as a teacher in the Mat-Su and Anchorage school districts, Van Wyhe spent 21 years in the Copper River School District. From 2019-2021, Van Wyhe served as the IEE Division Director for Alaska DEED. Throughout her tenure as a school and district-level educator, Van Wyhe held positions including superintendent, director of teaching and learning support, school principal, assistant principal, instructional coach, and as middle and high school English language arts and fine arts teacher.

Since retiring from full-time state service in July 2021, Tammy has served as the Alaska State Director for Region 16 Comprehensive Center. The best “retirement gig” of all has been in providing support for early-career principals and new-and-incoming superintendents through ACSA’s ASLI and NISS programs.

Tammy’s focus on academic equity in rural schools and districts has included substantial work in literacy, digital teaching initiatives, and leadership. Van Wyhe is a National Board Certified educator, a former member of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools, and a recipient of the ASTE Technology Leadership Award.