E-State Presenters
Bill Romond completed a thirty-year science-teaching career in 1998. He taught all levels of high school biology and chemistry, and was lead teacher in several innovative interdisciplinary high school programs designed to foster hands-on scientific inquiry through technology use and in field situations. He has led students on field study excursions to Lake Champlain, Belize and Andros Island, Bahamas. In 1998 he was appointed Director of Information Technology Planning with the Vermont Institutes for Science, Math, and Technology. In 2001 he was appointed Coordinator for Educational Technology at the Vermont Department of Education with responsibilities for statewide educational technology policy development and program coordination. In 2007 he was appointed Program Manager for the Department’s Secondary School transformation initiatives. He is most interested in supporting schools as they develop 21st Century learning environments that meet the extraordinarily diverse learning needs of today’s digitally-enabled, 21st Century students.
Lewis M. Feldstein is President of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation www.nhcf.org. The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is New Hampshire’s statewide community foundation, a powerful force for change and the principal source of venture capital for the state’s nonprofit community. The Foundation finished 2007 with close to $490 million in total assets, received more than $73 million in contributions, and distributed more than $32 million in grants, scholarships and initiatives.
Feldstein worked with the civil rights movement in Mississippi and served for seven years in senior staff positions to New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay. Prior to coming to the Charitable Foundation, Feldstein served as Provost of the Antioch/New England Graduate School. He is a graduate of Brown University and holds a Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University. Among his singular achievements were seven-year tenure as the MC of the International Zucchini Festival, and a stint as wine steward and personal assistant to John Wayne on his yacht in the Mediterranean.
Feldstein serves on several boards, including the Boards of Directors of the Independent Sector and Civic Ventures. He Co-Chaired with Robert Putnam the Harvard University three-year Executive Seminar Civic Engagement in America (www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro). With Putnam he is a co-author of the book Better Together: Restoring the American Community published in the fall of 2003. He has received six Honorary Doctorates. Feldstein was selected as one of the 100 people Who Shaped New Hampshire in the 20th Century, published by the Concord Monitor, and one of the ten most influential people in New Hampshire by Business NH Magazine in 2001 and again in 2007.
Champlain College – Edmunds Middle School Partnership
How do you bridge the divide between early-adolescents and college students? How do you break down the traditionally impermeable walls of both public schools and higher-education? Since 2004, Edmunds Middle School and Champlain College have found that one powerful bridge-builder is information technology. Through an innovative partnership between the Champlain Education Department and classrooms at EMS, technology has been used to further student learning, connect young people of different ages, and build collaborative, reciprocal relationships between neighboring institutions. Examples of projects include: the 6th Grade Science Lab Exchange, Technology Enrichment and Storytelling with English-Language Learners, and the Interactive Web-Based Research Project--Explorers, 2.0.!
As the Community Programs Coordinator for Edmunds Middle School in Burlington, Dov Stucker helps students and teachers connect to the community as an extension of the classroom. Edmunds now collaborates with over 75 local partners, and continues to break down the walls between school and community. With numerous local and statewide awards, the school's Community-Based Learning programs have been recognized as a
lighthouse model of middle-level teaching, learning, and community-building. Equally important, the students who participate love the integration of school and real-life!
The Vermont Council on Independent Living is a statewide disability rights and service organization and is the Vermont affiliate of the New England ADA Center at the Institute for Human Centered Design in Boston. VCIL provides training and technical assistance on accessibility in housing, public spaces, businesses and information systems.
Deborah Lisi-Baker is the executive director of the Vermont Center for Independent Living and has been working in disability rights for over 30 years. She has presented on the relationship between disability rights and design at: Design for the 21st Century (Rio, 2004), the National Housing Symposium on Universal Design and Access Modifications (2004), conferences on universal design and rehab technology at Hampshire College (2004), and a presentation on rehabilitation, independent living and universal design at the Switzer Center at Quinnipiac University (2006).
Vermont ranks near the top of most "best places to live" lists. But that sense of community is a challenge to maintain and grow... especially against the rising tide of suburban sprawl, people relocating frequently, television and the internet, long solo commutes, areas with almost no stay-at-home parents, etc. Front Porch Forum is a Vermont attempt to use the internet to turn this trend toward disconnectedness and isolation on its head. FPF hosts 130 online neighborhood forums covering all of Chittenden County. People use it to find a babysitter, report a car break-in, organize a block party, get better utility service, and lots more. And all this is done with clearly identified nearby neighbors.
Michael Wood-Lewis formerly led a Vermont-based three-state drinking water association. Front Porch Forum was recognized in 2008 by the Case Foundation as a top community-building project out of 5,000 entrants. Michael was recognized by the Orton Family Foundation as its innovator of the year in 2007. His Five Sisters neighborhood (which has used his service since 2000) was a top ten U.S. neighborhood in 2006. And in 2005 he was named a Vermont Father of Year by the Lund Family Center.
The Emergent Media Center at Champlain Collegeis bringing the media and technology expertise of Champlain students together with businesses and non-profits looking to explore and create solutions. Through partnerships, the Center has been exploring the impact of game technologies and emergent media on learning, communication and decision-making. Champlain students have been hosting summits, building games and interactive media, and participating in international conferences. Working with organizations such as IBM, Echo, Meeting Professionals International and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies, Champlain students apply their “Next Gen” understanding and technical skills to a diverse range of questions. Armed with a uniquely Champlain perspective, they are intent on pushing creative technologies to the next level by integrating art and code with cultural awareness, creativity, communication and a sense of history and place.