Keynote Speakers

Dr. Beth Whitaker
Assistant Teacher Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis,
University of Missouri

Dr. Beth McCune Whitaker is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri – Columbia.  Dr. Whitaker earned her undergraduate degree from Central Methodist University, her Masters and Specialist degrees from the University of Missouri – Columbia, and her Ph.D. from Indiana State University.

Beth is a former classroom teacher and principal in Missouri.  During her tenure as an administrator, her school was awarded the Missouri Gold Star and National Blue Ribbon for excellence in education.  This past year Beth received the Mizzou College of Education Golden Apple for Teaching Excellence.  Dr. Whitaker has been published in the areas of school climate, principal leadership, and staff motivation and morale.  She teaches K-12 leadership courses and supervises administrator interns at Mizzou.

Prior to returning to Missouri last year, Dr. Whitaker was a professor in the Bayh College of Education and founding director of The Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. While at ISU, Beth received the Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award, Holmstedt Distinguished Professorship, Kinser Faculty Award, and the President’s Award from the Indiana State Principal’s Association.

Her husband, Todd, is also a faculty member at Mizzou and they have collaborated on numerous books and presentations.   Most importantly, they are the very proud parents of Katherine, Madeline, and Harrison.

Willow Sweeney Flaherty
Co-founder of Top 20 Training
Author, Trainer, and Coach

Willow Sweeney is a co-founder of Top 20 Training that provides training and materials to empower leaders, teachers, parents and students to develop their potential. Her career has included high school teaching and coaching. She has been a national speaker and trainer since 2002. Willow and her Top 20 team have trained over 1,000,000 people throughout the United States. Her work focuses on helping others develop their potential through social and emotional skills and develop more effective workplace teams and cultures. Willow has co-authored Top 20 Teachers: The Revolution in American Education, Top 20 Parents: Raising Happy, Responsible and Emotionally Healthy Children and Top 20 Teens: Discovering the Best-kept Thinking, Learning and Communicating Secrets of Successful Teenagers. She and her husband, Brian, have two sons and live in St. Cloud, Minnesota.