Melissa Benson is a G Suite for Education Consultant for Amplified IT. Melissa began working with the Google for Education (GFE) Admin Console in 2007 where she helped implement and integrate G Suite and Chromebooks into multiple K-12 school districts. Now, as part of the Amplified IT Team, she continues to help schools set up and manage G Suite environments with educational best practices.

Kevin is a caffeine dependent life-form as well as a recurring character (or presenter) at the BrainStorm conference. Many years ago, he was a systems engineer and service manager at a computer dealership. Then he moved on to become the IT Director at a Wisconsin school district for 24 years. Currently, he is CEO of Midwest Educational Technology Association, better known as the folks that bring you the BrainStorm conference! He specializes with networking hardware and software. Also, he is fond of Red Hat and CentOS, because there are two universal "truths" in life. One, GUI will never kill off the CLI. Two, VI is the most hated editor in history -- ever.

Joanna Cook has been a dedicated employee of East Noble School Corporation her entire career. Starting as a middle school language arts teacher in 1990, technology was a passion of hers and integrating it as a tool into instruction was something she strived for early on. After five years in the classroom, Joanna began collaborating with teachers and students by working as a media specialist at Avilla School before moving on to East Noble High School in the same role. In 2013, Joanna had the opportunity to combine her love of technology, teaching, and learning by becoming the technology director for the school corporation she loves. Joanna received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Education from Valparaiso University and her Master of Library Science from Indiana University. In 2015, she achieved her goal of becoming a Certified Education Technology Leader. She is currently serving on the HECC Board for the state of Indiana. Joanna is a passionate champion for technology in her district and loves sharing her pride in the journey East Noble has taken throughout six years of being a 1:1 district. She looks forward with excitement to helping her district learn and grow in the future.

As a AV Communication Tech, Dwayne installs, maintains and repairs audio visual, clocks,communication, computer, fire/security, networking, PA, production, radio, RF cabling, sound and telephone equipment/systems. In addition, all MakerSpace equipment is reviewed and implemented with procedures and safety requirements. He provides technical support to help students/staff use technology equipment effectively. Dwayne collaborates with staff to develop recommendations for all MakerSpace equipment. Before assuming his current position, Dwayne was the owner of a sign business, where he determined the hardware and software requirements to support his business. Prior to that he spent 28 years in the IT Department of a local bank, functioning as a department manager, system designer, project manager, process flow engineer.

Mike is a certified educational technology leader (CETL) who has served in a variety of roles through his career in public education. He has found success as a support technician, network administrator, consultant, and an integrationist. In his most recent role as Director of Technology at the Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools, Mike and his team have implemented a highly successful, nationally recognized 1:1 Chromebook initiative in all grade levels. Through his leadership, Chagrin Falls became a Google Reference District and was the first district in the country to have all of the teaching staff obtain Google Educator Level 1 certification. In June of 2017, Mike was honored to become a certified Google Innovator with his project focused on helping parents connect to their students digital lives. His success as a technology director comes from developing creative, well thought out solutions that positively impact teaching and learning. He is supported by his wife and three young children.

As a founder of Business Communication Specialists (BCS) Doug has extensive knowledge of VoIP solutions and has been instrumental in each aspect of BCS’s successful development and growth. Since his beginning in 2002, Doug has developed a long, deep and rich understanding of VoIP, networks, LAN/WAN and system design. Doug has had the distinct vantage point of growing with the technology from its early days within the industry. Today VoIP solutions have matured and Doug’s knowledge enables him to bring many ideas, options and solutions to our customers. He works closely with engineers to develop solutions that help enable the most effective designs to be built. Doug has successfully sold into every business vertical, with a specialization in school and government. He believes every business is unique in their technology needs and one of his passions is sharing his experience and knowledge with customers and prospects. BCS has realized consistent success and customer satisfaction over the years, which is a testament to Doug’s leadership of the company.

In suburban and rural school settings, there is an opportunity to improve coordination and authority response times in the event of a crisis. Lack of dedicated security resources means staff performing other duties must quickly shift gears to respond to a crisis. You Get It First provides near instantaneous messaging and alerts to relevant teams of resources including 911, based on the type of issue driving better clarity in a more controlled and where necessary, discreet format.We are offering a demonstration to showcase how alert capability from our platform can drive an average reduction of 9 minutes or more in police response time to an active shooter situation. We will also showcase how our tool can easily fit within your existing response protocols and drive better communication and documentation.

Matt Dunlap taught for 12 years at the elementary level, incorporating project-based learning that involved a variety of technologies in the classroom. Matt is currently the Technology Coordinator for the Fairview Park City Schools, involved in implementing a K-12 1-1 initiative that utilizes a wide variety of innovative technologies, including a personalized learning platform, STEAM and Innovation Center tools, and digital portfolios used for personalized authentic assessment for all K-12 students. In addition, Matt has been an instructor in the Educational Technology Department at Baldwin-Wallace University for over 10 years. Matt received his Bachelor's degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, his Master's degree from Ashland University, and Ed.S. in Computing Technology in Education from Nova Southeastern University.

Blake was named the Technology Coordinator of the Indiana Migrant Education Program in June of 2014. Upon his hiring, he was able to assist in integrating a 1:1 initiative with all the migrant students in the state of Indiana. His visionary leadership has provoked the first ever pilot in which students will take the devices back to their home state in Florida and Texas, while keeping the students educational needs at the forefront. By identifying an online platform that is universal, and recognizing the need for students to see emerging technologies first hand, Blake played an integral role in the development of technology kits that use these emerging technologies to meet curricular and technology standards.

I am Derek Friess, the technology coordinator at Pike-Delta-York Local Schools in Delta, OH. This is my 6th year at this position. Before that, I was a Math Teacher at Delta High School for 10 years. I graduated from BGSU with my degree in integrated Mathematics and have my Masters in Educational Administration and Supervision from BGSU as well. I have presented all over in many conferences as a teacher, coach and technology coordinator. I have presented at OETC numerous times, the New York Tech Summit in 2016, and too many here at PDY to count. I have also helped the Detroit Tigers put together, and present at, their annual Math Day for over 6 years now.

Doug Fritz has been working in the telephony industry for over 32 year and has been employed by both Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. Doug is the co-founder of Insta-Info Inc (III), a telecommunications company that 27 years ago developed The Education Connection (TEC), one of the first automated telephone communication systems designed for educators. TEC keeps students safe, encourages parental engagement, improves K-12 academic achievement, increases attendance, and boosts staff efficiency. Doug has been invited to speak at both local and regional conferences. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton with a bachelors degree in Computer Science and a masters degree in Computer Engineering from Wright State University. He is an Optimist in both attitude and membership. Doug enjoys sharing his years of experience through many first hand stories and illustrations.

Technology Director at Tuscola ISD for 27 years. Director of REMC 10 for 8 years. REMC Association of Michigan president 2013/-14. Coordinated the school side of a public private partnership that resulted in the building of several hundred miles of fiber that ultimately tied together the 23 local districts and 3 ISD's in Michigan's "Thumb" area. Manage the day to day operations of the school WAN as well as the growing data center and other collaborative services available on the WAN.

Mr. Grosh has over 25 years in technology spanning his time working w/ state government, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks, Brocade, Motorola, Xirrus, Ruckus and now w/ Mojo Networks. The last 7 years w/ a focus on K12, and Higher Education and forging those technologies to meet customer needs. His background has given him the ability to be ahead of trends in technology where that focus supports the needs of education. Many of the K12 districts in Ohio have gone with the technologies he has proposed to them. He has become an expert in ERate guidelines as they pertain to the manufacturers and is willing involve his team wherever needed.

I have been a Google Certified Trainer for the past 3 years focusing on sharing Google to my district. I am currently the webmaster and work with the Google team.

As the Technical Marketing Director for Mojo Networks, Robin develops and delivers technical training for WLAN professionals globally. Robin has worked in the local area networking and Wireless LAN for over 20 years holding positions in engineering, marketing, and support. He is a frequent speaker and blogger on wireless networking trends.

Ed Joras has been a technical professional and consultant working in Education for more than 20 years.

Greg has been working with WiFI technology since 2007  and has been with Ruckus since 2012. He has many certifications in a broad range of technology including Microsoft infrastructure, virtualization and CWNP certifications. Besides working in technology (and being a geek), he enjoys family, theology, philosophy, music and bourbon.

Father of 4, Army veteran, former teacher, former director of technology, and now have the pleasure of being a network engineer for the LESA technology consortium.

Ryan Post is a Systems Engineer for Veeam Software covering SLED. Technology has always been a passion for Ryan where he has been in the IT industry 10 plus years while the past six years at Veeam focusing on data protection and disaster recover help customers achieve the goals.

Christopher Lockhart has been attempting to tame technology for over 25 years to bend to his will. Starting in the early 90s and surviving the apocalyptic Y2K bug has taught him a lot about the triumphs, trials and hype of supporting information technology in large and small businesses, schools, and public venues.He has studied Electronic Engineering at DeVry, and radio communications for the US Army at Fort Gordon, Georgia.He passion was on display while co-hosting a weekly live call-in web radio show, In the TechKnow. He is currently the Director of Technology for Princeton City Schools.

Chantell Manahan is a language teacher turned technology director at the Metropolitan School District of Steuben County in Angola, Indiana. She is a Google Certified Administrator, a Google for Education Trainer, and a CoSN Certified Educational Technology Leader (CETL).

I received a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1996. After working in robotics for 3 years, went back to the UW-Madison to get a Master's Degree in Computer Science. I was asked to spend a year lecturing at the UW about operating systems and data structures where I earned an award from the students for my teaching skills.Then in 2003 Microsoft came calling and I went to work for them as a software developer. Five years later I decided to strike out on my own and started a business building websites for small companies.It was during this time that I started a small side project in my basement fixing broken cell phones for people. I did this to learn more about e-commerce, SEO, Adwords, copywriting, and web design. Most of these skills I intended to apply to helping the customers of my web building business, but it became apparent by late 2008 that this device repair gig could be a real business.Today we have 4 retail stores that fix over 2500 devices per month. We also have 2 repair depots for our growing school/business repair business. We currently work with over 200 schools fixing their iPads and Chromebooks.I currently live in Chicago and have an exciting life not just running my business, but raising two little boys (2 and 4 years old). Life has been, and continues to be, a great adventure.

I began my technology career in the military. After the military, I entered into a college to obtain my Computer Science Degree. While working on my degree I accepted a position with a private school working as their Technology Director. After a few short years, I was offered a position at a public school district serving as their Technology Director. I have been teaching technology concepts and best practices online since 2008. I am known in the technology community as someone who enjoys sharing with and teaching others in and out of the field. Normally I can be found in my office working on servers and switches or writing new programs to make everyday tasks a little easier and less stressful. In the evenings I can be found working on new courses to present on my LMS.

In elementary school, Matt Pannebaker once drew a picture of a rabbit that got him three gold stars. Since that time he's honed his show-and-tell skills to achieve the illustrious position of Sophos Sales Engineer, covering the great states of Ohio and Kentucky. When he's not selling the Sophos Endpoint, Mobile Security, Firewalls and other solutions, he's a husband, a father of three rambunctious boys and one wily dachshund, and gets away from it all through cycling and hiking.

Ted Remble brings a wealth of IT experience across the End User Computing / Virtual Desktop Infrastructure field including working currently with VMware's Workspace ONE, AirWatch and Horizon (VDI) solutions. Ted also has a history within the Thin Client / Mobile Device Management / Digital Desktop area while working previously at Citrix Systems and Sun Microsystems (Thin Client Computing - Sun Ray platform).

I have worked at Little Miami Local Schools for 11 years. 7 years as the district technician and the last 4 years as Network Manager.In 2014 I took over as Network Manager following several years of failed levies which left the district network and servers badly out of date. Since then I have replaced all network switches and routers. Migrated to a VMware environment and implemented Microsoft SCCM.

Currently, Stephanie serves as the CIO and VP Purchasing at Breakthrough Schools and is responsible for the school’s VoIP phone system. Breakthrough is a nonprofit public charter school network with 11 schools across Cuyahoga County, serving over 3,000 students from primarily economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods. Previously, Stephanie has held leadership positions at companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations. Her most relevant positions were at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, where she was the Director of Customer Affairs for North American Tire, managing 2 call centers averaging over 5,000 inbound calls per day; and the VP Information Technology and CIO, with a global organization of 1,000 staff supporting 72,000 employees.

Sean Whelan has proudly served as an educator for 20 years. He has served as an elementary educator and a building-level instructional technology specialist for 15 years. A position as a K-12 Technology Integrationist led to his current role as Director of Technology and Operations at West Geauga Local Schools. He maintains a passion for staying up-to-date on current education trends and strategies and enjoys sharing how technology and proper planning can help facilitate the ever-changing needs and demands of today's learning environment.

Stefano worked as a network engineer, leading network design and implementation projects in complex network environments. He earned his MBA at Carnegie Mellon University, where he got involved with Pittsburgh's vibrant startup scene. As CEO, he's responsible for executing the company's mission of delivering a network monitoring solution for large and distributed networks

Alex is an experienced Client and Account Manager with over 10 years of client relations expertise. He studied at Liberty University and has spent the last three years immersing himself in the universe of technology. He enjoys long walks on the beach and a cigar and a nice glass of scotch to end most evenings.

I currently serve as the Director of Technology for the Hamilton City School District. The position is rooted in the instruction department and, in addition to leading various technology initiatives, stays grounded in helping students and staff grow.
Before becoming a director, I worked at Oak Hills‘ as an eLearning Coach and Course Developer. The position involved designing online courses as well as assisting teachers in developing an online presence for their classrooms. It also featured a good amount technical troubleshooting, programming, and design.
Prior to the eLearning position, I taught American History in Oak Hills and the Houston Independent School District.
In addition to teaching students, I also held positions of leadership in the school. I’ve been the Social Studies Director (Chair) and school webmaster. During professional developments, I’ve held classes that assist teachers in integrating technology in their classrooms.
I’m part of the founding team for the open-source platform Abre. Abre is a software platform that allows schools to manage and distribute web-based software to staff, students, and parents. Abre makes life easier for everyone involved in education. It keeps the focus on what matters: Learning and Teaching.

Steven Sundermeier is the owner of Thirtyseven4, LLC, a leading provider of antivirus/security software. With 19 years of experience in the cybersecurity field, he is one of the Nation's leading experts in virus, malware and other threats. Steven is a current source for media inquiries related to the latest viruses and Malware, and has been regularly quoted by many national and local media outlets on the threats posed by malware, including CNN, Computer World, WTAM, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal. Before founding Thirtyseven4 in 2009, Steven worked in a number of roles in the anti-virus industry dating back to 1999. Steven holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Information Systems from Miami University with an minor in Computer Science. His desire is to serve the public with the most aggressive antivirus software on the market accompanied by unparallel Support services. He resides in Medina, Ohio, with his wife and three children.