Keynote: Mind-Shame, The Dark Heart of Learning Difficulties
Breakout Session: What's At Stake and What's Involved in Learning to Read

David Boulton is a Learning Activist who has conducted seminars and workshops for educators as well as government and business leaders for over twenty years. He is the Executive Director of the acclaimed “Children of the Code” project and producer and interviewer of the “Children of the Code Documentary” series. His articles on learning have appeared in The Brain-Mind Bulletin, In Context, and The California School Board’s Journal, among others. Articles about his work have been featured in journals and books including The Journal of Developmental Education; Poisoned Apple; The Bell Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure. He has been an advisor to the Chair of the California Senate Education Committee and a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Gateway Project. Boulton has founded five companies and been awarded four patents. In the summer of 2009 he appeared in the PBS Television show "The New Science of Learning: Brain Fitness for Kids."

Keynote: Reading for All: How Multi-tiered Instruction Can Help Rescue Students with Dyslexia
Breakout Session: Instruction for Older Students with a Word-Level Deficit

Barbara A. Wilson began her career as a special education teacher and team chairperson for I.E.P. meetings and observed that most referrals to special education were because of reading. She sought to find a solution and enrolled in the Orton-Gillingham Language Therapist Certification program at the Reading Disabilities Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. After many years at the hospital clinic teaching adults with dyslexia and successfully working with middle and high school students at her private clinic, she authored the Wilson Reading System®. Barbara has written several articles and chapters on literacy instruction, including a chapter entitled "Instruction for Middle and High School Students Struggling with Reading" in the 2nd (2005) edition of "Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills," and a revised chapter in the 3rd (2011) edition entitled "Instruction for Older Students with a Word-Level Reading Disability." Both books were edited by Judith Birsh.

Barbara has served on the committees of several national educational organizations, including the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, Founding Fellow; The International Dyslexia Association, Chair of the Nominating Committee; New England Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, Branch Secretary; The International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC), Board of Directors; National Institute for Literacy, Bridges to Practice project, consultant.

In early 2004, Barbara was invited to the White House to speak to the President’s Domestic Policy Adviser on Education regarding the issue of literacy in America’s Middle and High Schools. Barbara has also been involved in several government-funded reading research projects.