» Dyslexia Summit 2016

Larry L. Banks is a Professor and Chair of Media Arts Department at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University. He has an extensive background in the film industry and as an educator for several years. Recently Larry has written the forward to a book called the Golden Apple volume II By Edgar Ridley, discussing the problems of symbolic thinking and finding the symptomatic way out of an international dilemma in cognition. He is working on a documentary called “Hidden Talents” that explores the unknown strengths of Dyslexic individuals. In addition, Larry is the Board Chair of Headstrong Nation a non-profit organization dedicated to the self determination of adult dyslexics. He also speaks and runs workshops on the plight of Adult dyslexics hidden within society.

Jonathan Mooney is a writer and learning activist who did not learn to read until he was 12 years old. In 1997, as an undergraduate at Brown University, Jonathan co-founded Project Eye-To-Eye, a non-profit advocacy organization for students with learning differences. He has written two books, Learning Outside the Lines and The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal. Both books are considered foundational texts in the disability rights movement, the inclusive education movement, and the learning revolution. Jonathan is a highly sought after speaker on neurodiversity, education reform, the learning revolution, and creating college and career pathways for at risk youth.

Peggy Stern is the founder and CEO of Dyslexiaville, Inc, the first media company for kids with dyslexia and other learning differences. Dyslexiaville’s mission is to help kids succeed in school and life because of, and not in spite of, their learning differences. Peggy is an Academy Award-winning film Producer/Director who has been working for more than 30 years. Her dyslexia led her to filmmaking and animation at a young age. In March 2006 Stern won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Stern has produced for PBS, HBO, Turner Classic Movies, Teachers College at Columbia University, The National PTA and National YWCA among others.

In her role as Dyslexiaville's founder, Stern engages with children, parents & teachers and speaks at conferences across the country about the dyslexic experience and her vision to change the future for the next generation of dyslexics through storytelling. She received her BA from Harvard University and her senior thesis film, STEPHANIE, was turned into a PBS documentary Special and broadcast nationally. Creating Dyslexiaville is also a family affair, as her dyslexic teenage daughter Emma has been a key advisor!

UCLA Wasserman Dean Marcelo Suárez-Orozco leads two academic departments, 16 nationally renowned research institutes, and two innovative demonstration schools at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. His research focuses on cultural psychology and psychological anthropology, with an emphasis on mass migration, globalization, and education. He will speak on the ever changing public education system and how it impacts students with learning differences.

Maryanne Wolf is the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research, and a professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. She received her doctorate from Harvard University, where she began her work on the neurological underpinnings of reading, language and dyslexia. Most recently, she has conducted studies in reading intervention, early prediction, fluency and naming speed, cross-linguistic studies of reading and the relationship between entrepreneurial talents and dyslexia. The author of numerous scientific publications, Professor Wolf’s most recent book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (HarperCollins, 2007), was written for the general public and translated into 13 languages. Described as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, it received the Marek Award from the New York International Dyslexia Association for the best book of the year on reading. Among Professor Wolf’s honors are the Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Psychological Association, the Teaching Excellence Award from the American Psychological Association and the Distinguished Researcher Award from Tufts University. For her work on dyslexia, she has received a Fulbright Research Fellowship, the Norman Geschwind Lecture Award from the International Dyslexia Association and the Alice Ansara Award. With colleagues Robin Morris and Maureen Lovett, Professor Wolf received the Shannon Award for Innovative Research from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and several multiyear NICHD grants to investigate new approaches to reading intervention, including the RAVE-O reading-intervention program, created by Professor Wolf and members of the reading center at Tufts.