Theme: Educational Ideas Worth Spreading

Join us at The University of Texas at Austin to hear from individuals who have educational ideas worth spreading!

Rowling Hall: Crum Auditorium
300 West Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard
Austin, Texas, 78705
United States

Alicia Hughes

Executive Director

Alicia is a virtual space expert, having over 14 years in the remote workspace and over a decade in virtual leadership. She is the founder of Sparking Up Leadership Consulting, a soon-to-be author, and former Executive Director of South Carolina Connections Academy, the largest public school in the state of SC. It would be nearly impossible to find someone with more enthusiasm for virtual leadership and relationship building than Alicia, as she was responsible for consistent staff satisfaction and organizational growth during her time as a leader. She believes wholeheartedly in the power of culture driving success, and was fortunate to have had the opportunity to help build a virtual school from the ground up that continues to thrive on collaboration and relationships.

Audra Croft

Audra is a 4th grade teacher in Leander ISD. Before beginning her career as an educator, she worked as a social worker serving adults released from prison. She worked with daughters of incarcerated mothers and their moms in the innovative Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program. With five children of her own, she is a passionate educator and advocate for young people.

Dion Lucas

Virtual Math Teacher

Dion is a certified math teacher, wellness coach, and musician with over 20 years of experience in public education. Music has helped her and her students overcome mathematics as a symbolic language.

Femi Olasupo

Adult Learning Expert

She has worked remotely in online businesses since 2015. She's created an outbound sales team and customer service teams from scratch and worked on high -evel projects while traveling and working in different states from other team members. Her job requires that she educates adults with various learning styles, educational backgrounds, different levels of past trauma, different professional experience, different personal commitments, varying levels of professionalism when they start, and even various levels of command over the English language. The workplace, even a remote workplace, is an optimal space for continued education when leaders have the tools, desire, and incentive to invest in their team.

Justin Follin

CEO

JUSTIN FOLLIN is a lifelong student and teacher of what brings out the best in people, and a trusted advisor to CEOs and leaders in fast-growth business sectors. He’s the co-founder and CEO of BLUECASE Strategic Partners, a transformational leadership consultancy that specializes in solving the strategy, engagement, and cultural challenges that come with company growth and M&A. He’s also the author of the book, Be a Better Team by Friday: a Playbook for High-Performance Business Leaders. Throughout his career, he’s led hundreds of Executives, Directors, and Managers through leadership development programs and has coached public and private CEOs, business leaders, speakers, poker players, musicians, academic professors, and athletes to perform at optimal levels. Early in his professional life, he worked as a school educator, and believes the foundational leadership skills needed to navigate the complex change our world is facing can (and need to be) learned at an early age.

Lucas Evans

Director of Sustainability and Research

Lucas has earned a degree in Environmental Studies from Southwestern University. He is the Founder of E3 Agriculture (bio-based building materials), and Director of Sustainability and Research for Build With Construx Inc. He also served as a guest lecturer at Texas A&M on agricultural entrepreneurship and bio-based materials. Lucas was nominated for The Earthshot Prize 2023-24.

Rick Kutcher

Administrative Specialist

Rick has spent the past 23 years in education. He has been a teacher, principal, and regional specialist supporting over 70 school districts and 600 campuses. He is currently an Administrative Specialist for a regional education service center in Texas. He is also organizing a data symposium to be held in February.