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Keynote Speaker and Leading Conference Speakers

Proposed Schedule | Breakout Presentations

Keynote Speaker

Juan Sepulveda was appointed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on May 19, 2009, to the position of director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. In this capacity, he is responsible for directing the efforts of the White House Initiative in engaging Hispanic students, parents, families, organizations, and anyone working in or with the education system in communities nationwide as active participants in improving the academic achievement of Hispanic Americans.

For the last 20 years, Sepúlveda has been a senior executive, strategist, and advocate in the nonprofit and philanthropic communities, with a focus in community development, capacity building, and transformational management. Prior to assuming his current position at the Department, Sepúlveda was president of The Common Enterprise (TCE), which he founded in 1995 as an outgrowth of a national Rockefeller Foundation initiative to help build stronger communities across America by making nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, governments, businesses, and communities more effective as they tackled significant critical social issues in more than 35 states and nationally.

Since 2004, Sepúlveda has been the host of the weekly KLRN public television series “Conversations,” focused on the people and organizations making positive and innovative contributions to communities in San Antonio, South Texas, and the U.S. Under the auspices of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Sepúlveda was selected in 1997 as one of a dozen team members to help run the first-ever Bipartisan Congressional Retreat for the 105th Congress, working with Members to develop more civil and productive collaborative efforts. Their work resulted in the Hershey Accords, which implemented new Congressional working rules and regulations.

From 1992 to 1995, he worked with the Rockefeller Foundation, where he helped establish Democracy Roundtables, a national network of community-building efforts to encourage citizens to go beyond traditional ideological and partisan perspectives to accomplish common goals. Through the development of a strategic partnership with Trinity University, he also led local efforts aimed at high school education reform specifically focused on strengthening ties between teachers, students, parents, and community members. Working with six public high schools from six different school districts, Sepúlveda helped create two citywide leadership programs in San Antonio, organized Putting Kids First, a series of School Board Candidate Citizen Forums, and convened innovation and reform conversations between school-community teams and national, leading education experts. He also worked closely with the International School of the Americas, a nationally and internationally recognized public charter high school.

Having grown up in a working class Mexican-American neighborhood in Topeka, Kan., Sepúlveda has been involved in community organizing and politics since the age of 16, when he was the first high school student hired to work for the Kansas Secretary of State. He also worked closely with the late Willie Velasquez and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and permanently moved to San Antonio, Texas, in the late 1980s, making it his new home. He completed a political biography of Willie and an organizational history of Southwest Voter, The Life and Times of Willie Velasquez—Su Voto Es Su Voz (Your Vote is Your Voice), published by Arte Público Press in May 2004.

Sepúlveda has served on numerous U.S. delegations, and national and local boards, such as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Communications Consortium Media Center, the National Civic League, and MDC, and has often been a guest lecturer at universities around the country. He also co-founded the San Antonio Latino-Jewish Dialogue Group. In November 2002, he was named the first recipient of the Hobby Visionary Award by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an organization committed to improving public policies and private practices that influence the economic and social conditions and prospects of individuals, families, and communities in Texas. Named after former Texas Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby, the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Texas history, the award recognizes outstanding leadership, vision, and commitment to the challenges faced by low- and moderate-income Americans. Sepúlveda received a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University. The third Latino ever to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, he graduated with a combined degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from the Queens College of Oxford University. He received a J.D. from Stanford University and has been admitted to the Texas Bar.

He is married to Teresa Niño, director of external affairs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services. They have two children, Michael and Victoria, both in college and both alumni of City Year—Chicago. Juan and Teresa currently live in Washington, D.C., but San Antonio, Texas, remains home for them.

Leading Conference Speakers
Panel of Experts from HETS member institutions

Track I: Best Institutional Practices Using and Implementing Technology Resources and Infrastructure

Rene Sainz, University of Texas at Brownsville
René Sainz is the Assistant Director of Online Learning and Instructional Technologies at The University of Texas at Brownsville. In this capacity, he provides strategic vision and leadership in the conceptualization, design and implementation of instructional technology projects for the university. His office designs, develops and implements online and hybrid courses, develops academic web pages, provides webcast and videoconferencing services , as well as faculty and student training. UTB/TSC offers over 500 online course sections per year and 3 Masters , 8 Bachelors and 4 Certificates completely online via MyUTBTSC Online Portal. René holds an M.A in Spanish Literature and a M.Ed. in Educational Technology. René is currently an Ed.D. candidate in UT Brownsville’s first doctoral program.

Presentation: Integrating Technology Resources for Hispanic “digital native” students.

Hispanic students are part of the new generation of “digital natives” who have grown up with the Internet and digital literacies such as text messaging, cell phones, chats and videoconferencing. In order to adapt to this new student population, institutions should demonstrate leadership and creativity in adapting their technology resources and infrastructure to the student of the 21st century. A case study will be presented detailing the implementation of a robust online platform providing course content, asynchronous and synchronous interactivity, online tutoring and web 2.0 educational tools to enhance opportunities for student success.

Track II: Best Practices in Teaching and Learning through Technology

Ivonne Chirino-Klevans, Walden University
Dr. Ivonne Chirino-Klevans joined Walden University in 2005 as a professor of organizational psychology, and was subsequently promoted to the position of Faculty Chair of the Organizational Psychology Specialization. In 2007 she was tapped to serve as Program Director for the Center for International Programs. Dr. Chirino-Klevans has faculty oversight for the International Center, leads the effort to develop and teach new international and U.S. Hispanic educational programs and is responsible for faculty recruitment.

Dr. Chirino-Klevans has expertise in Global Executive Education Program Design, International Client Management, cross-cultural organizational environment assessments, international talent attraction and retention, compensation programs, training needs assessment, training management, and in measuring the impact of training. Currently she holds a guest lecturer position at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

Dr. Chirino-Klevans received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Universidad Iberoamericana, and also holds an MBA from Universidad de las Américas, and a Masters in Psychology from Georgia College and State University. Earlier in her career, she also served as the psychologist for the Mexican national rowing team, and contributed to the team winning a silver medal at the 1991 Pan Am Games. She herself is a Pan American games medalist in gymnastics. She is fluent in Spanish and French.

Presentation: Designing online activities for virtual team work

From a constructivist point of view, online learning should include activities that reinforce the creation of virtual communities of learning. These communities, ideally, should work together towards a common goal. This conversation will focus on how to design online activities that help create an environment where virtual team work is facilitated, and reinforced.

Track III: Best Practices in Faculty Development

Juan Meléndez, University of Puerto Rico
Dr. Juan Meléndez is full professor for the Department of Art, Technology and Innovation at the College of Education in the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. He is also the Resident Professor of Technology and Education with the campus’s Center for Academic Excellence. He is coordinator of the Center for Educational Innovation in his College of Education. Dr. Meléndez is also the Technical Editor for the TECNE journal, as well as the owner of the blog: CARTAE. He has presented on the topic of Distance Education in Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Argentina, United States, Barbados, Thailand, Ecuador, England, and Mexico.

Dr. Meléndez is the President-elect of the Puerto Rican Association for Distance Learning and a member of the Board Directors of the Puerto Rican Society of Evaluators. He was the Principal Investigator of a study on innovation in higher education in Puerto Rico, which was sponsored by the Puerto Rican Council of Higher Education; and is presently a co-researcher in a study on the characteristics of distance education students in Puerto Rico, which is also sponsored by the Council.

Presentation: How innovative are we in professional development?

The presentation will examine the innovativeness of professional development programs related to distance education. The presentation will also analyze the relationship between distance education and face-to-face education, and examine if professional development programs are contributing to a knowledge society. The presentation will reflect on the relationship between mobile resources, learning communities, and competency assessment in the field`s professional development programs.

Track IV: Best Practices in Student Support Services

Judith García, Miami Dade College
Judith García was ESL professor for 14 years at Miami Dade College (MDC), before becoming the founding director of distance education for MDC`s Virtual College in 1998. Currently, she is the Chairperson of the ESL and Foreign Languages Department at the Kendall Campus of Miami Dade College. As grant writer/director for the FIPSE-funded eWriting project, Professor García led the design, development, evaluation, and implementation of the online ESL Writing Lab, which is currently used by over 50,000 students nationally. She is also the author of the ESL Writing textbook series, "One Step at a Time" (Heinle & Heinle International Thomson Publishing), and co-developer of that series`accompanying software.

Professor García holds a Master’s Degree in Spanish from the University of California at Davis, and a Bachelor’s Degree in InterAmerican Studies, French, and Spanish from the University of the Pacific.

Presentation: Supporting Students in Online Learning

Colleges and universities that offer online academic programs have succeeded over the years in designing effective online support services for most students. Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) have had to go beyond that basic design to ensure that support services meet the unique needs of Hispanic students entering our institutions with limited English proficiency. This presentation examines best practices in HSI Student Services for online students through examples drawn from HETS member institutions`online/virtual campuses. The impact of one innovative program at MDC (the eWriting Project) has had on student success will be examined.