Keynote Speakers on Saturday

Fred A. Bonner II, Ed.D. is the Founding Executive Director and Chief Social Scientist at the Achievement, Research, Creativity and High-Ability (ARCH-III) Center at Prairie View A&M University, Texas’ largest HBCU. He serves as the Wilhelmina F. Delco Endowed Chair in Educational Leadership & Counseling at the College of Education and as a Texas A&M University System Regents Professor. Dr. Bonner is the Founding Chief Editor for the Journal of Minority Achievement, Creativity and Leadership (JMACL), published by the Penn State University Press and serves as the Series Editor for Routledge-published book series titled Diverse Faculty in the Academy.

With expertise and research focus involving academically gifted Black males, Black faculty in the academy, diverse faculty, Minorities in STEM and college student development, Dr. Bonner is an esteemed expert in the field of diversity in education for over 25 years.

Dr. Bonner is the author of “Building on Resilience: Models and Frameworks of Black Male Success Across the P-20 Pipeline,” which highlights the experiences of academically gifted Black males from preschool through post-college and has received national and international recognition.

Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D is a Distinguished Professor within the college specializing in special education. In addition to her faculty role in the college at Ohio State, she is also a faculty affiliate at Ohio State’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Center for Latin American Studies. She has held endowed chairs at Vanderbilt University. Ford earned all three of her degrees at Cleveland State University

Ford is known for her research about gifted education and culturally responsive, multicultural, urban education. Specifically, her work focuses on (1) the achievement gap, (2) recruiting and retaining culturally different students into gifted education, (3) multicultural curriculum and instruction, (4) culturally competent teacher training and development, (5) African American identity and (6) African American family involvement in children’s schooling. She consults with school districts and educational and legal organizations on these topics. 
  
Ford has given more than 2,000 presentations and has published more than 375 articles and book chapters; she has authored 15 books. Professor Ford is ranked by EdWeek as one of the top 200 influential scholars in the nation; is ranked as one of the top 2% of scientists in the world by a Stanford study.