Our Speakers
Jennifer Berkshire
Jennifer Berkshire writes about education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the Washington Post, and other publications. The creator and co-host of the education policy podcast “Have You Heard” she teaches aspiring podcasters in the journalism program at Boston College and at UMass Amherst. Berkshire discovered her passion for storytelling while covering a series of bitter labor battles that wracked her native Midwest in the early 1990’s. She’s the author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School and The Education Wars: A Citizens Guide and Defense Manual
Dr. Sue Woltanski
Dr. Sue Woltanski is, first and foremost, a public education advocate. A retired pediatrician and mother of two public school graduates, she has been following education policy in Florida for more than a decade. She also writes the blog Accountabaloney, which focuses on the damaging effects of high-stakes testing and Florida’s relentless privatization policy agenda.
She was initially elected unopposed to the Monroe County School Board in 2018 and re-elected in August 2022—one of only five school board candidates statewide to defeat a DeSantis-endorsed opponent that night.
Dr. Maureen Keyes
Dr. Theoni Soublis
A native Sarasotian Dr. Soublis earned her Master's degree and PhD in Education from the University of South Florida. Dr. Soublis is a Professor of Education at the University of Tampa where she is the Director of the Master's Degree Program in Curriculum & Instruction. She teaches graduate courses in Public School Law & Professional Ethics, and Social Justice Education. Dr. Soublis is an advocate for the preservation of public education and a fierce supporter of teacher’s & student’s rights.
Dr. Keyes is foremost a special education advocate. A retired special education teacher who received her PhD from UW Madison in 1996. She served as Assistant professor at UW Milwaukee 1996-2000 and Associate professor of Exceptional Education 2000-2014. As the mother of a special needs child, she is active in the fight against cuts to the Department of Education, especially the 504 program. She is widely published in the Journal of School Leadership on the topic of accountability.
Links to her published works: