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AERO
Conference
June 21 - 23, 2024
Keynote Speakers
Pamela Smith
The Benefits of Homeschooling Children of Color.
Pamela Smith has been homeschooling her five kids for fifteen years. She is also a nurse entrepreneur who, along with her husband Reginald, owned and operated a successful healthcare company for 18 years prior to retiring on their 46-acre ranch in Montana. Pamela and Reginald, have graduated two Homeschoolers. Their oldest daughter is thriving as an entrepreneur and the second oldest recently graduated with her B.A. degree in Communications and Africana Studies. Today, Pamela enjoys coaching, speaking, and advocating for Black families empowering them to Homeschool.
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Judy Arnall
Unschooling STEM: Kids Will Learn Calculus When They Really Need to Learn Calculus
Judy Arnall, BA, DTM, CCFE is a certified child and brain development specialist and master of non-punitive parenting, as well as the unschooling parent of 4 university graduates. She is the bestselling author of Unschooling To University and Discipline Without Distress. Website: https://www.unschoolingtouniversity.com
Kerry McDonald
The Breathtaking Embrace of Alternative Education Models
Kerry McDonald works to spotlight and support education entrepreneurs who are building innovative K-12 learning models and expanding education options for families. She is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and host of the weekly LiberatED Podcast. She is also the Velinda Jonson Family Education Fellow at State Policy Network, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and a regular Forbes contributor. Kerry is the author of several books including, Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019)
Khalique Rogers & Joe Nathan
Beyond Words: Making A Real Difference
Khalique Rogers, Co-director of the Center for School Change
(CSC), has been instrumental in producing pioneering, significant results over the last several years, at school, community, and policy levels. Twin Cities Business Journal named him in February 2024
as one of the “50 African Americans leaders to know in the Twin Cities” (and the youngest). St Paul College President nominated him for (and he was accepted into) the Harvard Young Leaders Program because of his ability to build multi-racial, cross-sector, cross-generational state-wide coalitions that improve peoples’ lives – especially but not limited to low income and people representing BIPOC Communities. National, statewide and local groups have asked him to make conference presentations to share his insights.
Joe Nathan has worked at the school, community and policy
levels to help promote more learning and much better public schools. He has been an urban public school teacher and administrator, coordinated or directed 3 projects with the National Governors Association, served as an urban public school PTA president, , and written regular newspaper columns for a variety of Minnesota newspapers. He also has written "op ed" columns for USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Atlanta Journal/Constitution, Sacramento Bee and others. He currently writes a twice/month column for a group of suburban/rural Mn newspapers. State legislatures in more than 30 states, and several Congressional Committees have invited him to testify.
Rashad Turner
Transforming Public Education for Democracy
Rhashad Turner is the CEO and President of Minnesota Parent Union. MNPU connects, informs, and empowers parent leaders to give families in Minnesota a voice and choice in the vision for reconstructing education. My team and I develop parents as partners and leaders with schools and policymakers to help ensure quality education for children of color and low-income children
in Minnesota. We also connect, inform and empower parent leaders to give Black and low-income families in Minnesota a voice and choice in the vision for reconstructing education.
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