The Exeter for Educator’s keynote speakers are open to all Summer Conference participants.
Logan McCarty
Opening Keynote | Sunday, June 21
Logan McCarty is the Director of Physical Sciences Education at Harvard University and a faculty member in the Departments of Physics and Chemistry & Chemical Biology. He has been teaching at Harvard since 1993 and earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Harvard. A recipient of multiple awards for outstanding teaching, including the Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award (2007), McCarty has designed innovative interdisciplinary courses to help undergraduates connect deeply with science.
Passionate about making complex concepts accessible to all learners, McCarty thrives on teaching outside traditional boundaries—from chemistry and physics to applied math and generative AI. He believes every student deserves clarity, curiosity, and encouragement, and he trains future educators to bring this same dedication to their classrooms. Through his teaching and mentorship, he inspires educators from diverse backgrounds to engage students meaningfully, help them discover their own passions and embrace lifelong learning.
Diane Ackerman
Closing Keynote | Thursday, June 25
The incandescent Diane Ackerman—celebrated interpreter of science and nature—is the author of two dozen highly acclaimed works of nonfiction and poetry, including The Zookeeper’s Wife and A Natural History of the Senses―books beloved by millions of readers all over the world. In prose so rich and evocative that one can feel the earth turning beneath one’s feet as one reads, Ackerman’s thrilling observations urge us to live in the moment, to wake up to nature’s everyday miracles.
Ackherman encourages teachers of every discipline to see their classrooms as generative spaces for inquiry — places where questions multiply, ideas cross-pollinate, and students come to recognize themselves as participants in a larger, shared story.