Emerge: Leader Development Conference

Gavin Grift

Gavin Grift is a highly respected international educator and the founder of Grift Education, an organisation that helps educators lead satisfying and accomplished professional lives.

Considered one of Australia’s top educational authors, Gavin’s clients include independent, faith-based and government education systems, high-level executives, influential corporate brands and cutting edge international schools.

These number many, but include United World College South East Asia, Catholic Education South Australia, state education departments, Learning Network New Zealand, International School of Phnom Penh, L’Oréal, Beyond Blue and an array of CEOs, principals and middle leaders.

Gavin’s bestselling books, such as Collaborative Teams that Work, Five Ways of Being, Teachers as Architects, Transformative Collaboration and his latest book, Emerge, empower readers across the globe.

He is also an in-demand keynote speaker and workshop presenters. (To inquire about Gavin’s availability, visit grifteducation.com).

Clark Stroupe

After fleeing careers in professional politics and academia, Clark has worked in eight international schools and countless roles since 2000, in countries including Egypt, Myanmar, India, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Cambodia.

He also works as an independent and International Baccalaureate (IB) consultant. Taking a break from in-school life for a couple of years, Clark worked for the IB out of the Singapore global office, supporting schools around the world.

He’s currently the Director of Professional Learning at ISPP Cambodia, focusing on both internal teacher development and various pedagogical outreach initiatives. He’s pleased that his 15-year-old daughter, Maisie, is, for the first time in her life, living and learning in her native country of Cambodia.

Eileen Niedermann

Eileen Niedermann is the Director at ISPP. She holds a Master of Arts in Multicultural Education from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Science in Physics [Hons] and Mathematics from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

She is also a graduate of the Principal’s Training Center for International School Leadership, and has been an international educator for almost 25 years.

Eileen’s international school career began at the International School of Tanganyika, Tanzania. She has since served as the Director at Mahindra International School in Pune, India, the Secondary Principal at the Overseas School of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and the Director of Curriculum and Professional Learning at Tashkent International School in Uzbekistan.

Her teaching interests include physics, mathematics, design, and the theory of knowledge.

Eileen is actively involved in the International Baccalaureate community as an examiner, Middle Years Programme Workshop Leader, and Site Visitor. She is a Council of International Schools (CIS). Team Visit Member and Team Leader, and also serves on the board of the Association of International School Heads.

Lucie Lecocq-Otsing

Lucie is a French native who has always loved learning about languages, culture and pedagogy. She and her family have been privileged to work in a few places around the world, and Lucie says they have learnt from every person they have met along the way.

She began her career as a French teacher, because sharing knowledge and learning from and with others had long been her passion.

Lucie quickly became interested in collaborating, ‘collective efficacy’ – to quote education academic John Hattie’s work and leadership. She has worked in various middle leadership positions, and has been a Diploma Coordinator at ISPP since 2016.

Chris Scott

Chris has worked in the UK, US, China and Cambodia in teaching, middle leadership and senior leadership positions over the past 20 years.

He loves to draw on real-life examples and parallels in sport, current events and philosophy, as well as education to navigate and explore different aspects of leadership and its associated journey.

Chris has a passion for exploring what ‘makes’ and ‘breaks’ leaders, along with being able to share personal experiences of his leadership journey.

Stuart MacAlpine

With more than two decades’ of experience in the education sector, Stuart is currently the Principal Middle and High School at International School Aberdeen. Born and raised in the UK with his formative years spent living between England and Scotland, Stuart’s career in education has taken him all over the world, from Singapore and New Zealand and more recently to Denmark where he’s spent the last 2.5 years with the LEGO Foundation as Senior Director.

Stuart was the founding Principal of Green School New Zealand. He is the director of Hesscairn Learning Design Studio. Stuart was director of learning at the world’s largest international school, the United World College of South East Asia, part of the UWC movement for peace and sustainability. Stuart worked with Amala (previously Sky School) as their director of education to found the world’s first High School Diploma written for and with refugees. Stuart leads professional learning in a number of areas around leadership, coaching, and concept based learning.

Heather De Blasio

Heather De Blasio is an author, a speaker, facilitator, mentor and coach with over 20 years of leadership experience at different levels and settings. She has spent a lifetime committed to growing others and refusing to put limits on what they might achieve.

An engaging speaker, Heather has delivered key-note presentations and workshops about leadership, team development and assessment at state, national and international conferences, including the Australian Council of Educational Leadership, Australian College of Educators, International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement, uLead and the International Conference on Thinking.

Heather is co-author of the bestselling book, Five Ways of Being (Danvers, De Blasio & Grift, 2020), Mastering Meetings That Matter (Grift, Sloper, De Blasio, in print) and a contributing author to the second edition of Assessment for Teaching (Griffin ed., 2017).

A highly sought-after professional learning leader for Grift Education where she is renowned for her unique ability to authentically develop the leadership capacity of others, Heather works with leaders, principals and leadership teams across sectors and regions in Australia and internationally. In addition to her work with Grift Education, Heather also currently serves in a part-time capacity as the Director of Leadership and Human Potential at Wilderness School.