2025
Topic/theme: “Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Intelligence Research”
Keynote Speakers
TBC
2024
Topic/theme: “Innovations in Intelligence Assessment & Methods”
Keynote Speakers
Brittany Dale, PhD
Dr. Dale is an Associate Professor for the Department of Special Education and teaches classes in autism spectrum disorders for the programs in Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism. Dr. Dale also serves the Muncie and surrounding communities as a licensed psychologist through conducting diagnostic evaluations for children and adolescents with various neurodevelopmental, mood, and anxiety disorders. Prior to teaching for Ball State University, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Child Development Center at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis where she gained extensive experience in the assessment and diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder. Her research interests include cognitive assessment for preschool children, assessment of autism throughout the lifespan, and supporting families with loved ones on the autism spectrum.
Emily Winter, PhD
Dr. Emily Winter is a Licensed Psychologist in Connecticut and New York as well as a Connecticut and Nationally Certified School Psychologist. She completed her specialist level training in School Psychology at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at Fairfield University and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, specialization School Psychology at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut where she conducted research on mind-body health interventions. During her internship and post-doctoral fellowship Dr. Winter completed advanced training in assessment and therapy for pediatric populations and their families within a multidisciplinary treatment team framework in outpatient and therapeutic residential settings, with a focus on nature/animal-based and mind-body approaches. Her current clinical practice includes supporting children, adolescents, and families to provide comprehensive psychoeducational assessment.
Sierra M. Trudel, PhD
Dr. Sierra M. Trudel is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Marist College. Dr. Trudel is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Licensed Professional Counselor. She has experience working with Pre-K through age 22 transition programs in urban and suburban comprehensive public schools and alternative and therapeutic educational settings. Primarily, she has worked with children and adolescents who have been historically underserved, who have experienced complex trauma, and those with social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Dr. Trudel’s research utilizes mixed-methods techniques, which include collaborative, participatory, and empowerment practices to amplify and honor participant voices. Her research interests include educator well-being, trauma-informed positive education, strengths-based assessment in schools, and nature-based interventions. She teaches classes in the Masters of School Psychology Program and the undergraduate psychology program, including graduate courses in social, emotional, and behavioral assessment and intervention, consultation in the schools, and supporting students with diverse learning needs, and teaches undergraduate students in psychoeducational assessment.
2023
Topic: “What are the Current Methodological Issues in Psychometric Assessments and Validity of Results?”
Keynote Speakers
Roger Beaty, PhD
Roger Beaty, PhD, Assistant Professor, Penn State University , USA (keynoter): My research seeks to understand how people think creatively. In our lab, we use brain imaging and behavioral experiments to examine neural and cognitive systems that support creative thinking. One line of research uses fMRI to characterize brain network dynamics during creative task performance. A goal of this work is to link brain activity during creative performance to specific cognitive processes (such as memory, attention, and cognitive control), using network analysis and multivariate modeling of fMRI data. We also combine brain imaging with neuromodulation (e.g., tES-fNIRS) to test causal questions regarding neurocognitive mechanisms of creativity, with the longer-term goal of understanding whether and how creativity can be enhanced. We study creativity in a variety of contexts and domains, including musical improvisation and scientific problem solving. We also develop open access resources to measure creativity for educators and researchers, using natural language processing and other computational tools.
Mariette Fourie, EdD
Dr Mariette Fourie is a graduate in Educational Psychology, with well-established knowledge, experience, and expertise in mixed method research design (extensive quantitative research), is the Quality Manager: Academic Programmes, and a proud affiliated member of the Optentia research unit at the North-West University (NWU) in South Africa. Her DEd study developed the MEIPAC (Model to engender information processing ability in the classroom) and included the theoretical frameworks of Positive Psychology, Cognition, and Educational Neuroscience. She has investigated the role of various learning theories (the theory of the mind, psychosocial, cognitive, socio-constructivist, social cognitive, and metacognitive), as influenced by these theoretical frameworks, in how learners learn best. As part of her master’s degree in Educational Psychology, Mariette developed the SELOC (Teacher Efficacy and Locus of Control Scale). The findings of her study contributed to the professional development of teachers to better prepare them and to maintain a supportive setting in which they can grow professionally and contribute to student achievement and academic success.
2022
Topic: “What is the Current State of Affairs of IQ Testing?”
Keynote Speakers
Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD
Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology, Professor of Neuroscience, and Distinguished Research Scholar at Texas A&M University. He is well known for his work in psychological testing and assessment. Dr. Reynolds is author or editor of more than 45 books, including The Handbook of School Psychology, the Encyclopedia of Special Education, and the two-volume Handbook of Psychological and Educational Assessment of Children. He also authored or co-authored more than a dozen tests including the BASC–2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC–2 BESS), Behavioral Assessment System for Children | Second Edition (BASC–2), the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale | Second Edition, the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales™, and has published more than 300 scholarly works.
Dr. Reynolds has received a number of national awards for his work, including the Lightner Witmer Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) and Early Career Awards from two APA divisions (15, Educational Psychology, and 5, Measurement and Statistics). He is a recipient of the APA Division 16 Senior Scientist Award, the National Academy of Neuropsychology’s Distinguished Clinical Neuropsychologist Award, and several other national awards for his research on testing and assessment.
Dr. Reynolds is the former editor-in-chief of Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology and has served as associate editor of the Journal of School Psychology. He is editor-in-chief of Applied Neuropsychology and a member of the editorial boards of 13 journals. Active in professional affairs, he has served as president of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, a member of APA’s Committee on Psychological Testing and Assessment, president of three APA divisions (5, 16, and 40), and on the executive committee of the National Association of School Psychologists.
Fredricka Reisman, PhD
Fredricka Reisman, Ph.D., Emerita Professor, is founder of the Drexel University School of Education and is Director of the Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity and Motivation (FRC) created in 2022 with a $1.5million dollar gift to Drexel by a major donor. She also serves as Co-Director of the Drexel/Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation while continuing to teach in Drexel’s Creativity & Innovation programs that she founded and to serve on dissertation committees for doctoral students interested in the Creativity & Innovation concentration.
Dr. Reisman received her PhD in Mathematics Education from Syracuse University. She was a 3 and 5 grade, middle school and high school mathematics teacher in New York State and a mathematics education instructor at Syracuse University (SU) where she also was the Diagnostic Mathematics Clinician in the SU Arithmetic Studies Center which at that time was the first in the nation. Prior to Drexel, Dr. Reisman served as Professor and Chair of the Division of Elementary Education at the University of Georgia where for 12 years she worked closely, engaged in research and published with Dr. E. Paul Torrance, known world-wide as the “Father of Creativity”.
Dr. Reisman has been awarded over $14,800,000 in private and government grants to support her research and teacher education projects. She has served as an evaluator on funded engineering projects and numerous Pennsylvania and New York State university teacher certification programs. Dr. Reisman has created several books, contributions to books, journal publications, and assessments that focus on mathematics learning and teaching in addition to creativity applications including the co-created Reisman Diagnostic Creativity Assessment (RDCA) and the Reisman Diagnostic Motivation Assessment (RDMA) and a 2021 co-authored book published by Routledge entitled Using Creativity to Address Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia: Assessment and Techniques. She has served since 2013 and continues as the editor for the Knowledge, Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) conference books. She is co-author of a Cambridge University Press 2024 book entitled “Connecting Creativity and Motivation Research to Classroom Experience: Lab to Learner”.
Dr. Reisman was awarded the 2001 New Millennium Foundation Technology Award, the national 2002 Champion of Creativity Award by the American Creativity Association (ACA), and the 2017 National Association for Gifted Children E. Paul Torrance Award. Drexel University honored her in the Spring of 2020, where the university-wide faculty creativity award was renamed the “ Freddie Reisman Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity Awards.”
W. Joel Schneider, PhD, Associate Professor, Temple University, USA
Joel Schneider earned his doctoral degree at Texas A&M University before working as a professor of psychology at Illinois State University. His research interests explore the validity of psychological assessment, the discovery of statistical procedures to increase diagnostic accuracy, and the creation of software to facilitate better clinical decision making. His decision to come to Temple University was largely based on opportunities to collaborate with other scholars with diverse areas of expertise on large-scale projects that will likely influence public policy. Further, he is inspired by the enthusiasm of the graduate students in the counseling psychology program and is invested in their training.
2021
Topic: “Translating Research to the Field: Probe to Practice”
Keynote Speakers
David Turner, PhD
David Turner, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of South Wales, and Professor at the Institute for International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University. Professor Turner is the President of Global CIE Forum and a former Treasurer, World Council of Comparative Education Societies. He is a Fellow of the Academy for Social Science and Honorary Member of the British Association for International and Comparative Education. After graduating in engineering, Professor Turner became a science teacher in secondary schools for nine years, before moving into teaching in higher education. He has taught in a variety of higher education institutions, teaching comparative education at the University of London Institute of Education before moving to the School for Independent Study at the North East London Polytechnic, now University of East London, UK. His book, Theory of Education, presented a novel approach to viewing education as a complex system, which is shaped by the choices that individuals within the system make. The book was very well received and won the World Education Fellowship Book Award in 2005/6. That book was followed by Theory and Practice of Education, published in 2007. Professor Turner believes that the role of theory in education is to provide a coherent and stringent critique of policy, and by that means to provide a framework for improving educational institutions. He is critical of much current policy in education, including the desire to see institutions ranked in league tables. He is committed to the view that the education system needs to accommodate diversity in all its expressions
Jennie Kaufman Singer, PhD
Dr Jennie Kaufman Singer graduated from California School of Psychology – San Diego (now part of Alliant International University) with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1995. She has had years of clinical experience working with police officers, and in federal and state prisons with both female and male high and low security offenders. She also has experience working as a clinical and administrative supervisor in the Paroles Division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Additionally, she has had experience doing many forensic and psychoeducational assessment evaluations, used for securing resources and accommodations, or to give recommendations to the Yolo County district attorney’s office, the public defender’s office, or to CDCR.
Dr. Singer began teaching at Sacramento State University as an adjunct faculty in 2005 and has been a full-time faculty since 2007. She is currently a full professor and has published books and articles on mentally ill offenders, sex offenders, international prisons and policing, creativity in confinement, intellectual and achievement assessment, and rehabilitation program evaluation. Dr. Singer has helped to develop curriculum for the Criminal Justice Division and has mentored many students in the Criminal Justice Graduate program, helping them to finish their theses and to present data to regional and national organizations. Dr. Singer has consistently received funding (CDCR/the California Sex Offender Management Board, the Provost’s Research Fellowship award, the RCA faculty award, and paid contracts with Yolo County Probation).
Currently, she has an article being reviewed after revision for the peer-reviewed journal, Victim and Offender on the evaluation of the Ascend program, a unique rehabilitation program administered through Sacramento County Probation. The paper focuses on the results of a longitudinal program evaluation and posits that the Ascend program is a promising new program. The preliminary results of this evaluation have been presented at two national criminal justice conferences, students have presented posters at both regional and national conferences, and a white paper detailing the preliminary results of the evaluation has been written and presented to Sacramento County probation. She has had other white papers and peer reviewed articles on rehabilitation program evaluations and is also working with a professor in Iran on Covid-related mental health issues for the Iranian general population. She is returning to clinical work, with a focus on university students, faculty and staff as well as working on a variety of clinical and forensic assessments.
2020
Inaugural Kaufman Family Research Symposium
Topic: “Research & Awareness: An International Investigation into Neuromyths and Evidence-Based Practice in Higher Education”
Keynote Speaker
Kristen Betts, EdD, Clinical Professor & Director of the Higher Education Leadership Programme, School of Education, Drexel University, USA
Dr. Kristen Betts is a Clinical Professor in the School of Education at Drexel University. Dr. Betts has over 20 years of experience in higher education serving in key leadership positions within private, public, and for-profit institutions. Dr. Betts’ expertise is in higher education, online and blended learning, curriculum development, instructional design, and faculty development. Dr. Betts publishes and presents on online and blended learning, neuro-andragogy, Online Human Touch/high touch, transfer of learning, technology-enhanced learning, and Mind, Brain & Education science. Dr. Betts is a Quality Matters certified peer reviewer, an instructor with the Online Learning Consortium, and grant reviewer for the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Dr. Betts has received distinguished national awards for her work in higher education and online learning. Dr. Betts has also been a keynote speaker at conferences and government-supported events in Sweden, South Korea, Canada, and across the United States.
Remarks/Goodwill Messages
Alan Kaufman, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychology, Yale University Child Study Center, USA; James Kaufman, PhD, Professor of Educational Psychology, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, USA; and Nadene Kaufman, PhD.
Alan S. Kaufman’s creative contributions revolutionized the field of intelligence testing. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) was among the first major intelligence tests to integrate theories from neuroscience and cognitive psychology (Luria and Sperry and later CHC multiple ability model) into intelligence testing and thus, shifted the focus from content to process interpretation. Perhaps most importantly, the K-ABC was the first intelligence test to successfully reduce ethnic bias with the result that the differences in test scores on the K-ABC between African American and European American students were cut in half. The development of the KABC only scratches the surface of Kaufman’s influence on the field. Kaufman introduced the term “intelligent testing” which has since become the gold standard for test interpretation. This innovative approach combined quantitative psychometrics with qualitative clinical principles. Kaufman challenged the view which encouraged comparisons of obtained test scores and instead incorporated contextual analysis of the examinee’s strengths and weaknesses. This aided the development of interventions that were translatable to real-world settings. Kaufman’s many groundbreaking contributions were innovative, statistically sound, and clinically relevant. His creations set the stage for major changes in IQ testing and thus put Kaufman among the giants in the field.
_________________________________