Dr. Ratey is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For more than a decade he taught residents and Harvard medical students as the assistant director of resident training at Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Dr. Ratey was the recipient of the 2006 Excellence in Advocacy award from the non-profit group PE4Life, for his work in promoting the adoption of regular, aerobic-based physical education. Most recently, Dr. Ratey authored SPARK The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. His groundbreaking research explores the connection between exercise and the brain’s performance.

A renowned speaker, author and education expert, Pedro Noguera is an urban sociologist who focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions. He is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University and serves as executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and the co-director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings. In this era of dwindling resources, Noguera will address the need for schools and communities to adopt strategies that empower children and their families, as well as the importance of everyone in the community to collaborate. Noguera offers a preview of his perspectives in an audio interview posted here.
Click here for the Speaker's Powerpoint presentation.

Coordinator of Physical Education, Wellness, and Athletic Competition Delano Union School District, Delano CA Dyar earned a Bachelor of Science in physical education from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and has a single subject teaching credential. Dyar taught for over 14 years in the same school he attended as a child, realizing his dream of giving back to the community. Ken Dyar has always believed there is a strong correlation between physical fitness and academic performance and it has been his goal to have every 8th-grader graduate from his class in better physical condition than when they entered. Until recently, Dyar taught physical education and life skills at Cecil Avenue Middle School in his hometown of Delano. He is now the Coordinator of Physical Education, Wellness, and Athletic Competition in the Delano Union School District. Dyar has been the recipient of numerous awards. "We must address the whole child - the physical, emotional, and social well-being of children, who have bodies as well as brains - and we must continue to nurture the development of both." - Ken Dyar