The Exeter for Educator’s Featured Speaker Series is open to all Summer Conference participants.
Check back for further details on the Featured Speaker Series times and locations.
Rebecka Peterson
2023 National Teacher of the Year Rebecka Peterson is a math teacher who loves stories. Rebecka is in her 16th year of education and has called Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, her home school since 2012. Rebecka’s message as National Teacher of the Year highlighted teachers’ stories of the good that is happening in education. She believes that when we learn each other’s stories, we carry a piece of each other with us. This helps us to authentically advocate for our students, teachers, and their communities. Rebecka is a proud immigrant of Iranian-Swedish descent and lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her husband, Brett, and their son, Jona.
Karen Tei Yamashita
The author of nine books, including I Hotel, finalist for the National Book Award, and most recently, Sansei and Sensibility, Yamashita will serve as the conference’s featured speaker in 2025. The recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and a U.S. Artists’ Ford Foundation Fellowship, she is professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Aida Conroy
Aida graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 2009. After graduating from Columbia University she joined Teach for America in her hometown of Chicago. Aida taught English and History at the Noble Academy, a Harkness-based public charter school in Chicago, for four years. There she created the curriculum that supported 9th grade students as they transitioned to Harkness learning. She was the inaugural Internal Harkness Mentor responsible for coaching and supporting 9-12th grade teachers as they implemented Harkness in their classrooms across disciples. Since 2019 she has worked with districts and states to improve outcomes for students as an advisor and facilitator of adult learning. She is now the Senior Director of Teaching and Learning at Panorama Education. In her presentation, Harkness is Not a One Time Event, Aida Conroy will share reflections on using the Harkness pedagogy in public schools. This talk will share concrete strategies for teachers and administrators seeking to embed Harkness into their classroom or their school. Attendees will leave with a Harkness 101 toolkit with embedded resources from across disciplines.