Steering Committee

Dr. Spady’s experience and expertise in Outcome Based Education is unmatched globally. Known internationally as “The Father of OBE”, he has earned the reputation as the recognized world-wide authority on future-focused, paradigm-shifting, personally-empowering approaches to Transformational OBE. For over four decades he has spearheaded major OBE initiatives throughout North America, South Africa, Australia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates on expanding the vision, shifting the paradigm, and improving the performance of learners, educators and educational systems. This work has bolstered his recognized expertise in organizational change, transformational leadership development, strategic organizational design, and elevated models of learning and living.

Alan Rowe is a transformational learning leader immersed in 50+ years of service to K-12/higher education students, faculty, and communities throughout the U.S.  Embodying a deep commitment to lifelong learner-centered, self-growth practices, he is an OBE pioneer who embraces a holistic, life-affirming and empowering mindset that “every person can” learn, unlearn, and up-learn the necessary knowledge, skills, and practices to measurably increase their effectiveness.

As a faculty member, school principal, curriculum director, consultant, and as Vice-President-Institutional Effectiveness at Kirkwood Community College (retiring in 2018), he has led broad initiatives to grow a culture of ownership, transparency, action research, and accountability throughout his career.  Additionally, he has direct outcomes-based experiences related to total quality initiatives, Academic Quality Improvement Process accreditation, presence-based leadership coaching, personalized professional development, as well as deployment of modern workplace learning platforms, outcome-competency assessment models, life role curriculum designs, performance-based credentialing practices (certificates, diplomas, degrees), designing regional career learning centers, and academic recovery programs.

Mr. Rowe holds degrees from Coe College, University of Nebraska-Omaha, as well as certificates in clinical supervision and change from University of California-Los Angeles.  He has been a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Lung Association for the past six years. He is a two-time recipient of the Opal Fagle Award as Iowa’s Volunteer of the Year.

Dr John Burl Artis is a veteran educator. Over the span of over fifty years, he has served admirably as a high school teacher, high school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent of schools. Throughout his educational career he has also served as an educational researcher, educational consultant, college professor, and adjunct university professor. His higher educational experience includes work with curriculum, assessment, strategic planning, and educational leadership preparation. Currently, Dr. Artis serves as an adjunct professor for educational leadership and curriculum and instruction at the University of Michigan Dearborn campus in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

Dr John Artis is a prolific writer, motivational speaker, and supportive educational consultant. He has worked with well over one hundred schools and school districts serving as a consultant for school improvement, renewal, strategic planning, and leadership design for transforming the work of the school or district. His most recent work is focusing on the questions of equity and educational achievement. His newest work is entitled Reflections of an Educator: Searching for Truth in an Untrustworthy World.

Wajid Hussain is a US scientist and world expert on authentic OBE, QA processes, outcomes assessment and program evaluation for accreditation using digital technology and software. He joined the academic field coming from an intensive Silicon Valley engineering background and more than 20 years’ industry experience of mass production expertise of a Billion Dollar Microprocessor Manufacture Life Cycle. Over the many years Wajid has managed several projects related to streamlining operations with utilization of state of the art technology and digital systems giving him significant experience working with ISO standard quality systems. He has received specialized Quality Leadership Training at LSI Corporation and also received an award LSI Corporation Worldwide Operations Review 1999 for his significant contributions to the Quality Improvement Systems. He was the lead product engineer supporting the Portal Player processor for Apple’s IPOD plus many other world famous products at LSI Corporation.

In academics, Wajid has extensive experience supporting and managing outcomes assessment and CQI processes to fulfill regional and ABET accreditation requirements for several EAC, CAC and ETAC programs. Wajid has developed several revolutionary outcomes assessment instruments and models based on John K. Etsell’s FCAR and the first on the planet to classify specific PIs as per all 3 domains and learning levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and implement world class best assessment practices to support digital technology, automation, streamlining and CQI. He led the first ‘tuning’ efforts in the Middle East at the Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University by developing a complex database of thousands of outcomes and performance indicators with hundreds of rubrics for the Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering disciplines. A comprehensive automated ISO standards Quality Systems CQI model for program evaluation with precision assessment instruments for capstone design, team work, lifelong learning, ethics etc. was developed and implemented. The Faculty of Engineering, Capstone Committee worked several hundreds of hours with Wajid to produce a revolutionary Capstone Design Course Assessment Instrument. Wajid recently presented this Capstone Design Activity Assessment model at the ASEE International conference 2018 at Salt Lake City, Utah. Wajid also worked closely with Dr. Mak Fong, Director Makteam Inc. to implement ground breaking academic advising systems based on outcomes using digital technology.

Dr. Hans Jürgen Hoyer is Secretary General of the International Federation for Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) and the Executive Secretary of the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC). Resident Scholar in Global Engineering at the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University, Global Visiting Professor, University of Maryland, BC and co-founder of the Indo-Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE).

Previous director of International Programs and Strategy for the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Co-founder and advisor of the African, Asian and Latin American Engineering Deans Councils; works closely with over fifty engineering education societies globally and with UNESCO where he serves on their Advisory Council in China. He also works in close partnerships with over 10 multi-national corporations. CEO of World Links, World Bank. Led several international development organizations/NGOs in Latin America; Africa and South Asia.

Served with Nelson Mandela on the board of directors of El Taller, a global civil society network headquartered in Tunisia; staff at Inter American Foundation, created by the U.S. Congress to support socio-economic development throughout Latin America/Caribbean. Founding member of the Board of the Engineering for the Americas (EftA) under the umbrella of the OAS. Serves on the Governing Board, International Center for Engineering Education/UNESCO/ Tsinghua University; Board of directors of Qatar University; Tishk University in Erbil, Iraq; Global Advisor to SUSTech, Shenzhen, China; UNITAR, UN agency in Japan; Liaison. He is the co-founder of SPEED, a global engineering student organization.

Visiting Scholar, Center for International Studies at MIT; Fellow at Harvard’s School of Education and visitor at Kennedy School of Government; dean of graduate program, School for International Training, World Learning and Executive Director of the Executive Training Program for global governmental and NGO leaders. Professor at George Mason University and Montgomery College. Authored, co-authored many books, articles related to global issues, social sciences, engineering education.

Honorary Professor at universities in Hungary, India, Kazakhstan and Peru. Born in Germany, he immigrated to the United States of America as a teenager. Ph.D. American University in Washington, D.C and post-doctoral fellow at Organization of American States (OAS). Started his career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile and has lived in over twenty countries and IGIP Nikola Tesla Award for Outstanding Achievements

Dr. Fong Mak is a Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) of Gannon University. He is also a consultant to GE Transportation in Erie since 1994 and helps build real-time simulators for aid in design and development of control schemes for the GE locomotives. He served 14 years as a Chair for the ECE department. He published significant research work on outcomes assessment; and offered 10 workshops at BAP/ABET Symposium and FIE conferences on outcomes assessment and accreditation. With his extensive knowledge and experience in outcomes assessment, he founded MAKTEAM Software; and created EvalTools®, the most comprehensive online assessment tool that covers learning management, outcomes assessment, continuous improvement management, student advising, survey and institutional-wide self-study. With EvalTools®, he successfully led the ECE department of Gannon through three ABET accreditation cycles with flying colors in 2005, 2011, and 2017 respectively. In addition, he served as Co-Chair for the Gannon’s Middle-States Self-Study committee from 2010 till 2013 and led the committee through a two-year preparation effort in writing the self-study report that resulted in Gannon receive its most successful accreditation record in 2013.

Similarly, with EvalTools®, he assisted Physics and Engineering program of Frostburg State University; and Computer Science and Engineering programs of Islamic University of Madinah to achieve excellent results in ABET accreditation. He serves as consultant to other schools for their ABET accreditation.

In addition, he worked with K12 schools to create AdamTools® for K12 school districts to manage their student information from admissions to graduation as well as special education to handle Intervention Assistant Team (IAT), Multi-Factor Evaluation (MFE) and Individual Education Program (IEP). His most recent work is the creation of a School Management System based on 7-Pillar principles that allows a district to analyze effectively its management and academic achievement performance. The 7-Pillar School Management System is currently being used in 18 school districts in Ohio.

Elias is Curriculum and Programs Director of Australian International School and the Australian Institute for Higher Education, a transnational education provider. He has supervised offshore higher Education Programs, delivered in Manila by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and Bradford University School of Business and Law. For Basic Education, he oversees curriculum implementation of various K-12 programs accredited by the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd), Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE), Victorian Certificate of Education (WACE), the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, and the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE).

He is a Professorial lecture, Arellano University Graduate School of Education in Manila for over eight years, Adjunct Professor, Philippine School of Business Administration (PSBA), and author and co-author of several textbooks for Higher Education and the SHS and published research works.  He is a dynamic international conferences speaker, presenter, and faculty trainer. He is a member of the International Network for Outcome Based Education Leadership Team, an organization founded and led by Dr. William Spady.

Dr. Carriveau earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona. He is an educational consultant.

Throughout his career he has been a practitioner and advocate for outcome based education and has extensive experience with outcome development, test and survey development, assessment, measurement, and the science of learning. His last positions were outcomes and assessment specialist for the University of North Texas center for learning experimentation, application and research, and assistant director for the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan for accreditation. Dr. Carriveau previously taught in the public-school system, was the director of assessment and evaluation for a large Arizona school district, an associate professor at Northern Arizona University, deputy associate superintendent and state test director at the Arizona state department of education, and test development manager for Harcourt Assessment. He has consulted nationally and internationally, presented at national and international conferences, and given keynote talks. He is a co-author, author, and chapter contributor. The second edition of his book, Connecting The Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcomes-Based Assessments was released in October 2016 by Stylus Publications.

UNIVERSITY TEACHING EXPERIENCE
TAUGHT MORE THAN 60 GRADUATE CLASSES

Educational psychology courses taught
• Introduction to Research
• Introduction to Statistics
• Intermediate Statistics
• Tests and Measurement
• Measurement in Education
• Research and Evaluation Methods
• Assessment and Evaluation in Education
• Research Design and Analysis

Reading courses taught
• Corrective and Remedial Reading
• Directed Experiences in Reading – Practicum/Clinic
• Reading Decoding
• Teaching Reading Skills in the Secondary School
• Reading Methods for the Elementary Teacher
• Teaching Reading in the Elementary School
• Remediating Reading and Learning Disabilities
• Reading Decoding and Practicum
• Teaching Reading in the Secondary School and Community College
• Reading in the Content Areas

PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Taught public school grades 3-8 for fourteen years, including special education and special reading. Developed two reading tests and a computerized vocabulary test for Cartwright School District, Phoenix, Arizona.
• Worked for five years as the Director of Assessment and Evaluation for Washington School District, a large metropolitan district in Phoenix, Arizona. Developed curricula and a multi-level mathematics assessment to match the Arizona State mathematics standards.
• Owned a small testing company and worked with several districts in Arizona to develop and administer district tests.
• Consulted for the Hopi and Navajo Indian reservations in Arizona on their outcomes assessment program.
• Worked on the Ohio State Academic Standards as a measurement consultant.
• Worked on the Texas State Test for public schools as a measurement consultant.
• One year assessment consulting work for the Behavioral Research group at the University of Oregon. Developed over 2000 test items.
• A member for five years of the Arizona Technical Advisory Committee for the development of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS).
• Consulted on a regular basis for the Arizona Department of Adult Education and the Early Childhood Literacy Division in the area of outcomes, assessment, and measurement.
• As a program specialist at the Arizona Department of Education Division of Standards and Accountability, trained teachers and administrators across the state in the implementation of the Arizona academic standards. Conducted workshops on grading and reporting in a standards-based system, data driven decision-making, and Arizona’s writing rubric.
• As the Arizona state test director, implemented a program in which Arizona teachers helped develop all of the items for the state’s standards-based assessments, made final content and bias review decisions, conducted the final review of new items and field test items, and served on various special committees such as alignment of test forms to standards.
• As the Deputy Associate Superintendent for Standards and Assessment and State Test Director at the Arizona Department of Education, had the responsibility to develop, review, and update the state’s academic standards, develop the state’s standards-based achievement test (AIMS), and administer the state’s testing programs.
• Chaired Arizona’s National Assessment and Accountability Advisory Committee (NAAAC) and the State Assessment and Accountability Advisory Committee (SAAAC). Responsibilities included working on the state’s NCLB Work Plan.
• Consultant for test item development for the national medical board exam of Denmark. Hired to train faculty of medical school on writing selected response items and conversion of their written response items to selected response item sets to meet new government requirements. Demark had never previously used selected response items for the national boards.
• Selected as a finalist to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which sets policy for the NAEP, but had to withdraw when accepted a position at Harcourt Assessment.
• As a test development manager at Harcourt, Inc. worked with states with contracts of thirty million dollars and more. Managed schedules for twenty professional workers in several different departments.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRODUCTS

• Carriveau, R.S. (2016). Connecting the dots: Developing student learning outcomes and outcome-based assessments. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publications. [Chapters include creating measurable outcomes, making assessment plans, linking outcomes to assessments, developing high-quality rubrics, measuring critical thinking, calculating outcome attainment, reporting outcome attainment, and making instructional decisions].
• Carriveau, R.S. www.outcomesassessment.tools web site. Online outcome and assessment development tools to accompany Connecting the Dots. Users can develop outcome statements that are automatically coded to a three level outcomes model, use a pre coded work sheet for test item planning, develop an item bank and quizzes in which the item codes are automatically associate with the outcome statement codes, and create and administration a quiz with outcome statement codes in the results. The quiz administration tool is currently in the field testing stage of development.
• Turner, P.M. & Carriveau, R.S. (2010). Next generation course design. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. [Chapters include elements of course design, how students learn, outcome based assessment and course design, and enabling course redesign].
• Alonzo, A., Basaraba, D., Tindal, G., Carriveau, R.S. (2009). They read, but how well do they understand? An empirical look at the nuances of measuring reading comprehension. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 35(1), 34-44. Hammill Institute on Disabilities. Hosted at http://online.sagepub.com.
• Carriveau, R.S. & Blake, A. (2016). Outcome attainment measures versus grades: A validity issue. Presented at SoTL conference, University of Southern Georgia, Savannah GA 2016. Published in conference proceedings.
• Carriveau, R.S, www.QuickScore.org. Originally published as the Carriveau Individual Profile Reading Assessment (CIPRA) for grades 1-8 (English and Spanish). Over 200,000 students tested. The CIPRA is now all on-line and is called the Quick Score Reading Assessment Program. The assessment is an outcomes based multi-levels program that assesses student competency on eight specific learning outcomes, including higher order thinking, that are consistent across all eight test levels.
• Carriveau, R.S. (2018) Articles written for the University of North Texas Teaching Commons web site that include: Assessment as a teaching tool; Assessment as a learning tool; Best study strategies for students; Assessment to evaluate student learning; When grading, validity matters; The power of formative assessment and feedback; Why test score reliability and validity are important; Using taxonomies to create outcomes and assessments; Why testing knowledge is not just regurgitation; Selected response exams best practices; Cognitive load and test anxiety.

CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS PRESENTED

PARTIAL LIST FROM OVER 50 FROM 2009-2018
• Anatomy of Course Redesign
• Course Redesign Challenges
• Course Redesign Effect on Student Learning
• Critical Thinking and Item Validation
• Evaluation Strategies for Department Chairs
• Goal Attainment, A Group Level Model
• Measuring Critical Thinking with MC Items
• Multidimensional Approach to Quality Assurance
• Outcome Based Assessment & Evaluation, An Overview
• Outcome Attainment vs Grades
• Program Evaluation Strategies
• The Accreditation Connection
• Using Assessment Results to Design Blended Courses
• Using Outcome Attainment Values for Knowledge Management
• Challenging the Coin of the Realm; Outcome Attainment versus Grades
• Writing and Aligning MC test items with SLOs
• You Need a Valid Measure of Student Attainment of Learning Outcomes if you Want to Improve It
• Harnessing the Power of Formative Assessment and Feedback for Instruction, Learning, and Motivation.
• The Power of Formative Assessment, Feedback, and The Science of Learning

UNT FACULTY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS PRESENTED

Over 300 outcomes and assessment faculty workshops presented from 2006-2018.

AWARDS AND GRANTS

• 2009: UNT Provosts Annual Award for Exceptional Professional Service for development of the UNT Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness instrument.
• 2004: Arizona Department of Education award for Innovative and Creative Idea of The Year for the development of a dual-purpose assessment plan for the state testing program, saving the state seven million dollars.
• 2003: Selected as finalist to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) which sets policy for the NAEP.
• 1992: U.S. Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, program evaluation grant of $308,000 to Chapman University Evaluation Team to evaluate total grant of $3,750,000 awarded to Westside Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention.
• 1990: Nominated for outstanding presentation, Arizona Educational Research Organization
• 1989: Received Outstanding Presentation Award, Arizona Educational Research Organization.
• 1972: State Moot Court winner, University of Arizona Law School.

ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATION EXPERIENCE

• Presentations to Arizona State Board of Education
• Meeting with individual State Board members to lobby position.
• Presentations to Arizona State Legislation Education Committee on assessment issues.
• Meetings with individual State legislators.
• Presentations to Arizona Business and Educators Collaborative (ABEC)
• Presentations to executive boards and committees of Arizona educational groups.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

• Small business owner
• CEO for a small corporation
• Awarded three U.S. patents
• Three guitar instruction books published
• Professional guitarist
• Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) International

• Founder and Co-ordinator, Model OBE Learning Centers Program, Delta Motors Corporation Foundation, South Africa (1998).
• Founding Director, Transformational Corporate Training Systems (TRACTS) since 2003.
• Senior Associate, Howard Cook Associates 2003 - 2010: Leadership and performance management training and consulting.
• Academic editor/proof reader for PhD, DBA, MBA dissertations for: Business School Nederlands International, South Africa; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School, South Africa; and SMC, Switzerland.
• Freelance writer, training facilitator and entrepreneurial author, trading as Colliers Corporate Communications since 2012.
• Educator since 1979: English specialist and Matric sub-examiner.

Dr. Lovella S. Divinagracia is presently the Committee Chair of the Curriculum Review and Development initiatives of the Division of Professional Education of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas. Her most recent academic works and projects cover consultancy and conduct of researches in teaching and learning, OBE framework building, and educational program development and evaluation. She is also the former Head of the Center for Support of Higher Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of St. La Salle, who utilizes her expertise and skills in OBE curriculum, instructional designs and instructional materials development, assessments in students’ learning in all educational levels, and teacher training.  

Dr. Divinagracia specifically provides services as designer and trainer for teachers’ development programs in private and public schools at national and international levels, and lectures on pedagogical skills development for teaching professionals.  Her specializations also involve teaching graduate and undergraduate Professional Education courses and Mathematics under the Teacher Education degree programs, with special research interest in metacognition and problem solving curriculum. She is using her extensive expertise in OBE with her previous experience as Chair of the Outcomes Based Education Council of the College of Education; Secretary-Member to Social Research Ethics Review Committee; and Department Chair for Secondary and Elementary Teacher Education Programs at the University of St. La Salle. Given these three significant positions, she coordinates and provides university wide training on authentic OBE implementation and its operationalization.  

Dr. Divinagracia further enjoys a diversity of experiences in previous research and accreditation work, most notably as USLS Research Coordinator in 2013-2016 leading to institutional research involvement and paper presentations to both local and international conferences; Internal Executive Committee Chair for Instruction in a 2013 Survey, and a Co-chair for Curriculum and Instruction for a 2018 Survey, both for the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU); and Co-chair in Teaching and Learning for her university’s survey on Institutional Sustainability Assessment-Commission on Higher Education (ISA-CHED) in 2014. She has also received awards in both teaching and administration for her exemplary performances. 

She gained her PhD from The Ohio State University, USA and has been entrusted with the position of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research & Innovation) at Sultan Idris Education University as well as Dean of the Faculty of Education at University of Malaya.  She published a variety of national and international academic publications to her credit and is a Fulbright Research Fellow.  Subsequently, she presented papers both nationally and internationally and conducted several research projects with UNESCO, the British Council, Australian Universities – such as Melbourne, Sydney and the Sumitomo, Japan.  Her research areas are mathematics education, teacher education, computer-assisted assessment, higher education, and comparative education.

Over the last thirty plus years, I have served as Department Chairman, Program Director, Faculty Senate President (twice), Chair of University Rank, Tenure, and Academic Freedom (many times), Chair of University Compensation Committee (many times), Vice President of ASME Region V, Chairperson of ASME Education group, and Chairman of numerous committees and seminars to name a few. I initiated and served as coordinator of Gannon/GE Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering Program that paid students full tuition expenses and a stipend of $30,000 per year for a period of two years. The program ended in 2017 due to cutback at GE Transportation. Over 20 years, it resulted into 400 graduate engineering students and Gannon receiving multi million dollars including tuition and faculty salary.

I am also currently serving as Chair of College Industry Partnership Division (CIPD) of American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), Chair of ASME Committee on Engineering Accreditation (CEA), Chair of ASME Committee on Scholarship, Chair of Diversity and Inclusion Committee (DISC) of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), ABET Commissioner (Engineering Accreditation Commission team chair to International visiting teams). Over the years more than 30 technical papers have been published or presented to the various

Sister Rosanne Mallillin is President of St. Paul University Surigao, Philippines, and Chancellor of the St. Paul University System. Among her distinguished previous positions she was Vice-President for Academic Affairs at St. Paul University, Manila; Executive Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace; Director of Graduate Research and Professor, University of St. Tomas; and School President and Community Superior at St. Paul College San Miguel, Bulacan. Her educational background includes a Masters and Ph.D in Development Education at University of St. Tomas, and post-doctoral studies in Advanced Educational Planning at the University of London’s Institute of Education; and Alternative Educational Delivery System at Catholic University, Washington, DC.

Sister Rosanne has been the driving force in Outcome-Based Education design and implementation within the St. Paul University System in the Philippines.  She orchestrated and participated actively in the team that formulated the first-ever life-performance outcomes framework among Filipino Universities, and initiated a curriculum design process at St. Paul Surigao to implement it throughout their programs and courses.  In addition, she initiated a restructuring of course delivery that created a better use of instructional time and expanded learning opportunities for students, and is in the process of redesigning the entire teacher education program around OBE’s philosophy and principles to prepare teacher candidates to be competent OBE implementers in their careers.

Dr. Darin Detwiler is Assistant Dean and Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies. He is an administrative leader with a history of educational excellence and driving innovation and efficiency across a large, diverse portfolio focusing on leading-edge pedagogy and student success. With over 25 years of teaching experience in secondary education, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, his work in this field has been recognized with the National Science Teachers' Association / Toyota Tapestry Award for Innovation in Science Literacy Education, the Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence (Biotechnology), the Washington State Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching History, and the Northeastern University College of Professional Studies Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Additionally, Detwiler is an internationally recognized leader in regulatory compliance and public health pertaining to food, regarded as “One of the most well-known, respected, and accomplished people in the food safety industry” (Food Safety News).  In 2018, he received the International Association for Food Protection’s  “Distinguished Service Award.” He is a columnist, a TEDx featured speaker, frequent keynote speaker, and media consultant. Author of Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions and of Building the Future of Food Safety Technology: Blockchain and Beyond.  

Dr. Pickering is the co-creator, co-founder, and Executive Director of Iowa BIG. Iowa BIG is a fully learner-centered, transformational OBE learning environment driven by student passion, intense community engagement, and highly authentic and contextualized projects focused on developing student competencies. Dr. Pickering is also the Associate Director of Education Reimagined, a non-profit located in Washington D.C. dedicated to connecting and growing a powerful network of learner-centered educators and environments. The principles of learner-centered and transformational OBE are highly aligned and compatible.

• Co-Founder and President, Spady & Uy Center for Transformational Learning and Leadership Inc.
• Dean, School of Civil, Environmental and Geological Engineering, Mapua Institute of Technology (1st ABET Accredited Civil and Environmental Engineering program in East Asia)
• Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Technical Committee Member for Civil Engineering
• Board Member for Civil Engineering, Philippine Technological Council (PTC) Accreditation and Certification Board for Engineering and Technology (ACBET)

Dr. Janet Jones brings enormous theoretical and practical experience and expertise to the Outcome-Based Education movement through a thirty-year career that includes: 

      * Brain compatible learning approaches to curriculum and student learning,

      * Developing a 21^st century staff development program,

      * System-wide curriculum auditing,

      * Experience within the K-12 public school system of the USA as an Executive Director, District Director of Staff Development, Vice Principal, Building Counseling Director, Teacher, and Counselor; plus

      * Over eight years as a Graduate level Professor at three different universities, teaching curriculum development, program audits, and innovative instructional design. 

Despite this great diversity of responsibilities, Jan’s current career emphases and priorities are brain compatible learning, instructional relevancy, future focused curricula, creative solutions, collaborative processes and, of course, energizing fun for educators at all levels of the profession!  As a Founding Director of the Vision Into Action Associates (VIAA) consulting team out of San Antonio, Texas, she orchestrates consulting services that provide school districts with futures program analyses, revitalized system-wide program design, and professional development.  Dr. Jones is also the founding Director of Millennial Minds (www.millennialminds.com) and its related Educational Consulting Services.

Dr. Ralph Jasparro’s educational career includes service as a middle and high school teacher, high school principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent of schools, and university professor.  His first introduction to Outcome-Based Education came in 1986 when he attended Dr. William Spady’s session on OBE at a national conference and was immediately intrigued with the outcome-based approach to comprehensive school improvement. As a superintendent he was committed to improving teaching, learning, and leadership in his district and launched a comprehensive curriculum improvement process focusing on: outcomes for students at all grade levels, and on continued professional development for teachers and administrators.  Following his superintendency, Ralph continued working in public schools as a consultant, eventually collaborating with Dr. Spady in implementing a comprehensive OBE Strategic Design process in Rhode Island school districts and a statewide OBE professional development program for all RI educators.

Later Ralph taught in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI where he offered courses in change leadership and curriculum design.  He also served on the university’s team that designed a doctoral program in which all courses were outcomes based and assessments were performance based.  He also chaired the university’s outcomes and assessment committee and organized professional development programs for university faculty and administrators in the design and implementation of outcomes for all programs in the university. That training included a program on OBE in higher education.  Although now retired, Ralph continues his work in education by serving on various boards of directors and judging high school senior student projects.

Professor Dr. A.F.M. Saiful Amin, renowned educator and expert in the field of engineering, is a leading proponent and promoter of engineering education and sustainable infrastructure in Bangladesh. As an experienced civil engineer and leader in groundbreaking engineering research, he has been teaching and researching as well as designing, constructing, repairing, and maintaining installations for over 25 years.

In 1996, as an undergraduate in Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, he received the Gold Medal from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for graduating in first place with first-class honors. He received his PhD. from Saitama University in Japan in 2001, researching earthquake-resistant bridge design, and since 2010, he has been Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at BUET.

Dr. Amin is the director of BUET's Institute for Disaster Prevention and Urban Safety, focused on research on disaster management and disaster risk reduction and creating a more skilled workforce for the country. He currently leads the country's largest research project on earthquake-related disaster management and natural disaster-related risk reduction. Run with the help of Japan, its results will play a major role in making national policy in a host of relevant fields.

Dr. Amin also plays a vital role in improving the quality of education in engineering as Vice Chairman and the Acting Chairman of the Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, a provisional signatory of the Washington Accord.

From 1998 to 2007, Dr. Amin conducted fundamental research on using high-damping rubber bearings to protect bridges from earthquakes in Japan, Bangladesh, and Germany. This internationally tested and successful technology has been directly applied in the construction of the second Kanchpur-Meghna-Gomti bridge recently constructed on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, for the first time in Bangladesh.

On behalf of BUET, Dr. Amin also serves as the team leader in the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Rail Link Project, one of the mega projects of the Government of Bangladesh, and he is also serving as an expert in designing, constructing, repairing, and maintaining important buildings and infrastructure as well as Bangabandhu Bridge, Dhaka Elevated Expressway, Payra Bridge, Bangladesh Textile University, and various large and small bridges.

Leading Promoter of the Bridge Engineering Discipline in Bangladesh

A respected Fellow with the Institution of Engineers in Bangladesh, Dr. Amin has studied, participated in research and conferences, received awards and grants, traveled and given lectures in many locations, including Germany, Japan, America, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, and Europe. Throughout many of these countries, Dr. Amin has personally examined bridges in his efforts to advance the knowledge of bridge engineering in Bangladesh. Closely associated with the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, since 2001, Dr. Amin has also been an Editor for the Journal of Civil Engineering of the Institution of Engineers, which he helped with its online launch in 2006.

Founding and nurturing the Bridge Engineering discipline in Bangladesh to assist his country in sustainable infrastructure development, Dr. Amin has, since 2005, been the main organizer of a series of international conferences (2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020) that have become a primary force for innovation, acquisition, development, and application of appropriate technologies in Bridge Engineering for Bangladesh. As each conference has grown, both domestically and internationally, its contribution to the development of bridge-engineering in the country is profound and pivotal.

He is also the Chair of the Bangladesh Branch of IABSE, a Switzerland-based international association for professionals in bridges and installations. The IABSE-JSCE Conference on Advances in Bridge Engineering-III—held in Bangladesh in 2015—celebrated the Centenary of Hardinge Bridge (1915-2015) together with the theme of overcoming engineering and social challenges in owning a resilient infrastructure. Through this landmark conference, Dr. Amin was able to communicate the importance of direct application of bridge engineering to the common man. The subsequent international conference presented to the engineering community in 2020 focused on the need to improve the quality of engineering.

Background and Education

Dr. Amin's ancestral home is in Mohanpur village of Matlab thana in Chandpur district. He was born in 1971 in Dhaka. The eldest of three brothers and sisters, he was raised in Dhaka by his parents – his father, Dr. Muhammad Nurul Amin, a jute researcher, and his mother, Professor Hosne Ara Amin, who taught Home Economics in college. From a young age, Saiful Amin dreamed of becoming an engineer, and he became one out of his passion for it.

He passed SSC with Star Marks from Government Laboratory High School in 1987, and in 1991, he was admitted to the Civil Engineering Department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology after placing fifth in Dhaka Board's HSC merit list from Dhaka College in 1989. In 1996, he took first place and graduated with first-class honors in Civil Engineering from BUET. Soon after graduation, he chose the Bangladesh University of Engineering as his workplace and began his teaching career as a lecturer. After completing his Master of Science studies at BUET in 1998, he moved to Japan for higher education with a scholarship from the Japanese government. Researching earthquake-resistant bridge design at Saitama University, he received his PhD. in 2001. Now he was ready to fulfill his dream of returning to Bangladesh and applying his knowledge and talents to helping his country. He joined BUET's Department of Civil Engineering as an Assistant Professor in 2001. In 2004, he was invited by the German government to study at the University of Kassel as a visiting professor, and in 2007, he was the first engineer from Bangladesh to be invited as a Fellow of the German government's prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to study at the University of Munich as a visiting professor. He became a professor in BUET's Civil Engineering Department in 2010.

Honors

In addition to his Malik Akram Hossain Gold Medal, a doctoral research scholarship from the Government of Japan (Monbusho), University Merit Scholarships, F.R. Khan Scholarship, the German government's Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship, and other honors, Dr. Amin has received numerous honors for his role in engineering education and research. He was the first Bangladeshi to receive the Japan Society of Civil Engineers International Collaboration Award (2017) for continued efforts and outstanding contributions to the infrastructural development of Bangladesh. In 2016, at the special invitation of the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, United Kingdom, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship, and in 2018, as the only South Asian ambassador among 13 special honorees from all over the world, he was invited to speak at a civic event in London marking the 200th anniversary of the Institution of Civil Engineers in the United Kingdom. In 2019, as an alumnus of Saitama University in Japan, he received an honorary invitation to give a speech in the presence of current university teachers, students, and prominent citizens of the greater Tokyo city.