Dan Belenky, Ph.D. is a cognitive scientist with a passion for using learning science research to help educators and learners achieve their academic goals. He has over 15 years of experience researching the psychology of learning, motivation, and overcoming challenges, and applying it to the design of educational experiences.

Read about Dan's session: Brave Steps, Bright Horizons: Teacher Strategies for Supporting Resilience in English Language Learners

“Language guides our reasoning” says Lera Boroditsky, an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego. She previously served on the faculty at MIT and at Stanford and is the Editor in Chief of Frontiers in Cultural Psychology. The crux of her talks is to encourage audiences in thinking about how this knowledge of language applies to their own lives—from
work culture to habits of creativity and innovation, to how we parse our daily interactions with friends and strangers alike.

With dry wit and fun, memorable examples, Boroditsky teaches us to see that language, like intelligence, is a living thing “that we can hone and change to suit our needs”. Lera’s research, which combines aspects of linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology, has been covered in the popular press, and she is a sought-after keynote speaker at conferences, like TED.

Read about Lera's session: How the Languages We Speak Shape the Ways We Think

Isabela Villas Boas holds an MTESL degree from Arizona State University and a doctorate in Education from Universidade de Brasília. She specializes in second language writing and assessment and has been in the ELT field for 37 years, mostly in leadership positions. She is an international author and presenter.

Read about Isabela's session: Online Assessment For and As Learning

After pursuing degrees in linguistics, language teaching and interpreting, Josh Goldsmith worked as a EU- and UN-accredited interpreter for 15 years before founding AI Language Club. Now, Josh empowers teachers, students and language professionals to explore fresh, AI-powered ways to boost their language skills.

Read about Josh's session: Unlock the Potential of ChatGPT for Language Teaching

Sea (Claire) Steele and Sarah Smith are the co-founders and directors of eltonix, an educational consultancy focused on teacher development and student empowerment. They are particularly interested in developing critical and creative thinking, exploring social justice themes in the classroom, and supporting students who are gender diverse, or have special educational needs and disabilities, in particular, ADHD.

Sarah (she/her) and Sea (they/them) have worked as teachers and teacher educators in a number of countries. Sarah is currently based in Greece and Sea is based in Portugal.
To find out more, visit www.eltonix.com.

Read about Sea's and Sarah's session: Ideation in the YL Classroom: Generating, Developing and Sharing Creative Ideas

Jamie Keddie is the founder of LessonStream – a community of teachers with a passion for using story to engage students. He is the author of several books including "Videotelling: YouTube Stories for the Classroom" (LessonStream Books, 2017). Jamie is an affiliate trainer at Norwich Institute for Language Education in the UK.

Read about Jamie's session: Begin at the Beginning: Using Story to Introduce New Topics

Rachael Fionda has 20 years’ + experience in English language pedagogy, teacher training, curriculum development, instructional design, and materials development. Rachael holds an MPhil in Applied Linguistics from Innsbruck University, and a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College, Dublin.

Read about Rachael's session: Activate Schema: Using Life Experience to Maximise Learning

Dorothy Zemach taught ESL and other foreign languages for over 20 years, in Asia, Africa, and the US. She holds an MA in TESL from the School for International Training in Vermont, USA. Now she concentrates on writing, editing, and publishing ELT materials and textbooks and conducting teacher training workshops. A frequent plenary speaker at international conferences, her areas of specialty and interest are teaching writing, teaching reading, academic English, testing, and humor. For Macmillan, she is the author or coauthor of the Macmillan Writing Series, Open Mind, and Get Ready for International Business, and is the series consultant for Skillful.

Read about Dorothy's session: Developing an Academic Mindset

Harry Waters wears many hats, both literally and figuratively. One of them is as a multi-award-winning teacher trainer, others include teacher, writer, climate activist, podcast host, TEDx speaker and hat wearer. He started Renewable English 3 years ago as an extension of his two greatest non-hat related passions, the environment and ELT. He’s the ambassador for Macmillan’s Advanced Learning Change Makers. He was also a lead trainer for two ELTon award-winning projects. His climate activism within education and drive for reform, led to invitations to speak at the world’s largest climate summit ChangeNOW in Paris for the past two years. He’s not great at writing biographies that remain within word limits and loves second-hand shirts.

Read about Harry's & Margarita's session: Fostering Change through Youth Empowerment and Global Connections

Margarita Kosior is an educator, conference presenter, materials writer and editor, storyteller and children’s author. She has written ELT materials on various social issues. In recent years, she has concentrated on her Tales of Strays Campaign which uses education to advocate for companion animal welfare.

Read about Margarita's session: Fostering Change through Youth Empowerment and Global Connections

Orelly Palmas, MA holds a BA in Teaching English as a foreign language and an MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT from Surrey University, England. She has taught foreign languages and ESP at all levels in Mexico and the U.K. Mrs. Palmas is a Cambridge certified lead trainer and speaking examiner.

Read about Orelly 's session: Exam Preparation Made Fun for Youngsters!

After studying languages at Oxford University, David Spencer trained to be a Secondary School teacher. He then moved to Spain where he has been living and teaching ever since.
He continues to teach teenage students every day in a school near Madrid. Dave began writing courses for Macmillan Education in 1994. His brand new series for teenagers is a multi-level course designed to prepare teenage students for exams and life after school. Dave has given talks to teachers in twenty-eight countries and is active on social media.

Read about David's session: My Experience: Putting Grammar in Context

Penny Ur is an experienced English teacher at primary and secondary level in Israel, and has lectured and published extensively on language-teaching methodology. Her main interest is the design and use of practical classroom language-teaching procedures and materials, on which she has written a number of books.

Read about Penny's session: What's the Future for Grammar in the Classroom?

Usoa Sol is a secondary school teacher, a teacher trainer, and the president of APAC, the English Teachers’ Association in Catalonia. She is particularly interested in teen psychology and firmly believes in the power of audiovisuals and ICT to motivate students.

Read about Usoa's session: Everyone Makes Progress Here!

Claudia Rey is a teacher trainer, conference speaker and ELT consultant who specializes in the areas of Teaching Young Learners, CLIL for Primary and Secondary Teachers, Assessment, and Teaching English through Literature. Claudia is the course leader of NILE’s “Teaching Young Learners” online course and the designer of the “Learning Outside the Classroom” video series (TeachingEnglish/British Council)

Read about Claudia's session: Tried and Tested: How to Assess Project-work

Lorena Peimbert studied Pedagogy at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City and became an English teacher in 1995, specializing in early childhood stimulation, learning disabilities, psychomotor skills, and logical-mathematical thinking. With more than 20 years of experience in teaching and working in schools, she now trains and coaches teachers, content edits, manages educational projects, and writes in collaboration with Macmillan. She has written different books to teach English to students in different levels from preschool to high school. Her mission is for educators and students to become the best version of themselves.

Read about Lorena's session: Let the Inside Out: Empowering Emotional Expression in the Classroom

Alicja Gałązka is a professor at the University of Silesia, a psychotherapist, psychologist, linguist, a licenced coach and an international master trainer. A President of ICI ( International Coaching Institute ) in Poland and a head of the Language Centre FUTURE in Poland. She is an author of over 300 articles published in Polish and English and numerous books. An active member of IDEA, National Drama Association and IATEFL. Has been researching and practising drama for years. Her main interest is psychology and drama in the ELT classroom .A coordinator and participant of many international projects. Coordinator of two SIGs : Psychology in ELT and Drama in ELT in IATEFL Poland. A regional adviser for Trinity College London in Poland, teacher trainer cooperating with many international educational organisations. Working in two main sectors: Medicine and Education. She actively works with teachers, school managers and pupils on developing their well-being and resilience.

Read about Alicja's session: Let's Make Some Noise about Bullying: Prevent and Manage Classroom Bullying

Sarah Hillyard has been teacher and coordinator at pre-primary level for many years and is now ELT academic consultant for bilingual schools in Argentina. She is a NILE Online tutor, webinar presenter and gives talks at conferences and schools. She is a freelance teacher trainer, course developer, author, and writer of articles and blogposts.

Read about Sarah's session: Breaking the Silence: 10 Ways to Empower Students to Express Themselves

Grzegorz Śpiewak, Ph.D. is a graduate of University of Essex, UK (MA in Linguistics) and University of Warsaw (Ph.D in English & Linguistics). Teacher of English, methodology consultant, project manager, teacher trainer, international conference speaker, author. Currently affiliated with Macmillan Education as Head ELT Consultant for Central & Eastern Europe and a key teacher trainer, and with DOS-ELTea, an independent teacher development centre, as its co-founder and president. An Honorary President and advisory board member of IATEFL Poland. Nominated for the British Council ELTON award 2016 for DOS-ELTea Teacher Trainer Academy programme. Winner of Creativity & Innovation 2009 and European Language Label 2012 for his best-selling English for Parents series (deDOMO Education).

Read about Grzegorz's session: Parents on Board: Ideas to Involve Parents in their Child’s Learning