Re-Imagining Education Foundations in a Virtual World

Learn from innovative and highly skilled education foundation leaders and philanthropy experts from across the country-- virtually via the interactive, easy to use and fun app, Socio!

Meet Our Keynote Speakers!

Gus Schmedlen serves as President & Chief Revenue Officer at a technology startup company currently in stealth mode. He formerly served as Vice President and Head of Worldwide Education at HP where he oversaw a period of rapid expansion, leading to the creation of a multi-billion-dollar global education technology business. During his tenure at HP, Gus also led international efforts to improve access to quality education for students in marginalized contexts, contributing innovation, support, and scale to help realize UN SDG4. Earlier in his career, Gus led education and public sector industry solutions units for both IBM and Lenovo.

He currently serves on the Board of Governors of JA Worldwide, the Leadership Council of the Brookings Institution Center for Universal Education, and the Board of Directors of the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. He previously served in leadership and consulting positions at a range of non-profit efforts, including the World Economic Forum’s New Vision for Education project, the UN Education Data Roundtable, and the Public School Forum of North Carolina. Gus was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship by former US Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, to study human capital development systems in the European Union, focused on the democratizing force of pervasive mobile technology. He earned a BA in Classics from Colgate University, an MBA from Duke University, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania.


Donna Frisby-Greenwood is the first President and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, a unique foundation that aligns private foundations, corporations and businesses, community organizations and individual donors with school district leadership to achieve schools’ plans and strategies.

Before joining the Fund in 2015, Donna was the Philadelphia Program Director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, overseeing grant making in the arts, journalism and multiple civic engagement programs that helped expand economic opportunity in the city.

Prior to her work with the Knight Foundation, Donna built an exemplary career in education. She served as Director of College and Career Awareness for the School District of Philadelphia where she secured and managed grant funding of more than $40 million. Earlier, she co-founded and served as Executive Director of Children First, Inc., a leadership development and civic education program for low income urban adolescents, and After-School All-Stars. Nationally, Donna also was Executive Director of Rock the Vote and served as a National Urban Fellow at HUD where she was responsible for coordinating the University/Community grant portfolio and co-authored the Youth Development section of the White House Urban Policy Report.  

Educated exclusively in public schools, Donna graduated with Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Virginia and holds a Masters of Public of Administration from Baruch College/CUNY.


With a focus on equity, innovation and quality, Dr. William R. Hite serves as Superintendent of The School District of Philadelphia, the largest public school system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hite joined the School District in 2012 and has worked to create a system of great schools in every neighborhood. Under his leadership, the School District has opened innovative high schools, expanded successful school models, launched in-district turnarounds and redesigned schools in partnership with communities. His overall focus remains on strengthening all elementary and secondary school offerings.

Dr. Hite’s professional experience includes serving at every level – teacher, principal, central office administrator and Superintendent. He was previously Superintendent of Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland.

Dr. Hite has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Richmond School of Continuous Learning and taught school leadership courses at Virginia State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland. A member of numerous national, state, and local boards, he has participated with national agencies and associations to reform K-12 education.

Dr. Hite holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Virginia Tech, master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in education specializing in educational leadership from Virginia Tech.

Dr. Mary Kelly is an internationally renowned author and keynote speaker on leadership, productivity, and business growth. In 21 years as a Navy intelligence and logistics officer, Mary trained more than 40,000 military and civilian personnel.

Mary holds a degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, master’s degrees in both in Economics and History, and a PhD in economics. She has more than 20 years experience teaching economics, finance, leadership, and management at the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, and Hawaii Pacific University.

Mary is also a member of MENSA and the American Economics Association. She is the recipient of the U.S. Air Force Academy Outstanding Educator and Instructor of the Year awards. She has published books on leadership, productivity, communication, and business growth.

Mary loves business strategy, succession planning, and leadership development that yields results.  She also loves helping other people succeed, which is what makes her an effective executive business coach.

Dr. Todd Rogers is a behavioral scientist, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, Director of the Student Social Support R&D Lab, and Chief Scientist at EveryDay Labs.  His research uses the science of behavior change to develop scalable interventions that help school districts help families help students succeed.  He is especially focused on the science of effective communication.  He is committed to ensuring that behavioral policy research is implemented widely and with fidelity. This has led to his co-founding two social enterprises: the Analyst Institute (focused on increasing election turnout) and EveryDay Labs (focused on increasing student attendance).

Prior to joining the faculty at HKS, he was founding Executive Director of the Analyst Institute, LLC, which uses randomized field experiments and behavioral science insights to understand and improve voter communication program (see here, and a book about that work called Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns). He received a Ph.D. jointly from Harvard's department of Psychology and Harvard Business School, and received a B.A. from Williams College, majoring in Religion and Psychology.

About the App

The 2021 NSFA National Virtual Conference will be hosted on the Socio app, allowing attendees to access all sessions via their mobile devices AND desktop, laptop or tablets.  The app will feature opportunities to interact with other attendees, sponsors and exhibitors.  It will feature games and networking opportunities and allow attendees to interact before, during and after the conference.

Registration Fees

Standard
Member - $290
Non-Member - $370

Want to register multiple staff, volunteers or Board Members from your organization? Use our bundle discounts!

Interested in sponsoring the Conference? Call 410.527.0780 for more information or click here!