A nationally acclaimed educator and advocate for students, Gruwell is the author of Teach with Your Heart and Freedom Writers Diary Teacher’s Guide, co-author of The Freedom Writers Diary, and subject of the January 2007 Paramount Pictures film Freedom Writers. She has been featured on Oprah, PrimeTime Live with Connie Chung, Barbara Walters’ The View, and Good Morning America, among others.

Gruwell currently leads the Freedom Writers Foundation, which she founded in 1997. Working to eradicate intolerance and thrust strong educators into classrooms where they are needed, Gruwell travels the country to teach educators how they can engage the "unreachable" and "unteachable" students in their schools.

Author, educator, technology expert, and futurist are just a few of the words that have been used to describe this highly sought after keynote speaker. But, Ian Jukes is an educator first and foremost, focusing on the compelling need to restructure educational institutions so they become relevant to the current and future needs of children. "We need to prepare students for their future, not our past," said Jukes. His rambunctious and highly charged presentations emphasize many of the practical issues related to ensuring that change is meaningful. As a registered educational evangelist, his self-avowed mission in life is to ensure that children are properly prepared for the future rather than society’s past. "We need to transform learning, not just use new technology in an old way," said Jukes.

Jukes has written 12 books, nine educational series and has had more than 100 articles published in various journals. He is also the publisher of an online electronic newsletter, the Committed Sardine Blog, which is electronically distributed to almost 90,000 people in 60 plus countries.

Named National Teacher of the Year in 2010, Sarah is a 12-year veteran of the high school English Language Arts classroom, where she enjoys working with students of all ability levels in Johnston, Iowa. Believing in the power of asking good questions and creating worthy learning experiences for students, she has worked to put herself in the same growth mindset she hopes to cultivate in her students. When you walk into Sarah’s classroom, the first thing you notice is that her desk is in the back corner of the room — an outward sign of her implicit philosophy that education should be "learner-centered".

Sarah holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Iowa State University in English Education and English Literature respectively. She became a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in 2005 and has been active in the Iowa and National Council of Teachers of English as well as in numerous committees and advisory boards in her district and statewide.

She points to so many pivotal mentors and colleagues who have supported and nurtured her in her professional growth. "I am not a perfect teacher. If anything, it’s my colleagues and mentors who diminish those imperfections.” As National Teacher of The Year, she had speaking engagements national and internationally — an experience that “made her feel more responsible than ever to be a better teacher tomorrow."