GLOW Update: Meet Our Keynotes
We connect and empower education-focused professionals worldwide through professional learning and networking opportunities.

Join us at the Global Learning for an Open World (GLOW) Conference on November 13–14! Reserve your spot for this virtual professional learning experience focused on global education and innovation, and consider submitting a proposal by November 1. Additionally, we invite schools, non-profits, and companies to support this prestigious event. Details here.

Dive deeper into our lineup of keynote speakers below. We’re truly honored and excited to have such a distinguished group impart their wisdom at the 2023 GLOW Conference. A few more keynotes and featured speakers are yet to be announced, so stay tuned!

Marla Hunter

Marla Hunter is the founder and president of two companies: Live.Love.Teach! LLC, a global education consulting firm, and Live. Love. Swim! LLC, a global/mobile swim company that focuses on diversity in aquatics. She has worked with many global organizations and presented to numerous leaders to help create more inclusive organizations. As a 1st generation American with Jamaican parentage (born in the South of the United States), Marla is fully aware that diverse backgrounds and voices of our community represented in the collective make us stronger and better equipped to make positive impacts globally. Marla is an expert in providing training in DEIJB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Belonging).

Bonnie Koenig

Bonnie Koenig is a consultant working with organizations on their governance, management, and strategic planning, focusing on international engagement. She is a former executive director of Zonta International, a worldwide women’s service organization, and the Council of Great Lakes Governors. She has an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University. Ms. Koenig has lived and worked in Australia, China, France, India and Mauritania, West Africa, as well as having traveled to over 50 other countries. Visit her Going International website here.

Lasse Leponiemi

Lasse Leponiemi is passionate about youth future orientation and has worked in education and career planning since 2006. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director at HundrED — a Finnish mission-driven organization that seeks and shares inspiring innovations in education. HundrED selects 100 pedagogically sound education innovations from around the world annually and helps them spread throughout their wide network of educators in 100+ countries.

Matt Nink

Matt Nink has been the National Director for Partnerships at SKY Schools and the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) since 2021. Prior to joining SKY Schools / IAHV, Matt had twelve years of experience as a high school teacher and administrator and fifteen years of non-profit leadership experience.

In his role for SKY Schools, Matt helps create long-term partnerships with districts and states to bring the evidence-based world of SKY to more administrators, teachers, and students. Matt also helps the SKY and IAHV teams share their work at leading national and international conferences.

Shayne Swift

In addition to co-founding Girls Global Academy, Shayne Swift, MS, serves as the school’s Director of Programs and Community Engagement. She has worked for over 20 years in urban education in the Washington, D.C. area, and her work includes extensive experience with the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

Marilyn Turkovich

Marilyn Turkovich’s work has been primarily in the areas of global awareness, international education, race and social justice, and instructional design. She has worked internationally in Brazil, Croatia, Guatemala, India, and Japan and with community groups in the USA in developing new program approaches in community involvement, action, and education. She has also been involved in education as a teacher, curriculum coordinator, principal, and director of a teacher training program for the Associated Colleges and Columbia College — Chicago for all of her professional life. Currently, she is the director of the Charter of Compassion International.

Karen Venable-Croft

Karen Venable-Croft is the Co-Founder and Founding Executive Director of Girls Global Academy, an all-girls public charter high school in Washington DC. She is an experienced instructional coach for teachers of all skill levels and years of experience. During her 20-year career as an educator, Venable-Croft held different leadership roles, including Math Teacher Coordinator, Advanced Placement Coordinator, Curriculum Coordinator, School Planning and Management Team Chair, and Data Coach.

Jesse Weisz

Jesse Weisz established GEEO Teacher Travel Programs in 2007, inspired by his love for travel which began during high school trips to Europe with the US National Ultimate Frisbee team. Later, he studied film in Sydney and embarked on a sponsored three-month journey through Asia for an Australian tour company. Having visited almost 90 countries, Jesse’s passion led him to launch a business development consultancy for European ad agencies in 2003. By 2006, he reduced his consultancy work to focus on GEEO, which, by 2010, secured funding, allowing Jesse to commit full-time to a role he had volunteered in for four years.