The CMK Speaker Hall of Fame

Since 2008, Constructing Modern Knowledge has created a space in which educators can interact with their heroes, confront powerful ideas, and spend time in the company of genius. Despite any institutional support, sponsorships, or vendors, has been able to do the seemingly impossible. In addition to our brilliant faculty, the following speakers have been part of CMK’s first nine institutes.

• Marvin Minsky – artificial intelligence pioneer (8)
• Edith Ackermann – learning theorist (3)
• Robert Tinker – scientist & curriculum developer
• Peter H. Reynolds – artist and author
• Alfie Kohn – author and education researcher (3)
• Deborah Meier – MacArthur Genius Award recipient and school administrator (4)
• Jonathan Kozol – civil rights leader and author
• Derrick Pitts – astrophysicist
• Casey Neistat – filmmaker
• Mark Frauenfelder – founder of BoingBoing and Make Magazine
• Leah Buechley – artist, scientist, engineer (2)
• Barry Harris – NEA Jazz Master
• Jimmy Heath – NEA Jazz Master (2)
• Emmet Cohen – pianist
• David Loader – extraordinary school principal
• Eleanor Duckworth – science educator
• Lillian Katz – early childhood expert
• Stephen Wolfram – Mathematician and computer scientist
• Lella Gandini – authority on the Reggio Emilia Approach (2)
• James Loewen – historian
• Pete Nelson – treehouse designer and TV host
• Mitchel Resnick – Director of the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group (3)
• Sherry Lassiter – Director and CEO of the MIT-based Fab Foundation (2)
• Tod Machover – Composer and Director of MIT Media Lab’s Opera of the Future Research Group
• Brian Lynch – trumpeter, composer, educator
• Zaccai Curtis – pianist, music producer
• Jie Qi – inventor of Circuit Stickers
• Eric Rosenbaum – coinventor of the Makey Makey and member of the MIT Scratch Team (4)
• Carla Rinaldi – Educator from Reggio Emilia, Italy  (2)
• Kari Kola – Finnish light artist
• David Cavallo – Fab Foundation
• Nikole Hannah-Jones – NY Times award-winning journalist and MacArthur Genius

2022 Guest Speakers

• Alfie Kohn – Popular education author and speaker
• Kate Schuster – Researcher, educator, curator, and activist
• Peter Martin – Pianist, composer, arranger, educator, and Internet entrepreneur

2019 Guest Speakers

• Kari Kola – Light artist
• Sherry Lassiter & David Cavallo – Fab Foundation
• Nikole Hannah-Jones – MacArthur Genius, decorated journalist, and activist

2018 Guest Speakers

• James Loewen – Bestselling historian
• Carla Rinaldi – President of the Reggio Children Foundation
• Jie Qi – MIT Media Lab postdoc and CEO of Chibitronics
• Eric Rosenbaum – MIT Media Lab postdoc and co-inventor of the Makey Makey
• Brian Lynch – Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and professor
• Zaccai Curtis – Pianist

2017 Guest Speakers

• Ayah Bdeir – CEO of littleBits
• Deborah Meier – MacArthur Genius and veteran educator (4)
• Neil Gershenfeld – Maker movement pioneer and MIT professor

2016 Guest Speakers

• Carla Rinaldi – President of Reggio Children
• Stephen Wolfram – Mathematician and computer scientist
• Mitchel Resnick – Creator of Scratch (3)
• Edith Ackermann – learning theorist (3)

Note: numbers in ( ) indicate multiple years of CMK participation.

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