Chad Foster  ||  Dr. Mike Hall

Chad Foster entered the business world in Louisiana at age 19, parlaying an unsuccessful attempt at professional tennis into a business surfacing tennis courts. Eventually, Chad expanded his recreational surfacing vision by converting millions of pounds of recycled tire rubber into a soft, safe playground surface. That product, SAF DEK, can be seen on thousands of McDonald's Playlands around the world. The SAF DEK surface also provides a safe play environment for millions of visitors to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

At age 33, Chad took an indefinite sabbatical and joined the team at Special Olympics International. As Tour Director, he traveled across America with a mobile museum that served as an educational and awareness tool highlighting the valuable contributions made by the Special Olympics organization.

The following year Chad set out on a two-year, cross-country fact finding trip. His travels and research convinced him that young people in America were receiving an incomplete education in that they were not being fully prepared with 21^st Century skills for their inevitable entry into the world of work.

Chad's concern for young people prompted him to write two best-selling books, Teenagers Preparing for the Real World and Financial Literacy for Teens. Chad's books have been read by more than 750,000 students. Both books have been developed into 10-day project based curricula used in 4,000 middle school and high school classrooms nationwide.

Chad's latest release is High School 101, co-created with Dr. Mike Hall. High School 101 is an innovative strategy that focuses on preparing students for the transition from middle school to high school. This comprehensive 10-unit resource addresses a multitude of essential 21^st Century skills that young people will need to succeed in the classroom as well as the workplace.

Chad is one of America's most sought-after speakers on the subject of motivating students and preparing them to succeed in the real world. His keynote and workshop audiences have included more than 500,000 students and educators. Chad also serves on the advisory board of the Heart of America Foundation, a national organization created to encourage America's youth to participate in community service. This entrepreneur, best-selling author, and nationally-acclaimed speaker also hosted, for eight years, his own television show, Fly Fishing America, seen on ESPN.

To contact Chad Foster, email chadwfoster@att.net

Dr. Mike Hall is one of America's most sought after speakers on the subjects of Classroom Technology Transformation and Freshman Transition Programs. Dr. Hall currently teaches at the graduate level at Columbus State University. Until recently, he served as the Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Technology for the Georgia Department of Education. Dr. Hall's responsibilities included reconfiguring the IT division to accommodate all reporting and data issues, redefining departmental infrastructure, and creating a statewide instructional technology emphasis. With the hiring of a CIO to take over the data side, Dr. Hall shifted his focus in Georgia to creating 21^st Century learning environments and helping teachers change instructional pedagogy so as to make technology an important part of every lesson, every day.

As one of his many DOE responsibilities, Dr. Hall championed the creation of the Georgia Virtual School as part of Governor Perdue and Superintendent Kathy Cox's educational initiatives in 2005 to offer AP classes in all Georgia high schools during the 05-06 school year. Meeting all goals in the first year, this innovative online program now includes 141 total courses and has tripled its enrollment in 1 year. Dr. Hall currently serves on numerous state and national committees including the COSN Executive Board, Statewide Wireless Project steering committee, Governor's task force on Multimedia. In addition, he was a principal advisor on the technology design committee of the state of the art Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim, California and he continues to serve as an instructional technology advisor for the center.

Featured twice at the National Intel Visionary Conference as a technology visionary, he has presented more than 200 sessions at national, state, and local technology and school improvement conferences across the country. His efforts have given him the opportunity to work with schools in numerous states on the transformation of technology across the curriculum as well as Ninth Grade transition programs. He is currently involved in both state and national projects involving wireless connectivity, 1:1 computing, and creating 21^st Century learning environments.

With twenty-five years of experience in the education field, Dr. Hall holds Masters and Specialist Degrees in Education Administration and Supervision, as well as a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. Before joining the Department of Education, he was principal of Houston County High School (HCHS) in Warner Robins, GA. Houston County High School was recognized in 2004 as the most advanced school in the nation for technology integration across the curriculum. The school was also named an Intel Model School (one of only three in the nation), a Hitachi Beta School, and was used as a model for technology integration in the classroom across the country. Dr. Hall is recognized as an innovator in bringing private and public entities together to find new ways to meet the needs of 21^stCentury students. In 2003, Dr. Hall was recognized by the Blue Ribbon Schools Foundation as one of the top 10 high school principals in the nation.

While technology has been a foundation for this change agent, Dr. Hall has a passion for helping students stay in school and succeed. While serving as the principal at HCHS, he created a unique, much needed elective course called "High School 101." When combined with his research-based 9^th Grade Academy Model, this progressive 'real world' approach to freshman transition has created outstanding results and been replicated in school districts across the country. In a collaborative effort with nationally-acclaimed author, Chad Foster, High School 101 was recently published as a full 10-unit, project-based curriculum that includes 21^st century skills students need to be successful in school or the real world.

In 2005, Dr. Hall was recognized by Government Technology magazine as one of the Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers for innovative technology projects. He has also been featured in numerous other publications including magazines such as District Administrator, Scholastic Administrator, and EdTech Magazine. During his time at the DOE, Dr. Hall hosted, Tech Talk, at Georgia Public Broadcasting.

To contact Dr. Hall, email mhall@drmikehall.com