Friday, August 7 , 2009
Keynote Speaker: Kathy Poelker

Kathy's teacher-training workshops and seminars delight all who attend. She presents motivating classroom activities, methods, and techniques using Song, Movement, Musical Imagery, Music Games, Drama, and Dance, and more importantly, Kathy explains the powerful theory and brain research behind these activities. Teachers benefit from attending Kathy's workshops that offer many powerful suggestions for integrating Music, Movement, Language, Literacy, and Sensory-Motor into the early childhood classroom curriculum.

Kathy Poelker received her degree in Music Education from Northwestern University School of Music. Ms. Poelker is internationally recognized for her work in Early Childhood Music Education. She is an outstanding communicator, university lecturer, keynote speaker, motivator, author, consultant, children's recording artist, and composer/author of over 150 songs and 30 books in three languages. Kathy's critically acclaimed songs, recordings, and books in English, Spanish, and Hmong are used in hundreds of classrooms across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Hundreds of thousands of young children, early childhood teachers, and families have enjoyed singing and participating in Kathy’s songs and engaging musical activities for over 25 years! Kathy reaches the heart and mind of all, young and old alike! Find out more at Kathy's website, http://www.kathypoelker.com/.

Saturday, August 8, 2009 :
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Verna Cornelia Price

Verna Cornelia Price, Ph.D., is the founder, president and principal consultant of J. Cameron & Associates, an organization committed to empowering and motivating people to realize and positively use their personal power. Dr. Verna is an author, organizational consultant, motivational speaker, executive coach, and educator. Her professional experience includes teaching pre-school through 6th grade and working as a program director, senior marketing manager, assistant dean of women, director of leadership programs and college professor.

In 2002, she created a Power of People Professional Development Process which equips businesses with tools and strategies to empower their employees to new levels of excellence through personal power and leadership. In 2005, Dr. Verna founded Girls in Action™, a leadership empowerment project for which she was honored in 2006 with an Ann Bancroft Leadership Award. In 2007, Dr. Verna and her husband co-founded The Power of People Leadership Institute™, a nonprofit organization committed to helping people overcome life’s obstacles while finding success in every area of life through personal power and leadership. In 2008, Dr. Verna was awarded the WOW Achievement Award in the category of individual champion of women for her innovation in creating programs and processes which increase organizational effectiveness and individual performance of women in the workplace. She is the author of numerous research and educational articles and chapters, and the two best-selling books, The Power of People: Four Kinds of People Who Can Change Your Life (2003) and The Silent Cry; Dealing with Subtracters in Work and Life (2008). Dr. Verna is a Leadership Institute faculty member at The College of St. Catherine. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota.