Dr. Smilkstein speaks nationally and internationally on brain-compatible education. She has taught in middle school through graduate school including 28 years at North Seattle Community College. Currently Professor Emerita North Seattle Community College and invited faculty in Educational Psychology at Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education, Everett Campus. Publications include articles and books on brain-based curriculum and pedagogy. Author of We're Born to Learn: Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Curriculum (Corwin Press, 2003), which won the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society's Educator's Award of the Year, 2004; the second edition will be… published in 2011. She is a co-author of Igniting Student Potential Using the Natural Human Learning Process (Corwin Press, 2007). M.A. (English, Michigan State University), Ph.D. (Educational Psychology, University of Washington). She has received many teaching awards, including the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development's Excellence Award, 1991, 1995; the College Reading and Learning Association's highest honor, the Robert Griffin Award, 2005; Induction as a Fellow of the American Council of Developmental Education Associations, 2006, the highest honor in the field of Developmental Education.
Deborah B. Daiek, Ph.D. serves as the Associate Dean for Learning Support Services, Schoolcraft College, Livonia, Michigan. She oversees the College's Library, Collegiate Skills Reading Department, English as a Second Language courses, the Education Transfer Program, and the Learning Assistance Center (LAC) which houses tutoring, Peer Assisted Learning, Writing Fellows, Student-Athlete Support System, and University Bound. Under her direction, Schoolcraft's LAC was the recipient of the John Champaign Memorial Award for an Outstanding Developmental Education Program. She provides new faculty orientation workshops on ways to engage students in the learning process. She holds a Bachelor of… Arts degree cum laude as well as an MA in Adult Learning, both from Western Michigan University. Additionally she holds a doctorate from Wayne State University in Instructional Technology, with an emphasis on cognition. She is twice the Past President of MDEC, the Michigan Chapter of NADE, and remains actively involved. In 1998 she was given the Outstanding Developmental Educator Award. She is a member of NADE and CRLA as well. She co-chaired NADE's Brain Compatible Education SPIN, and received NADE's Administrator for Outstanding Support of Developmental Education Award. She served as Treasurer and President for the North Central Reading Association (NCRA).
Nancy M. Anter, MAT, MA is an educational consultant and freelance writer with over 20 years of experience in the field of developmental education. She has taught reading and writing at the high school, community college, and university level, and has offered national and local workshops and seminars on learning theory and composition. She coordinated the learning center at Wayne State University. Her work involved instruction for student athletes, ESL students, and the general university population as well as individual students preparing for graduate level exams. Because she witnessed student success at both ends of the academic spectrum, developmental level to graduate level, she… understands the importance of starting instruction where students are comfortable and gradually leading them to higher levels. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and two M.A.s from Wayne State University -- one in English education and the other in English, with an emphasis in composition theory. Her publications include articles in the Learning Assistance Digest and American College Personnel Association. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Pregnancy Aid and is a member of MDEC, the Michigan chapter of NADE.