Sharon Duncan is an independent consultant. She helps parents and professionals meet the social, emotional and educational needs of gifted children through coaching, consultation and educator training. She also provides advice to parents on educational decisions including homeschooling. Sharon has served on the governing boards of both public and private schools and speaks at conferences and schools around the globe on a wide variety of topics related to giftedness.

Prior to her current work, Sharon spent 26 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in roles including, Project Manager, Section Manager, and Contract Negotiator. She is a NASA certified Lien Six Sigma Black-belt, and utilizes her industry experience as a negotiator when advocating, and her change management skills when coaching and consulting.

Sharon is the mother of a 27 year old twice exceptional daughter and a 21 year old profoundly gifted son. Their educational journey included public school, private school, home school, dual enrollment and early college. During that process, Sharon recognized the challenges faced by parents and gifted children which fueled her drive to help others in similar situations.

Sharon is co-founder of both Gifted Research and Outreach (GRO), and Gifted Identity. She is also a SENG Model Parent Group facilitator with over 25 groups under her belt. Sharon can be reached at thesharonduncan@gmail.com

Rebecca Niederlander is an artist, essayist, curator, and mother to a highly gifted and Transgender teenager. She is a SENG model parent group facilitator. In 2021 and 2022 she presented at the SENG Annual Conference on Parenting your Transgender and Gifted Child and Being the Best Ally to the Transgender and Gifted People in your Life, as well as co-authored the article Just Listen: Affirming Strategies for Supporting Gifted Transgender Youth for the June 2021 issue of the NAGC magazine Parenting for High Potential.

Her artwork has been shown internationally including the acclaimed Venice (Italy) Biennale. A recipient of numerous grants including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Durfee Foundation, Niederlander’s TEDtalk was entitled “The Art of the Journey.” She developed community engagement projects for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Niederlander co-founded the art and family social engagement BROODWORK (which was featured in many publications including the New York Times). She has written about art for numerous publications including a chapter in the catalog of the exhibition “Color and Fire” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, for which she was also a curatorial assistant. She founded a therapy dog program at the Sycamores Home for boys that she ran for five years. And while it seems a lifetime ago, she worked in development for Cornell University during a billion dollar campaign.

Among her volunteer activities, Niederlander has served on the Education Advisory Board of the Architecture and Design Museum, the Advisory board of the American Museum of Ceramic Art, was a board member of Literacy Volunteers of Ithaca, NY, was chair of the art docent program for her son’s elementary school, and served on the exhibition committee of the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock.

Niederlander has a Master in Fine Arts from UCLA, a Bachelor in Fine Arts from California College for the Arts, and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Southeast Missouri State where she was the editor of the literary magazine Journey and president of the Society for Collegiate Journalists.

Always looking at ways in which life’s experiences cross over, she is committed to illuminating the broad scope of the asynchronous nature of gifted individuals through her diverse creative practice.

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Wenda Sheard, J.D., Ph.D, is an emeritus board member of the USA organization Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted. She recently served four years on the board of Potential Plus UK, formerly known as the UK’s National Association for Gifted Children, while she was teaching middle school English and serving with her husband as a dorm parent for high school boys from dozens of different countries at TASIS The American School in England from 2009-2014. Before moving to England, she taught English in the United States and China, practiced law in Ohio for nearly two decades, and worked in Connecticut as a disability policy researcher exploring the educational and workforce lives of people with disabilities. She currently spends her days with a delightful combination of legal, environmental, and educational pursuits, including working as a court-appointed mediator, practicing law, and speaking at conferences and other gatherings of parents and educators.”

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Ms. Bilash is a state-wide and nationally-recognized expert on education. As one of only 78 individuals in the nation to have completed the intensive Special Education Advocates Training (SEAT) program from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), she is seasoned in educational practice and policy. For over a decade, Advocacy & Consulting for Education (ACFE), her suburban Philadelphia practice, has served more than 600 students and their families by securing millions of dollars’ worth of desperately-needed educational services, tuition, accommodations, and settlement funds. Her advocacy work has received special Congressional recognition, and most recently, as a “thought leader in the field,” she was invited by the White House Office of Early Learning and the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education to participate in a strategy roundtable for planning the way forward in supporting educators and families of young children and the use of technology to support early learning.

In 2012, Melissa became frustrated with not being able to enact systematic change for gifted education in a state with a zero-funded mandate. Along with a team of incredibly dedicated volunteers who shared her vision, Melissa worked tirelessly to open The Grayson School in 2015, making history as Pennsylvania’s first independent private school for gifted learners. Currently offering a K-8 program, plans are in place to grow to offer PreK-12 in the next few years.

Ms. Bilash regularly works with prestigious national organizations and institutions serving gifted children. Most recently, she co-authored a chapter in the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)’s Guide to State Policies in Gifted Education, a document presenting detailed and research-based recommendations of best practices in gifted education across the country (published March 2016). She meets regularly with senior staff at the U.S. Department of Education to discuss priority initiatives, and she is continuously a voice for gifted learners at these meetings. Additionally, she serves on the Legislative Committees of both the NAGC and Pennsylvania’s NAGC chapter, the Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE), which named her Parent of the Year for her work with gifted children and recipient of their 2016 Innovation Award. A much sought-after speaker, she has presented to a wide array of audiences, including the Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) annual conference, the Special Educational Advocacy annual conference, and events at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Villanova University, as well as at a variety of local parent support groups, education-related expos, local schools, libraries, and gifted education association meetings.

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Nathalie Blume is a cognitive psychologist and research methodologist. Her areas of expertise include study design, the use of experimental and transactional data for prediction, and the cognition of causal reasoning and semantic memory in adults. Nathalie has worked for several governmental healthcare organizations. She is currently a data scientist at L.A. Care Health Plan. Nathalie also teaches gifted youths at the Institute for Educational Advancement and serves on the board of the J.T. Underwood Foundation in New York.

Dr. Goerss is a Board-Certified pediatrician. She completed a residency in Pediatrics and a fellowship in Medical Genetics at the Mayo Clinic where she conducted epidemiological research. Dr. Goerss received her B.S. degree from the University of Portland in Oregon, her M.D. degree from Loyola-Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, Illinois, and an M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr. Goerss is the lead author of three medical papers reporting the results of her research, and she is co-recipient of an Easter Seals research grant. She is a member of honor societies such as Phi Kappa Phi and Delta Epsilon Sigma National Scholastic Honor Society.

As the parent of two gifted sons, Dr. Goerss is active in gifted education. She served on a Gifted Education Task Force in Rochester, Minnesota, was a founding member of the Scottsdale Supporters of the Gifted in Scottsdale, Arizona, and participated in rewriting the curriculum for gifted students in the Deer Valley (Arizona) Unified School District. She is co-author of the book “Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses in Gifted Children and Adults” published by Great Potential Press; an updated second edition recently has been released. She has lectured at National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) conferences.

After leaving clinical medicine to raise her family, she now works for Social Security evaluating disability claims. She is in the midst of getting her certification in Functional Medicine. She continues to participate in the Professional Advisory Committee for SENG.

Dr. Grobman is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and a board-certified psychiatrist. For the past 36 years he has been in private practice specializing in the assessment and psychotherapy of gifted adolescents and adults. His website Psychotherapy Services for the Gifted, his publications on underachievement in gifted adolescents and young adults and psychotherapy of gifted adolescents and young adults, his video presentation on the gifted / learning disability syndrome, his webinar – Understanding and treating anxiety, Depression, Bipolar disorder and Underachievement in gifted children, adolescents, and young adults (SENG October 1, 2009) his Davidson Institute seminar – Tips for Parents: the inner experience of gifted children , adolescents and young adults have become important resources for the national and international gifted community.

At SENG conferences, Dr. Grobman has led workshops on such topics as underachievement, common problems of gifted individuals and how to treat them, the inner experience of gifted individuals, the moral/ethical dilemmas of the gifted, a comparison of counseling and therapy, techniques for gifted individuals and an advanced SENG institute course (2008) on underachievement. At SENG conferences, he has also conducted several continuing education courses for therapists looking for advanced training in the assessment and therapy of gifted individuals.

• Dr. Grobman has presented at the Wallace Symposium, the NAGC conference, the AEGUS conference, AGATE conference (advocacy for the gifted and talented education in New York), NECGT and Nassau Community College.
• Dr. Grobman is a member of the SENG professional advisory committee
• Dr. Grobman received the SENG SERVICE AWARD in 2013
• Dr. Grobman is a member of the adjunct staff of the Lenox Hill Hospital department of psychiatry where his is the senior supervisor in the psychology internship training program
• For a number of years, he was the psychiatric consultant to the Lenox Hill open heart surgical team
• From 1975-1980 Dr. Grobman was an Associate Clinical Professor in the Tufts University School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry. While there he was the director of group psychotherapy training, published and was an instructor in the American Group Psychotherapy Association’s national training institute
• Dr. Grobman is a lifetime member of the American Psychiatry Association
• Dr. Grobman has served as an academic consultant and editor for a doctoral candidate’s thesis
• Dr. Grobman has recently been nominated to become a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association

Dr. Grobman has authored the following articles about giftedness. The links to these articles can be found in GROs library:

• Underachievement in Exceptionally Gifted Adolescents and Young Adults: A Psychiatrist’s View, The Journal of Gifted Secondary Education 2006,17:199-209
• Experience, Journal for the Education of the Gifted 2009 33:106-125
• Psychotherapy, (a chapter in the Encyclopedia of Giftedness, Creativity and Talent ed. B.Kerr, September,2009 pp. 714-718 that reviews different types of psychotherapy for gifted individuals.)

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Dr. Joanna Haase is a psychotherapist in private practice in Pasadena, California with over 28 years of experience. She works with gifted individuals and their families to help them understand, navigate and embrace the joys and challenges of giftedness. In addition to working with parents and individuals, Dr. Haase partners with schools and districts to educate teachers and administrators on how to better support gifted and talented students. She is a regular presenter at state and national conferences on various topics about giftedness. In her private practice, Dr Haase also helps individuals with eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. She is one of the original Co-Founders of GRO.

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Carolyn Hampton is an entertainment attorney who has worked for one large, national law firm, and two Hollywood studios over the last twenty-eight years. Her specialties include motion picture and video-game production, marketing law, intellectual property, and litigation. Carolyn is also an award-winning fine art photographer who has exhibited her work in galleries and museums all over the world. Carolyn has been married for over 26 years, and together with her husband, she is the proud parent of Natalie Hampton, the founder of Sit With Us, Inc. (a 501c3 corporation) and the creator of the Sit With Us app. She assists her daughter with the day to day operations of Sit With Us to help spread the program to as many kids around the world as possible. In addition, Carolyn has spent many years volunteering and raising funds for nonprofits devoted to supporting children from all walks of life, including the highly gifted. She is a former Board member for the Institute for Educational Advancement, Marlborough School, and the Sherman Oaks Nursery School.

P. Susan Jackson, Therapeutic Director of The Daimon Institute for the Highly Gifted in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. This international institute offers service to highly and profoundly gifted children and adults, supporting the learning needs and overall development of this exceptional population.
Her clinical work spans 25 years, comprising over 40,000 hours of psychotherapy wholly with this exceptional population. She is the author of numerous articles and chapters in the gifted education literature. Her Integral Practice for the Gifted model™ addresses multiple aspects of human functioning – cognitive, emotional, spiritual, physical and talent based dimensions – and explains how advanced cognition influences all of these elements, the Self, and the expression of talent.
In 2010, she produced a short documentary entitled “Exceptionally Gifted Children”, which she received wide acclaim internationally. In 2013-2014, the Daimon Institute produced “Rise: The Extraordinary Story of the Exceptionally Gifted” – a 60 minute film on the lives of 12 exceptionally and profoundly gifted persons from all over the globe.
Sue served as the Chair of the Parents and Curriculum Networks Communications Committee and Counseling and Guidance Network (National Association to Support Gifted Children), and is a member of the advisory board for SENG. She is recognized as an international expert in the field of the Exceptionally and Profoundly Gifted and regularly presents with other leading experts at the international conferences. She is a (nascent) photographer, poet, and nature lover with a passionate interest in advanced development, optimal health and well-being for the Profoundly Gifted populace.

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Elizabeth D. Jones is President and Co-Founder of the Institute for Educational Advancement. Ms. Jones has been an educator, researcher and administrator of educational programs for over 30 years. She holds a master’s degree in special education from the University of Southern California and has completed doctoral work in the field of educational policy and learning theory. Jones served as the Associate Director of The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and the Director of the Western Region for ten years prior to assuming her current position. While at CTY, Jones served as Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. Sally Ride and Dr. JoBea Way for a NASA and NSF sponsored educational initiative call KidSat. She received recognition from the National Diffusion Network for the creation and implementation of exemplary programs for underserved highly able students and specialized in the intellectual, social and emotional needs of students. Jones founded the Institute for Educational Advancement in 1998. The organization’s first contract was to assist in the creation and implementation of the Davidson Young Scholars program. She went on to lead in the creation of the Award-winning Yunasa summer camp for the gifted and the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship program.

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Dr. Michele Kane, Ed.D. is Professor Emerita on Special Education from Northeastern Illinois University, where she coordinated the Master of Arts in Gifted Education program for over a decade. She has been a passionate advocate for gifted learners and gifted education for more than forty years. During this time she has been a frequent presenter at state, national, and international conferences and has held positions as a gifted teacher, gifted coordinator, parent educator, and counselor. Currently, she is an educational consultant for school districts and parenting specialist for families with gifted individuals. Additionally, she maintains her practice as a career counselor at a community college. Her leadership positions include as former President of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children, former Chair of Global Awareness Network of NAGC, and currently as Chair of the Parent and Community Network of NAGC. She is an active member on the boards of PGR (Profoundly Gifted Retreat), (COSEM) Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully, and Gro-Gifted. Michele is a contributing author to Off the Charts, Giftedness and Creativity, and Living with Intensity. Her most recent book, Planting Seeds of Mindfulness, co-authored with Dorothy Sisk, was released in 2018. She was honored by SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) as their 2018 Educator of the Year. Inspired by her experience raising six gifted (now adult) children, Michele’s primary interest remains on the social, emotional, and spiritual needs of gifted people across the lifespan.

Ruth is a published researcher, school psychologist, and therapist who is a fierce advocate for at-risk youth and adults who possess exceptionalities in both intellectual ability and various disabilities which threaten to mask their gifts. She earned dual B.A. degrees in Neuropsychology and English & World Literature from Pitzer College, completed her post graduate Ed.S. degree and credentials in School Psychology and School Counseling from Azusa Pacific University, and is currently serving K-12 students as an associate clinical therapist for the Pomona School District in Southern California. While most of intelligence research looks at protective factors, Ruth investigates high IQ as a potential risk factor for various disorders and diseases. She is Lead Researcher for the 2018 published paper, “High intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological over-excitabilities.” This exploratory study involved the recruitment of 3715 gifted participants to examine a potential interplay between the over-excitabilities often found in those with gifted cognitive ability (above the 98th percentile) and the development of mood and anxiety disorders, ADHD, ASD, as well as diseases related to immune dysregulation. Results support her novel Hyper Brain/Hyper Body theory. Ruth has expanded her scope into the field of education in order to be on the front lines of identifying and serving young gifted individuals who may be misplaced and in need of intervention. Her advocacy efforts are fueled by the twice-exceptionality of her two grown sons, as well as her own. She believes that promoting a broad awareness of the plight of the gifted is vital to their emotional and physical well-being and she has dedicated her life’s work to this end.

Marianne Kuzujanakis, M.D., M.P.H. was a co-founder of the SENG Misdiagnosis Initiative, past chair of the SENG Professional Advisory Committee, and homeschool educator for her profoundly gifted son from kindergarten through high school. She has presented at national conferences of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted Children (SENG), and Mensa. She is also a co-author of Misdiagnosis & Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children And Adults [2nd Edition]. Dr. Kuzujanakis is a pediatrician and has a Master in Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness through Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Kuzujanakis has authored or co-authored the following articles concerning giftedness. Links to these articles may be found in the GRO library.
• The Misunderstood Face Of Giftedness
• A Reflective Conversation With Marianne Kuzujanakis MD
• Practice Opportunities With Gifted Children and Their Families
• Number 6 Burns Like An Orange Flame
• Gifted Children and Adults – Neglected Areas of Practice

Canadian born Eric Levine is a global entrepreneur and fitness expert with successful businesses in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia. Considered a pioneer in the fitness industry, Eric is the founder of California Fitness and Planet Yoga. He held the first license of Golds Gym, and subsequently established the chain in Canada. Eric is a partner in 24-hour fitness, Crunch, Ray Wilson Family Fitness Centers, 1Ride, and UFC, as well as co-founder of HiTT, a chain of boutique boxing gyms. Recognized as the trailblazer of the fitness industry in Asia, his extensive knowledge of national and international business operations and ability to negotiate and foster strategic partnerships with diverse cultures, have resulted in his clubs exceeding every imaginable record around the world.

Eric’s interest in GRO comes from a father’s drive to ensure his young profoundly gifted son is able to grow and flourish in a world that will understand and meet his unique needs.

Joy Levine was born “Varaluk Vanichkul,” in Thailand. Joy was a Thailand Supermodel, actress and TV Host. In addition, Joy has established herself as a major entrepreneur in the Spa and Wellness industry in Thailand.

She is a founder and CEO of an innovative and highly successful spa and beauty products business. Her businesses received recognition worldwide from the World Luxury Spa Award. Nominated for the Best New Spa, a pinnacle of achievement in the global spa industry among others.

Joy served on Thai Spa Association Board of Directors for two terms, in Marketing, Public Relations and Education. She worked closely with fellow industry members, organizations and the government.

Joy began studying and practicing meditation at an early age. She has studied meditation with many spiritual teachers. Her interests are in pursuing optimal health of the body and mind with combining ancient knowledge and modern science. Joy is a certified Hypnotherapist, a 500 RYT Yoga Instructor, a certified Children’s Yoga Teacher, and a meditation Instructor from the Middle Way Meditation Institute. She is currently studying in a PHD program in Natural Medicine. Joy is the co-founder and Director of the Meditation and Yoga program at Tree Academy and also serves on its Board of Directors. Joy’s interests are in combining ancient spirituality into today’s breakthroughs in modern science and changing organizations from the inside out.

Irene received a MS in Advertising from Boston University. Before became a full-time stay-at-home mother, she worked in the advertising agencies as an account director who served clients such as P&G, KFC, and Volvo in Taiwan and China as well as the Bank of America and Sears’ Asian markets in the USA. After Irene’s son was born, she’d been involved in volunteering for community and education. She served on the board of the Friends of Arcadia Library Foundation; organizing events and doing fundraising for the library. Currently, Irene has been heavily involving in her son’s high school foundation and school district; helping and supporting the new school’s development and school district’s education programs. Irene has been supporting programs and projects in the gifted community. She has also been generously sharing gifted education resources and information with many parents in the gifted community through social media, especially with the Asian immigrant parents within the community. Irene helps parents who aren’t familiar with US educational system navigate the gifted education resources by her experiences through her own son’s education

Dr. Grace Malonai is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor who has been providing psychotherapy and counseling services in the San Francisco area since 1998. She is Co-Founder of Gifted Identity℠ and the Gifted Identity℠ Project, and is the Director at TheraThrive, a counseling, psychotherapy and consultation practice that focuses on serving gifted and highly sensitive children, teens, parents, couples and families.

Dr. Grace has been an instructor at St. Mary’s College of California since 2003, where she has taught Human Development, Group Theory and Practice, Psychopathology, Supervision, various other psychology and management courses, and served on thesis committees.

As a regular presenter at local, state and national conferences, Dr. Grace is able to share her knowledge and passion on various topics that focus on giftedness. She has presented at NAGC, Global Center for Gifted and Talented Children, SENG, and others. She is also a certified SENG Model Parent Group facilitator, and a parenting Topic Expert for GoodTherapy.org.

Dr. Grace is a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA), California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (CALPCC), Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), and others. She believes in service to her community, and serves as Coordinator for her local East Bay chapter of CALPCC, and has been a contributor to organizational newsletters and blogs.

Dr. Malonai has authored the following articles. Links to these articles may be found in the GRO library:
• 7 Ways to Help Your Strong-Willed Gifted Child Thrive
• Is Your Gifted Child Being Bullied? 5 Ways to Help
• Unhappy Campers: Helping Kids Deal with Homesickness
• 5 Solutions to Your Child’s Sleep Problems
• 5 Things That Help a Child with High Sensitivity and Anxiety

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Dr. Dan Peters is a psychologist, author, co-founder and Executive Director of the Summit Center. Dr. Peters has devoted his career to the assessment and treatment of children, adolescents, and families, specializing in overcoming worry and fear, learning differences such as dyslexia, and issues related to giftedness and twice-exceptionality.

Dr. Dan is also co-founder of Parent Footprint, an interactive parenting education community and website that offers Parent Footprint Awareness Training with the mission to make the world a more compassionate and loving place — one parent and one child at a time. He is host of the “Parent Footprint Podcast with Dr. Dan” and is a contributor to The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

For over 20 years, Dr. Dan has been passionate about helping parents to parent their children with purpose and intention in order to guide them in reaching their potential while their children are also reaching their own. Dr. Dan is the author of Make Your Worrier a Warrior: A Guide to Conquering Your Child’s Fears, its companion children’s book From Worrier to Warrior, and the Warrior Workbook. He is a contributor to Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties (edited by Scott Barry Kaufman) and toughLOVE: Raising Confident, Kind, Resilient Kids, as well as co-author of Raising Creative Kids and many articles on topics related to parenting, family, giftedness, twice-exceptionality, dyslexia, and anxiety.

Dr. Dan speaks regularly at national conferences and to the media on a variety of topics including parenting, learning differences, special needs, family, education and more. He serves on the Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted (SENG) Editorial Board, the Editorial Board for the 2e Newsletter, the Advisory Board for the 2e Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges Academy, the National Association of Gifted Children’s Gifted Definition Task Force, and as Co-Chair of the NAGC’s Assessments of Giftedness Special Interest Group.

Dr. Peters was recognized as “2018 SENG Mental Health Professional of the Year” by Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted, and as “2016 Allen Ewig Champion for Children” by Aldea Children and Family Services. He also received the 2013 CAG Distinguished Service Award from the California Association for Gifted.

Dr. Peters is co-founder of Camp Summit, a sleep-over summer camp for gifted youth.

Kasi Peters is a passionate advocate and support person for gifted children and their families. She serves on the boards of many gifted organizations including SENG, Profoundly Gifted Retreat, and Gifted Homeschoolers Forum. Kasi holds a certificate in Gifted and Talented Education from UC Irvine and is a Master Facilitator and Trainer for SENG Model Parent Groups, leading several in person and online parent discussion groups per year. She was awarded the SENG Model Parent Group Facilitator of the Year award in 2017. Kasi is co-founder of Westside of Los Angeles Gifted, a local meetup and resource group whose mission is to connect gifted families with meaningful social opportunities and with appropriate resources that meet their unique needs. Kasi is also co-founder of Square Pegs, an independent consulting business that is dedicated to supporting families looking for alternative educational opportunities. She has been homeschooling her two gifted children since 2012 and loves talking to people about the opportunities available to those who choose to step away from the school system. Kasi is also a board-certified music therapist primarily working with children who have special needs.

Edina Perng Yee began her professional career as a law clerk and litigator after graduating from the University of California at Hastings Law School in 2003. She received her B.A. from Cornell University. Edina is the mother of two profoundly gifted sons and has been active in the Los Angeles gifted community. She has served as a board member of several nonprofit schools and has held several leadership roles within a charitable women’s organization in Los Angeles since 2007. After her oldest son was identified as profoundly gifted, Edina started both two meetups and online support groups, Westside of Los Angeles Gifted, which serves several hundred families with intellectually gifted children, and Los Angeles Gifted Homeschoolers.

Photo credit: Jules Bianchi
Ron is the product of the New York public school system, and the beneficiary of public and private support which helped him through Cornell Law School where he was the Editor of both the Cornell Law Review and the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. At 33, he was a successful lawyer on a path toward partnership at a major New York law firm when a cancer diagnosis changed the direction of his life. Since then, he has focused on four passions, family, philanthropy, leadership, and volunteerism.

The father of two profoundly gifted children, Ron is committed to “paying it forward.” Using his time, talents, networks, and influence, he promotes education, equity and the environment by serving on the Board of Directors and Advisory Boards of various nonprofits, including: ScholarMatch, the Bay Area chapter of New Leaders for New Schools; and the Helios School for the gifted. He is also a member of the Education Circle of Full Circle Fund, and has served as the Event Director for the Profoundly Gifted Retreat.

Financing and producing THE G WORD, a full-length documentary about giftedness, is a continuation of Ron’s work and philanthropic support. He and his wife, Margret Caruso, live in the Silicon Valley, and are social impact Angel stage investors in clean and socially conscious technology companies. He has also been a prominent fundraiser for multiple Presidential, US Senate, and Congressional campaigns.

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James T. Webb, Ph.D., has been recognized as one of the most influential psychologists nationally on gifted education. Dr. Webb has written 16 books, over 80 professional publications, three DVDs, and many research papers for psychology conventions or for conferences regarding gifted and talented children. Six of his books are on gifted children and adults, and four have won “Best Book” awards. Dr. Webb’s Publications can be found at Great Potential Press.

In 1981, Dr. Webb established SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted Children, Inc.), a national nonprofit organization that provides information, training, conferences, and workshops, and he served as Chair of SENG’s Professional Advisory Committee. In 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arizona Association for Gifted children, the Community Service Award from the National Association for Gifted Children, and the Upton Sinclair Award by EducationNews.org; in 2015 the Lifetime Achievement Award from SENG, and in 2017 the Palmarium Award from the Institute for Development of Gifted Education.

A frequent keynote and workshop speaker at state, national, and international conventions, Dr. Webb, a licensed and board-certified psychologist, has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning, The Phil Donahue Show, CNN, Public Radio International, and National Public Radio.

A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, he served for three years on its governing body, the Council of Representatives. Dr. Webb is a Fellow of the Society of Pediatric Psychology and the Society for Personality Assessment. In 1992, he received the Heiser Presidential Award for Advocacy by the American Psychological Association, and also the National Award for Excellence, Senior Investigator Division, from the Mensa Education and Research Foundation. He has served on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Gifted Children, and was President of the American Association for Gifted Children. Currently, Dr. Webb is President of Great Potential Press, Inc.

Dr. Webb was President of the Ohio Psychological Association in 1974-1975, and a member of its Board of Trustees for seven years. He has been in private practice as well as in various consulting positions with clinics and hospitals. In 1978, Dr. Webb was one of the founders of the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, and from 1978-1995 he was a Professor and Associate Dean. Previously, Dr. Webb directed the Department of Psychology at the Children’s Medical Center in Dayton and was Associate Clinical Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Wright State University School of Medicine. From 1970-1975, Dr. Webb was on the graduate faculty in psychology at Ohio University.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Webb graduated from Rhodes College, and received his doctorate degree from the University of Alabama. Dr. Webb and his wife are parents of six daughters.

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