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2009 UCEA Workforce
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2009 Workforce Development Forum

General Session Speakers

Michael Renner is a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute whose work focuses on the linkages between environment, resources, and conflict, post-disaster peacemaking, and employment and environment. He previously served as Worldwatch’s Director of its Global Security Project. His latest research project, carried out jointly with the Cornell University Global Labor Institute, examined environment and employment for the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Labour Organization. The resulting report, Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World, was released at UN Headquarters in New York on September 24, 2008.

Before joining Worldwatch in 1987, Michael was a Corliss Lamont Fellow in Economic Conversion at Columbia University (1986-87) and a research associate at the World Policy Institute in New York City (1984-86). He currently serves on the board of the New York-based Global Policy Forum, is a Senior Advisor to the Institute for Environmental Security (The Hague/Brussels), and is member of the Advisory Group on Sustainable Security for the Oxford Research Group in the United Kingdom.

His writing has appeared in a variety of publications, and he is the co-author of Beyond Disasters: Creating Opportunities for Peace. Micheal has written numerous Worldwatch Papers, as well as contributing regularly to Worldwatch’s State of the World volumes. He has addressed myriad academic and professional audiences worldwide. Born and raised in Germany, he is a cum laude graduate of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he received a Master's degree in international relations. Michael lives with his wife and two children on Long Island, New York.

Catherine L. Ross is the Harry West Professor and Director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on land use, transportation planning, impact assessment, and quality growth. Dr. Ross is an Urban Land Institute Academic Fellow since 2004 and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. She was recently named as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Advance Professor.

Dr. Ross has served as a senior policy advisor for the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academy of Sciences and served on the Executive Committees of (TRB) and the Eno Transportation Foundation. She is past president of the National Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ASCP), and served as the Executive Director for the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) and as a board member for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Dr. Ross is the former co-director of the Transportation Research and Education Center at Georgia Tech and has conducted research for numerous governmental transportation agencies, other public agencies and the private sector.

She has published more than 300 articles, research reports, books, and is the co-author of The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in the Next Century. Her latest book Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness will be published in spring, 2009 by Island Press. Dr. Ross earned a BA degree from Kent State University followed by a Master's Degree and Doctorate respectively from Cornell University in Regional Planning and completed post-doctorate work at the University of California, Berkeley.

Ray Schroeder is Professor Emeritus of Communication, Director of the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning (OTEL) at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). As founding Director of OTEL he initiated the online learning program at UIS and is dedicated to faculty development and pedagogical support of the online initiative. Schroeder has numerous nationalpresentations and publications in the area of online learning and the application of technology to enhance the learning process. He has published the popular Online Learning Update and Educational Technology blogs for the past seven years. Schroeder is a Sloan Consortium Distinguished Scholar in Online Learning 2002-2003, recipient of the 2002 Sloan-C award for the “Most Outstanding Achievement in ALN by an Individual,” University of Southern Maine “Visiting Scholar in Online Learning” 2006-2008, and founder of the New Century Learning Consortium.

For more information on forum logistics: contact Natalia Kats, UCEA Director of Conferences, at nkats@ucea.edu or 202.659.3130.