Speakers – RDCA Special Interest Group

2022: 8th RDCA SIG, 26 July

Topic: “How Do Creativity and Motivation Relate as Assessed by the RDCA and RDMA?”)

Fredricka Reisman, PhD

Fredricka Reisman is Emerita Professor and Founder Drexel School of Education; Creator and Former Director, Creativity and Innovation Programs; Director Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity and Motivation (FRC); Co-Director, Drexel-Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation, and former Drexel Assistant Provost- Assessment & Evaluation. Dr. Reisman was awarded the 2001 New Millennium Foundation Technology Award, the national 2002 Champion of Creativity Award by the American Creativity Association (ACA) and was the recipient of the 2017 National Association for Gifted Children E. Paul Torrance Award. She was honored in Spring 2020 by Drexel where the university-wide faculty creativity award has been renamed “Freddie Reisman Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity Awards”. She is Co-Founder- Education, Learning, and Brain Sciences (E-LaBS) Research Collaborative; and President Emerita, American Creativity Association. Dr. Reisman continues to teach in the Creativity & Innovation programs and to chair and serve on dissertation committees for doctoral students interested in the Creativity & Innovation concentration. Her PhD in Mathematics Education is from Syracuse University. Prior to Drexel, Dr. Reisman served as Professor and Chair of the Division of Elementary Education at the University of Georgia; grades 3 and 5 elementary, middle school, high school mathematics teacher in New York State; and as a mathematics education instructor at Syracuse University. Dr, Reisman has been awarded over $14,800,000 private and government grants to support her research and teacher ed projects and has served as evaluator on funded engineering projects and numerous Pennsylvania and New York State university teacher certification programs. She has created several books, contributions to books, journal publications, and assessments that focus on mathematics learning and teaching and creativity applications including a 2021 co-authored book published by Routledge entitled Using Creativity to Address Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia: Assessment and Techniques, and is co-author of a 2023 book entitled Creativity and Motivation Research Translated to Benefit Teachers and Students: Lab to Learner contracted with Cambridge University Press. She has served since 2013 as editor for the Knowledge, Innovation & Enterprise (KIE) conference books. You can email her at freddie@drexel.edu

Larry Keiser, PhD

Larry Keiser is Assistant Clinical Professor and Program Director for the graduate and undergraduate Creativity & Innovation degree and certificate programs in Drexel University’s School of Education. He also serves as the Associate Director for Drexel’s Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity & Motivation (FRC), an international center whose team of creativity experts and education and business practitioners identify and share the best research in creativity and motivation from all disciplines, and Co-Director of the Drexel/Torrance Center for Creativity & Innovation. Dr. Keiser’s other research activities center on investigating individuals’ creativity levels and workplaces (K-16 education, corporate, and business), particularly how education leaders’ and corporate/business leaders’ creativity mindsets relate to the entrepreneurial mindset. He presents on these topics nationally and internationally, has served on the Board of the American Creativity Association, and has Chaired the E.P. Torrance International Roundtable on Creative Thinking for the annual Knowledge, Innovation and Enterprise (KIE) International Conference for the last several years. Dr. Keiser has been funded by the US and PA Departments of Education, NSF, and private foundations in collaboration with other Drexel faculty and external partners to design and implement educational partnerships. The projects include designing/implementing national and PA school/district partnerships in support of alternative preparation pathways for K-12 teachers; conducting professional development activities for improving pre-service and in-service teachers’ STEM content knowledge and pedagogy; designing/implementing school leadership improvement programs; better integrating appropriate technology into PreK-16 teaching and learning processes; and promoting creativity and innovation in schools, the workplace, and in life.

Craig Bach, PhD

Craig Bach is an associate research professor at Drexel University in the School of Education and Director of Evaluation for the Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity and Motivation and the Education Passport. An expert in learning assessment and analytics, accreditation, program evaluation, and instructional technologies, Craig is an education leader with demonstrated success developing impactful and relevant education products and services across a broad range of educational types and settings, including early learning, K-12 and post-secondary settings as well as programs in for-profit, public and private institutions. Craig has focused his efforts on developing sustainable, data-informed, value-add approaches to challenges facing institutions in response to demographic and market shifts and the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Prior to his current role, Craig was Goddard Systems Inc.’s vice president of education, where he led the educational programming and training for Goddard Schools. He also served as Drexel University’s vice provost for institutional research, assessment, and effectiveness, and as vice president of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Kaplan Higher Education. Craig holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in mathematics and philosophy, and a master’s degree in mathematics and a doctorate in logic and the methodology of science from the University of California, Berkeley. He also serves as a member of The Goddard School’s Educational Advisory Board, a team of acknowledged experts in various fields of early childhood education.

Mariette Fourie, DEd Educational Psychology

Mariette Fourie, a DEd graduate in Educational Psychology, with well-established knowledge, experience, and expertise in mixed method research design (extensive quantitative research), is the Quality Manager: Academic Programmes, and a proud affiliated member of the Optentia research unit at the North-West University (NWU) in South Africa. Mariette is rendering support and professional statistical analysis to postgraduate students and academics, as well as national and international studies. She retains more than 20 years’ experience in education. Mariette is an international facilitator for the Online Learning Consortium, offering online professional development workshops pertaining to Neuro, Cognitive and Learning Sciences, as well as the Instructional Designer Certificate Program. She is further an affiliated researcher of the Education, Learning and Brain Sciences (E-LaBS) in the School of Education, Drexel University. Mariette was appointed as subject matter expert for Drexel University in Mind, Brain and Education sciences and the Learning Sciences during 2020 and 2021 and developed various course content in the Higher Education Leadership Program. She has also presented numerous professional development workshops for faculty on teaching, learning, and assessment nationally and internationally. Mariette’s expertise further includes Higher Education (HE) Research and Development, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of faculty.

Her DEd study developed the MEIPAC (Model to engender information processing ability in the classroom) and included the theoretical frameworks of Positive Psychology, Cognition, and Educational Neuroscience. She has investigated the role of various learning theories (the theory of the mind, psychosocial, cognitive, socio-constructivist, social cognitive, and metacognitive), as influenced by these theoretical frameworks, in how learners learn best. As part of her master’s degree in Educational Psychology, Mariette developed the SELOC (Teacher Efficacy and Locus of Control Scale). The findings of her study contributed to the professional development of teachers to better prepare them and to maintain a supportive setting in which they can grow professionally and contribute to student achievement and academic success. Mariette obtained a postgraduate diploma in higher education with specialization in academic development focusing on enabling disruptive spaces towards facilitating the epistemological discourse towards transformation and social justice in higher education. These disruptive spaces are facilitated from ideology to engaged scholarship and pedagogic responsiveness in knowing, becoming, and being – a reflexive praxis approach. This qualification was further underpinned by a critical and social realist approach.

Mariette’s immersed research interest enables her to further contribute to the interrelated and interdisciplinary fields of educational neuroscience, educational psychology, and neuropsychology. Mariette’s research is further inspired by the epistemic becoming of students in higher education (HE) with an emphasis on epistemic justice and quality in HE. Mariette regard herself as a critical realist, mapping the ontological character of social reality. Her professional character further portrays a strong disposition towards social justice and transformation in HE. Her current research focuses on the provision of epistemological access in HE disciplines focusing on epistemic cognition and assessment. In classrooms where teachers explicitly focus on the arguments and justifications for ideas in their discipline (i.e., emphasising not just the what but also the why and how of learning), students are more likely to engage in effective epistemic cognition. The overall quality in HE is a prerequisite to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and the competencies that they need to be successful after graduation. Within the ambit of fitness for purpose and transformation, quality is defined as achieving impact in teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) within an overarching fitness of purpose framework as it refers to knowledge creation focusing on epistemic justice and the provision of epistemological access in higher education.

Kristen Betts, EdD

Kristen Betts is a Clinical Professor in the School of Education at Drexel University. Dr. Betts has over 20 years of experience in higher education and serving in key leadership positions within private, public, and for-profit institutions. Dr. Betts teaches in the Mind, Brain & Learning certificate program, the Master’s program in Higher Education Leadership, the Master’s program in Creativity & Innovation, and the Doctoral program in Educational Leadership & Administration. She is also the founding Director of the Education, Learning and Brain Sciences (E-LaBS) Research Collaborative. Additionally, she serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Freddie Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity & Motivation. Dr. Betts’ expertise is in online and blended education, curriculum and instructional design, and evaluation. Her research focus is on Mind, Brain, and Education Science, creativity, technology-enhanced learning, Online Human Touch, and professional development. Dr. Betts is a Fulbright Specialist, Middle States Commission on Higher Education peer evaluator, and an instructor with the Online Learning Consortium certificate programs. Dr. Betts is a grant reviewer for the Hong Kong Grants Council and has been a reviewer for 14 journals and publishing companies. Dr. Betts has also been a keynote and invited speaker at conferences and government-supported events in Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Canada, and across the United States. Dr. Betts has served as lead the investigator on five international studies to examine the awareness of neuromyths, general knowledge about the brain, evidence-based practices, and creativity across higher education, PK-12 education, and coaching.

1st FRC Lecture & ‘Freddie Reisman Award for Contributions to Transactional Research in Creativity and Motivation’

Guest Speaker: Jeff Westphal

Jeff Westphal is an entrepreneur, author, and Founder of the new venture, MeaningSphere, Inc. He is a recipient of the American Creativity Association (ACA) Champion of Creativity Award and in 2014, served as a panelist for the ACA World Conference, Creativity in Action, sponsored by the Drexel/Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation Lecture Series entitled “Creativity as a Bridge Between Education and Corporation”.

Prior to Jeff’s role as Founder of MeaningSphere, he served as CEO of Vertex, Inc. As CEO, he spent decades growing and developing Vertex into a global leader in tax software. He maintained an eye on transformation in the tax industry while leading a developmental culture within the company and guiding Vertex to 10-fold growth during his twenty-year tenure as CEO, serving fortune 500 companies like Apple and Starbucks. Vertex went public on the Nasdaq exchange in July 2020. Jeff served as Chairman of the Board from 1996 to 2020. Vertex undertook an IPO on the Nasdaq exchange in July 2020.

Jeff became intent on using his resources and experience to advance transformational change toward deeper meaning in business, education and autism. His new venture, MeaningSphere, Inc., looks to support people seeking to discover, create and pursue deeper meaning in their work. He co-executive produced the documentary film, “Unschooled,” that explores the intrinsic meaning-based learning method. Along with his wife, Jenifer, and through the film company, Wavelength Productions, that she founded and leads, the Westphal’s expect to release, Let Me Be Me,” a feature documentary film about the relationship-based approach their family undertook to support their son, Kyle, diagnosed with autism.

Jeff is also a close collaborator with Dr. Fredricka Reisman (Drexel University) where together they created the Drexel University Reisman Center for Translational Research in Creativity and Motivation.

2020: 6th RDCA SIG, 21 July, Virtual

Topic: “Using Creativity to Address Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia: Assessments and Techniques”

Speaker: Lori Severino, EdD, Assistant Professor, Drexel University, USA

Lori Severino, EdD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Drexel University. Prior to her work at Drexel University, she taught in public education in special education for 26 years. During her tenure in the public school system, she taught students with reading disabilities, specifically dyslexia. Dr. Severino is a certified Wilson Language Trainer and was instrumental in bringing Wilson Level 1 certification to Drexel’s Master of Special Education program and the Reading Specialist certification. Currently, she is working with faculty from the school of education and biomedical engineering to create a reading comprehension app for adolescents that uses fNIR technology to ensure the questions to the reading passages are text-based, an important factor with the new common core standards. Dr. Severino offers professional development training for teachers on topics such as reading and writing instruction for struggling students, differentiated instruction, and working with students with emotional behavior disorders. She was an invited speaker on differentiated instruction in the content areas at the Pennsylvania Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. She spoke on the same topic at the International Division of Council for Exceptional Children in Braga, Portugal. Dr. Severino has presented at numerous conferences both nationally and internationally.

2019 Panelists, 5th RDCA SIG, 3rd September, Dubai, UAE

Topic: ‘RDCA Applied to those with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia in Concert with the Emerging Fields of Creative Counseling and Mind, Brain, Education science’’

Helene Maliko-Abraham, EdD, Brookdale Community College & Monmouth University, USA

Helene Maliko-Abrahamis a 2016 graduate of Drexel’s EdD in Educational Leadership and Management program. She was amongst the first cohort of students who successfully graduated from the Creativity and Innovation specialization. She is also the 2017 recipient of the American Creativity Association’s E. Paul Torrance award for Graduate Research. Dr. Maliko-Abraham has over 15 years of experience working for the Federal Aviation Administration as a Human Factors Specialist. Her area of expertise is in air traffic decision support systems, and operational and developmental testing of Air Traffic Control surface surveillance systems. She has traveled extensively throughout the United States and internationally in support of the development and operational implementation of these systems. She is also an adjunct psychology professor at Brookdale Community College and Monmouth University, where she is also enrolled in the graduate Mental Health Counseling program where she is working towards obtaining her license to practice professional counseling. Upon completion, she will specialize in the implementation of creative counseling techniques in mental health counseling.

Fredricka Reisman, PhD, Drexel University, PA, USA

Fredricka Reisman is emeritus professor and founding Director of Drexel’s School of Education, oversees the online Master’s in Creativity and Innovation degree and certificates in the School of Education, as well as the forthcoming online EdD concentration in Creativity and Innovation. Additionally, she served as Assistant Provost for Assessment and Evaluation, Interim Associate Dean for Research of the Goodwin College, and is Director of the Drexel/Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation.

Lori Severino, EdD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the School of Education at Drexel University, USA

Lori Severino, EdD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the School of Education at Drexel University. Prior to her work at Drexel University, she taught in public education in special education for 26 years. During her tenure in the public school system, she taught students with reading disabilities, specifically dyslexia. Dr. Severino is a certified Wilson Language Trainer and was instrumental in bringing Wilson Level 1 certification to Drexel’s Master of Special Education program and the Reading Specialist certification. Currently, she is working with faculty from the school of education and biomedical engineering to create a reading comprehension app for adolescents that uses fNIR technology to ensure the questions to the reading passages are text-based, an important factor with the new common core standards. Dr. Severino offers professional development training for teachers on topics such as reading and writing instruction for struggling students, differentiated instruction, and working with students with emotional behavior disorders. She was an invited speaker on differentiated instruction in the content areas at the Pennsylvania Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. She spoke on the same topic at the International Division of Council for Exceptional Children in Braga, Portugal. Dr. Severino has presented at numerous conferences both nationally and internationally.

Larry Keiser, PhD, Drexel University, USA

Dr Larry Keiser is Clinical Assistant Professor, Program Lead for Creativity & Innovation Programs, and the Executive Director of Special Projects, Communications & Administration for Drexel University’s School of Education, as well as Drexel’s Teacher Certification Officer. He has been with Drexel for 32 years in various positions, but primarily on new program development, externally funded projects, and partnerships with Philadelphia organizations and schools to implement alternative preparation pathways of K-12, STEM teachers; enhance pre-service and in-service teachers’ and elementary/secondary students’ mathematics and science content knowledge; better incorporate appropriate technology into the teaching and K-16 learning process; and promote creativity and innovation in schools, the workplace and in life. Larry presents nationally and internationally on the need to infuse creativity and innovation into K-16 education. He serves as adjunct instructor in the School’s Creativity and Innovation Program for courses on the Foundations of Creativity, Tools and Techniques in Creativity and Creativity in the Workplace. Larry has moderated the RDCA SIG since its launch in 2015.

2018 Panelists, 4th RDCA SIG, July 18, Prague, Czech Republic

Topic: ‘“The Power of Becoming Aware of Our Creative Strengths and Weaknesses—and How this Helped Us Cope with Life Changing Happenings!’’

Darren Stoddart, Drexel University, USA

Darren Stoddart is active in music composition, visual arts, theatre arts, and new product development. He has led creativity and design workshops at The Kansas City Art Institute, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, University of Notre Dame, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Darren started his professional career as an industrial designer earning six patents for his work. Today he is a Senior Director of Innovation and New Product Development at Masco Coatings, the maker of BEHR Paint and KILZ Primers. He is currently working towards his Masters of Science degree in Creativity and Innovation through Drexel University, writing new material with his band, sculpting and carving South Pacific influenced artifacts, and building special effects, props, and sets for two local theatre companies.

Rick Kantor, Secretary for the American Creativity Association

Art and entrepreneurship are the twin life-long passions that drive Rick’s current academic study in the field of Creativity. His 2015 Masters Degree in Creativity and Innovation from Drexel University, under the guidance of Fredricka Reisman, compliments an Oberlin College BA in Psychology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sonoma State University. His successful business ventures have included designing novelty products and stationery for the gift market, a New York City decorative painting and faux finishing company, lifestyle furniture stores in Manhattan, an international Halloween and novelty hat corporation, and a natural materials design showroom and distributorship in Northern California. He has worked as a consultant to the David Allen Company and David Allen, best-selling author of “Getting Things Done.” Rick is an avid art collector, art maker, yoga practitioner, public speaker, and inspirational volunteer to young schoolchildren. His diverse and eclectic background uniquely informs his current creative consulting work, executive coaching and public speaking engagements. Rick thrives on being the creative catalyst of great flights of productive inspiration for individuals and companies alike. He currently serves as the Secretary for the American Creativity Association.

Bonnie Cramond, PhD, University of Georgia, USA

Bonnie Cramond is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia, USA. She has been the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, a board member of the National Association for Gifted Children, and editor of the Journal of Secondary Education. She is on the Advisory Board for the American Creativity Association; the Future Problem Solving Program International; the Global Center for Gifted and Talented Children; is a member of the International Creativity Society; on the review board for several journals; and, has published numerous articles, chapters, and a book (another is in the works). A national and international speaker, she has visited over 35 countries working toward infusing creativity into classrooms at all levels. She was honored in 2011 to be invited to give a TEDx Talk on creativity and has gratefully received other international and national honors.

Larry Keiser, PhD, Drexel University, USA