2019 Roundtable
Topic: ‘Marking 105th Birthday Anniversary of the father of Contemporary Creativity: E. Paul Torrance’
Rick Kantor, Secretary of the American Creativity Association
Rick Kantor is a Creativity speaker, professor, creative consultant and coach. His enthusiasm for being the catalyst that unlocks the creativity that lies within organizations and individuals is built on decades of starting companies, designing products, and entrepreneurial ventures including a novelty and Halloween company, a California eco-showroom and gallery, decorative painting and interiors businesses in New York City. In addition to degrees in Fine Arts and Psychology, Rick earned a Masters Degree in Creativity and Innovation from Drexel University, where he is currently adjunct faculty, teaching Creativity in the Workplace online to a very diverse group of graduate students across many disciplines.
He has written a chapter in the Talent Management Handbook, 3rd Edition 2017 by Berger and Berger; his chapter entitled “Art as Open Source Intelligence” won first prize at the Knowledge, Innovation and Enterprise conference 2015. Other written works include “Intelligence and Creativity Reconsidered”, and “8 Lessons of the Creative Workplace learned at Cirque du Soleil “ for the NHRC Human Resources conference in Sri Lanka 2016. He serves as Faculty Advisor to Harvard Business Publishing and is Secretary of the American Creativity Association.
Rick has always believed that creativity is both our birthright and a skill set that can be learned and strengthened. It is how we will collaboratively discover, invent and build the path to planetary wellbeing and survival. For the individual, creativity is the uniquely human ability that increases our self-actualization.
2018 Roundtable
Topic: ‘Can We Teach Creative Thinking?’
Christine Galib, The Village School in Houston, TX, USA
After co-founding a successful investment management team on Wall Street, for non-profit institutions, Christine Galib taught science and health & wellness through Teach For America. A nationally certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and yoga teacher, Ms. Galib founded Plan My Plate, a health & wellness consulting firm. Ms. Galib has completed premedical coursework, leads workshops on diet, exercise, and stress management, presents on wellness in corporate, healthcare, and university settings, and teaches mindfulness and meditation at Rice University’s Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. Ms. Galib also serves as Co-Founder and the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Bridges to Wealth, a social enterprise closing the wealth gap through teaching business literacy, entrepreneurship, and investing. Ms. Galib is thrilled to serve as the Director of Entrepreneurship and Wellness Programs at The Village School in Houston, TX. In these roles, Ms. Galib runs Village’s Entrepreneurship Diploma, instructs business literacy-related coursework, teaches mindfulness, and supports students and staff in physical, mental, and social practices that promote health and wellness. She holds her A.B. from Princeton University and M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where she has served as an instructor. She is pursuing her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Management, with a concentration in Creativity and Innovation, at Drexel University, Philadelphia, United States.
Gertrude Shotte, PhD, Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Dr. Gertrude Shotte is lecturer at Middlesex University, United Kingdom and Books Editor of the International Journal of Multidisciplinary Comparative Studies. She holds an MA and a PhD in education (Lifelong Education and International Development and Education Foundation and Policy Studies) from the Institute of Education, University of London. She has a teaching career that spans primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Migration, identity, achievement, inclusion, exclusion, teacher education, home-school-community collaboration, and lifelong learning are her research interests. She has presented several of these research papers in national, regional, and international conferences.
2017 Roundtable
Topic: ‘Fostering Creative Thinking in K-16 Education’
Jen Katz-Buonincontro, PhD, Drexel University, PA, USA
Dr Jen Katz-Buonincontro is Associate Professor in the School of Education, Drexel University, USA. She is 2016 recipient of the Daniel E. Berlyne Award for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Scholar from the American Psychological Association, Division 10: Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts. Helping children and adults learn to think and act in creative ways that optimizes their academic and professional success is the central motivation of her research, teaching and service.
Current studies focus on creative thinking and problem solving as a function of learning domain-specific content knowledge. These studies on beliefs about creativity, creative performance and academics extend past research on creativity, motivation and identity with a distinctive emphasis on learning. Her research aims to clarify and build socio-cognitive theories of creative agency to ultimately advance educational research with knowledge and applied teaching tools. Her scholarship traces inborn versus learnable beliefs about creativity and talent in philosophical tracts and political rhetoric, documents the process of learning how to effectively problem solve through the arts in leadership development and integrates the arts into leadership curriculum and STEM education.
Katz-Buonincontro is Chair of the Faculty Steering Committee (SoE), Chair of the Social Science Committee (Drexel), Chair of the Arts and Learning SIG (AERA), Program Chair (Division 10-APA), and serves on three editorial boards.
Katherine Boutry, PhD, West Los Angeles College, USA
Dr Katherine Boutry is a tenured professor and the Creativity Coordinator at West Los Angeles College. Dr Boutry received her PhD in English at Harvard University where she taught for five years and served as the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies. She created the MFA Program at Mount Saint Mary’s University, and is the author of The West Guide to Writing. She is also a produced television writer. Her paper, “West Los Angeles College: A Test Case for Creativity Programs,” was presented at the 2016 KIE Conference in Berlin, Germany.
2016 Roundtable
Topic: ‘Need of Creativity in K-16 Education’
Kathy Goff, EdD, VAST: Next Generation Learning, USA
Dr Kathy Goff is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of VAST: Next Generation Learning, LLC, a cloud-based edtech software company that focuses on creativity assessments, creative problem solving and brain trainings. She earned a doctorate at the University of Georgia in Adult Learning and Creativity under Dr. E. Paul Torrance, the “Father of Creativity”. Kathy served as Torrance’s personal research assistant and collaborator for over 16 years. Goff and Torrance (2000) created the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA), one of the first instruments to measure creativity in adults. Goff and Guzik have created one of the first cloud-based creativity assessments for adults in the workplace. The Vast Creative Abilities Indicator (VCAI) launches for commercial use in March, 2016. She is an internationally recognized author, researcher, educator, patented inventor, consultant and entrepreneur.
2015 Roundtable
Topic: ‘Celebrating 100th years anniversary of birth of Dr E. Paul Torrance’
Sandra M. Dingli, PhD, University of Malta, Malta
Professor Sandra M. Dingli set up The Edward de Bono Institute at the University of Malta in October 1992 in collaboration with Dr. Edward de Bono. In 2004 Sandra designed and launched a new postgraduate degree, a Master of Arts in Creativity and Innovation, which attracts international postgraduate students to the University of Malta. In 2009 she launched an international joint MSc in Strategic Innovation and Future Creation which was delivered together with other EU Universities, mainly by e-learning. Sandra delivers lectures on creativity, innovation, foresight and new digital technology to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has published extensively in the UK and in Malta. One of her most recent publications is Creativity and Strategic Innovation Management, which she co-authored with Malcolm Goodman (Routledge, 2013). She is regularly invited to deliver presentations and workshops at local and international conferences on topics related to creativity, innovation management and foresight.Sandra has visited the University of Manchester’s Institute of Innovation Research as a visiting researcher. She is regularly invited to evaluate projects by various European research institutes. Her training experience includes workshops conducted in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Finland, Czech Republic, England, Italy and Scotland. Sandra’s research interests are mainly in the areas of innovation management, foresight, new digital technology, innovative business models, future skills, philosophy of mind and philosophy of artificial intelligence. Although she now dedicates most of her time to research, workshops and lecturing, her extensive work experience includes participation in the sectors of art and culture, tourism, human resources development, youth entrepreneurship and television production.
Chris Wilson, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Chris Wilson holds the position of Senior Lead in Learning Enhancement at the University of Derby in the UK and is a Senior Academic in the College of Arts. He is a classically trained musician and practitioner in the technological arts and has presented and published internationally on the subjects of creativity, artistry, technology and education. An active member of the American Creativity Association, Associate of the Digital and Material Arts Research Centre in the UK, and a governor for his local primary school, Chris teaches across a number of subjects and works to actively promote creative practice in higher education.
Michael Brown, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Michael Brown is the Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Popular Music with Music Technology degree in the College of Arts, at the University of Derby, UK. He holds diplomas in both Art and Music, a BSc (Hons) degree in Software Engineering, Mathematics and Music, and a Masters degree in Contemporary Composition, which combine to serve his interest in computer creativity. He is a Principal Researcher with over twenty-five years of teaching experience, an active artist, composer and musician. As well as maintaining his professional role, he is a member of the American Creativity Association and has presented his research in multimodal creativity internationally.