IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Education (ACE) > ACE2023 > Speakers

Speakers

Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

Plenary Speakers

  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Michael Klemm
    Michael Klemm
    Singapore Education Network, Singapore
  • Susie Kung
    Susie Kung
    Manukau Institute of Technology, New Zealand
  • Sean McMinn
    Sean McMinn
    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong
  • Mary Moeke
    Mary Moeke
    Manukau Institute of Technology, New Zealand
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States
  • Murielle El Hajj Nahas
    Murielle El Hajj Nahas
    Lusail University, Qatar
  • Farish Noor
    Farish Noor
    University of Malaya, Malaysia
  • Justin Sanders
    Justin Sanders
    Minerva Project
  • Lowell Sheppard
    Lowell Sheppard
    Never Too Late Academy, Japan
  • Yvonne Ualesi
    Yvonne Ualesi
    Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
  • Tati D. Wardi
    Tati D. Wardi
    Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII), Indonesia

Become a Speaker

Excellent plenary speakers are central to our conferences, ensuring that timely, innovative and engaging content is presented to our audiences around the world. If you would like to be considered for a speaking slot at one of our conferences, please apply below.

Apply to Speak

Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past ACE conferences via the links below.

ACE2022 ACE2021 ACE2020
ACE2019 ACE2018 ACE2017
ACE2016 ACE2015 ACE2014
ACE2013 ACE2012 ACE2011
ACE2010 ACE2009
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and is Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA programme, and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education (USA), collaborating on the development of the Global PhD programme.

Dr Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences around the world, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office in collaboration with IAFOR.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

Michael Klemm
Singapore Education Network, Singapore

Biography

Michael Klemm is an education professional with extensive experience in international education, employability, education technology and entrepreneurship.

In 2020, he founded and currently heads the Singapore Education Network (SEN) as an alliance of 1,500+ educational professionals in Singapore, Asia and beyond. In 2023, SEN launched the e-commerce platform “EdTech Marketplace Asia” offering technology-enabled products for the education sector in Asia.

Michael is also a Venture Partner - Higher Education & EdTech for Education Consultancy “EDT & Partners”.

He also mentors EdTech Startups in accelerators Eduspaze and 500Global as well as Singapore University of Social Science Venture Builder Programme.

Michael is among the Top 100 influencers in EdTech 2023/24 by EdTech Digest.

Having worked for Training Institute NTUC LearningHub, the National University of Singapore, Minerva University and International Labour Organization in several countries across Asia (Singapore, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia), he has gained substantial expertise in the education and development sector.

Panel Presentation (2023) | Fostering Synergy in Asian Education: Bridging Gaps, Building Connections
Susie Kung
Manukau Institute of Technology, New Zealand

Biography

Susie Kung has been in education since 1980 and in teacher education for over 26 years. She has been teaching on the Bachelor of Education programme at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) since 2006. She is a Senior Lecturer attached to the School of Education and is also the Academic Lead overseeing the provision of pastoral care and also the retention and success of four programmes in the School of Education. She has substantial experience in the field both in Malaysia and New Zealand.

Susie’s passion for teacher education includes her research on effective tertiary teaching-learning spaces and, more recently, blended teaching-learning environments through COVID-19 times, teacher identity and teacher motivation, preparing student teachers for a fast-changing, diverse world and a reconsideration of teacher education as a holistic endeavour. Case study and narrative approaches to research are her methodologies of choice but she has a special interest in the Appreciative Inquiry approach to research and has used this methodology for a number of her research projects. She is currently investigating the role of teacher identity, teacher motivation and the teacher’s perception of advocacy in the teaching role.

Panel Presentation (2023) | No One Left Behind: Advocating for Equitable Opportunities for
Success in Tertiary Education
Sean McMinn
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong

Biography

Dr Sean McMinn, the Director of Center for Education Innovation at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has over 20 years’ experience in higher education. He has won the 2016 SHSS Teaching Excellence Award and the 2007 Teaching Innovation Award for his work with podcasts and education at HKUST. Sean holds a PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning from Lancaster University, United Kingdom, and has taken up various teaching and leadership roles at the HKUST and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has interests in educational technology, artificial intelligence and digital literacies, and networked learning and has published and presented at international conferences on these subjects.

Panel Presentation (2023) | Unleashing the Potential: The Impact of AI and ChatGPT in Revolutionising Education
Mary Moeke
Manukau Institute of Technology, New Zealand

Biography

Mary Moeke is of Te Arawa and Ngāti Awa Māori descent and currently works in Te Kura Mātauranga (the School of Education) at Te Pūkenga - Te Whare Takiura o Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand. Mary has been teaching for over 30 years, across all areas of the education sector. Her research portfolio shows a strong commitment to uphold Mātauranga Māori (knowledge and understanding that are Māori) in pursuit of mokopuna Māori (children who identify as Māori) having the best start to life and positive childhood experiences. As a result, her research interest has become more focused over time on reducing and eliminating child poverty by improving the professionalism and culturally responsive teaching practices within the early childhood sector that shift the social norms, challenge colonial practices, and encourage wealth creation growth and capability so that no one is left behind. Mary is currently working on a Framework for positive change that operates as a Māori/Crown partnership and is supported by the Government – the Ministry of Social Development.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | No One Left Behind: Advocating for Equitable Opportunities for Success in Tertiary Education
James W. McNally
University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a research program funded by the US National Institutes of Health for almost 50 years. During his career, Dr McNally has routinely written multi-million dollar research applications. Consistently funded by agencies, including NIH, NSF, the MacArthur Foundation, and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), he mentors graduate students and junior faculty in developing and maintaining a grant portfolio. Dr McNally is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, a world-renowned organisation recognised for its leadership in survey development and independently funded research.

Special Seminar Session (2023) | Writing a Good Grant Application: Mastering Significance, Innovation and Approach for Your Career

Previous Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | The Use of Archival Data Resources for Generating Original Research, Thesis Development, Teaching and Knowledge Generation
Murielle El Hajj Nahas
Lusail University, Qatar

Biography

Dr Murielle El Hajj Nahas holds a PhD in French Language and Literature from the Lebanese University, Lebanon. She is currently Assistant Professor and Director of Lusail University Press (LU Press) at Lusail University, Qatar. She is also Associate Editor of the IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship and the IAFOR Journal of Education (Language Learning in Education issues), The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan, as well as Editorial Board Member of In Analysis, revue transdisciplinaire de psychanalyse et sciences, Elsevier Masson SAS, France. Her domain of research focuses on psychoanalysis of literature, the perspective on the unconscious in literary study, the roles of the instances involved in analytical/critical praxis, and the relation between literature and psychoanalysis. Her research interests include analysis of written narrative structure and focalisation; comparative studies of literary genres; discourse analysis and semantics; French linguistics, literature, modernism, and postmodernism studies; gender studies; literary semiotics and semiology; psychoanalysis; psychoanalytic criticism and textoanalysis; rhetoric and stylistics; and schizoanalysis. She has published book chapters, original articles, academic interviews, translated articles, book reviews and analyses, as well as poems. She has also authored a contemporary theatre book titled Fragments chaotiques published by Les impliqués Éditeur, France. (ORCID Link)

Panel Presentation (2023) | Unleashing the Potential: The Impact of AI and ChatGPT in Revolutionising Education

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2022) | Mental Health in Action: Strategies to Build Teacher and Student Capacity
Roundtable Presentation (2021) | Being Resilient: Finding Ways to Publish in Difficult Times
Farish Noor
University of Malaya, Malaysia

Biography

Professor Farish A. Noor is Professor of History at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences FASS, University of Malaya, Malaysia. His main area of work has been Southeast Asian history, with a special focus on colonialism in Southeast Asia. His recent works include Data Collecting in Colonial Southeast Asia: Framing the Other (Amsterdam University Press, 2020) and Before the Pivot: America's Encounters with Southeast Asia 1800-1900 (Amsterdam University Press, 2019).

Keynote Presentation (2023) | TBA
Justin Sanders
Minerva Project

Biography

Justin Sanders has spent nearly 20 years in a wide range of educational settings globally. In his current role as Senior Academic Program Manager for the Minerva Project, he works with partner organisations to build and implement some of the world's most innovative educational programs based on the science of learning. Prior to joining Minerva, he served as Director of Continuing and Corporate Education at Temple University’s Japan Campus, Global Recognition Manager and Research Manager for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in Singapore and Washington, DC, respectively, and worked with community college leadership across the United States with the Association for Community College Trustees. Prior, he served as an education volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in Azerbaijan, contributing to improving educational infrastructure and capacity in a small rural community. Throughout his career, he has helped to organise dozens of local, national and international education conferences and events and has published research on internationalisation, secondary to tertiary transitions, and partnerships in higher education. He holds a BA Social and Behavioural Sciences from the University of Arizona, an MA in Education and Human Development from the George Washington University, and a PhD in Education from Osaka University, Japan, where his research explored approaches to international strategy development at universities in Asia.

Panel Presentation (2023) | Unleashing the Potential: The Impact of AI and ChatGPT in Revolutionising Education

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2019) | Academic Governance/Management/Administration in Higher Education in Asia
Lowell Sheppard
Never Too Late Academy, Japan

Biography

Lowell Sheppard is an author, speaker, social entrepreneur, former minister, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, husband, father, long-distance cyclist, and aspiring sailor. Lowell has spent his entire adult life working with established non-government organisations (also known as non-profit societies) and in several NGO start-ups. As Founder of HOPE International Development Agency Japan, Lowell has seen the growth of HOPE-JP to be in the top 2% of charitable organisations in Japan with the coveted “nintei” certified tax-deductible status.

Lowell has served for the last twenty years as an informal advisor to companies and boards in the area of ethical decision making and thought leadership with a focus on community legacy. He has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects.

As an author, his book Never Too Late (Lion Hudson PLC, 2005) was published in four languages and was the catalyst for his latest social enterprise called the Never Too Late Academy. His latest book, Dare to Dream, is being published in November 2023 in the UK and next spring in the US.

Lowell moved onto a sailboat two years ago in Tokyo and is currently sailing full time around Japan, working as a digital nomad running small companies.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Navigating Lifelong Learning: A Digital Nomad’s Odyssey
Yvonne Ualesi
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Biography

Dr Yvonne Ualesi hails from the villages of Samoa (Mulivai Safata, Pu’apu’a, Saipipi, Savalalo, Lotopa), Tokelau (Fakaofo), Fiji (Ovalau). She is a lecturer at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau (Auckland University of Technology) in Te Kura Mātauranga (School of Education) and lectures across the B.Ed Primary, B.Ed Early Child Education and B.A in Education degree programmes. A doctoral scholar, she completed her PhD at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Yvonne’s PhD research explored Culturally Responsive, Sustaining and Safe Youth Mentoring Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand – A Va Relational Approach. She developed a novel multimethod approach underpinned by indigenous knowledge systems to explore key ingredients in youth mentoring as a strategy of adolescent development. Her research interests include Pacific/Pasifika research methodologies and indigenous social psychology in education.

Her most recent scholarship as a co-editor of a special edition for the Ethnographic Edge Journal, focussed on amplifying the voices of Pacific/Pasifika and indigenous Principals and school leadership focussed on how they are shifting the system in education from an indigenous lens. Dr Ualesi is an early career researcher (ECR) forum committee member of the Royal Society of New Zealand as part of the national voice of NZ’s ECR community.

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | No One Left Behind: Advocating for Equitable Opportunities for Success in Tertiary Education
Tati D. Wardi
Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII), Indonesia

Biography

Tati Lathipatud Durriyah (Tati D. Wardi) is the Head of the MA Education program at Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII), Indonesia. She was a Fulbright recipient for her Master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, and earned a PhD from the School of Education and Human Ecology from Ohio State University.

Her research interests revolve around literacy education in teacher education, specifically digital literacy, literature-based literacy education, and children’s literature. Dr Wardi’s article was published in Reading Horizons and was included in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)’s 2021 Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English which is carefully curated by literacy luminaries. Tati has authored chapters on children’s literature and student teachers’ reading engagement in two books published by Rowman & Littlefield, United States.

Panel Presentation (2023) | Unleashing the Potential: The Impact of AI and ChatGPT in Revolutionising Education