Speakers

Cathy N. Davidson

Distinguished Professor at CUNY

Cathy N. Davidson is a leading innovator in the areas of institutional change, professional development, and personal health, success, and performance in the digital age. A distinguished scholar of the history of technology, she is the author of 20 books on technology, education, and cognitive neuroscience.

In her recent book The New Education, Davidson argues for the need to revolutionize universities to prepare students for a world in flux. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she profiles innovative educators who are changing their classrooms by emphasizing creativity, collaboration, and adaptability over expertise in a single, often abstract discipline. The New Education ultimately shows how we can teach students not only to survive but to thrive amid the challenges to come.

Christopher Emdin

Tenured Professor at
University of Southern California

Dr. Christopher Emdin is a tenured professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and the Robert A. Naslund Chair in Curriculum and Teaching. He is listed on the ROOT 100 list of most influential African Americans in the fields of business, science, politics, technology, social justice, sports and entertainment. He is also named one of the 27 people bridging divides across America by Time magazine.

Dr. Emdin is the founder of the #HipHopEd movement, and the author of the award-winning book, Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation and the New York Times bestseller, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y’all Too. His newest book STEM, STEAM, MAKE, DREAM: Reimagining the Culture of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, will be released in early 2022.

Joe Rohrlich

Chief Executive Officer at Top Hat

As Top Hat’s CEO, Joe Rohrlich is leading the company through its next phase of global growth. He is passionate about the outsized results great teams can achieve when relentlessly focused on customer outcomes.

Prior to joining Top Hat, Rohrlich led a range of customer and go-to-market teams during his 11-year tenure at Bazaarvoice, the market leader in SaaS user-generated content solutions for eCommerce. Under his leadership as Chief Revenue Officer, he drove accelerated international growth of the Sales, Marketing, and Client Success teams across a range of industries and regions. He also served as General Manager of Bazaarvoice EMEA & APAC. Before that, Rohrlich led account management at a Procter & Gamble-owned marketing consultancy, where he developed strategy for iconic brands ranging from Pampers to Iams Eukanuba. Rohrlich holds a BA from the University of Michigan.

Maggie Leen

Chief Marketing Officer at Top Hat

As CMO, Maggie Leen is responsible for driving the company’s overall marketing strategy, including brand management, demand generation, product marketing, planning and execution.

Leen is an accomplished sales and marketing leader with a proven pedigree of winning the hearts and minds of customers. Prior to joining Top Hat, Leen served as Vice President, Marketing and Communications at Adtalem where she led a high-performing team of 80+ marketing, business development, sales, operations, communications and creative professionals. Before that, Leen served in a variety of progressively senior Sales and Marketing roles at Pearson, most recently as their SVP Product Marketing, Global Higher Education. Leen holds a BA in Science and Psychology from Marquette University.