Speakers

Click here for Speaker Proposals for Expo 2021

This year’s Expo speakers will be listed here as they come through.

Theme for the 2021 EXPO: “Unleashing Your Family’s Super Powers”

 

2021 CHN Expo Keynote Speaker

Patrick Farenga

Patrick Farenga has more than 36 years of fieldwork, advocacy, and personal experience helping parents and children learn in their own ways. Pat is a writer and education activist who addresses academic and general audiences about working with children, not on children, to help them learn.

Pat worked closely with one of the founders of the modern homeschooling movement, the late author and teacher John Holt, and published Growing Without Schooling magazine (GWS). GWS was the nation’s first periodical about learning without going to school, started by Holt in 1977 and published by Farenga until 2001.

Pat speaks as a homeschooling expert at education conferences around the world as well as on commercial radio and television talk shows in the United States (The Today Show, Good Morning America) and abroad.

Pat writes about homeschooling and self-directed learning for a number of publications and operates the John Holt/Growing Without Schooling website, www.johnholtgws.com. He and his wife unschooled their three daughters, who are now adults. He is also a founding member of www.self-directed.org.

Pat’s books include Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling (Perseus, 2003), The Legacy of John Holt: A Man Who Genuinely Understood, Trusted, and Respected Children (HoltGWS, 2013), and How to Report Unschooling to School Officials (HoltGWS, 2015).

Farenga has also written chapters about homeschooling in Encyclopedia Britannica (2014, 2010), A Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling (Mars Publishing, 2002), Creating Learning Communities (FER, 2000), The Handbook of Alternative Education (Macmillan, 1994), The Exhausted School (Oxford Village, 1992), Schooling At Home (John Muir, 1990), and The Encyclopedia of School Administration (Sage, 1988).

Information, books, and other resources about unschooling and John Holt: www.johnholtgws.com
 www.youtube.com/johnholtgws

 

2021 CHN Expo Featured Speakers

Jeremy Stuart
Self-Taught Documentary Screening

Through the stories of six extraordinary individuals, Self-Taught explores what self-directed education means to them and the impact it has had on their lives, ambitions, work and beliefs.

Whether Artist, Scientist, or Entrepreneur, they all have one thing in common: their belief that true education is the capacity to author your own life instead of merely accepting the one you’ve been handed.

The official trailer is located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD8b_iEXbf8&t=11s
The website is here: https://www.selftaughtmovie.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/selftaughtmovie/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/self_taught_movie/

Jeremy Stuart was born in London, England, and spent a decade as a professional drummer before moving to Los Angeles and beginning his career in the film and television industry.

In his many years in the film industry he has edited hundreds of music videos, for such notables as the Dave Matthews Band, Blind Melon, Spin Doctors, R.Kelly and many others. In addition to his involvement in music projects he has also edited commercials, corporate videos and award winning documentaries, including the 2006 documentary Sharkwater, winner of 31 International Film Festival awards.

Some of his clients have included Lucasfilm, Disney, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Yamaha, Virgin America, Sony Playstation, Acura, Dolby Labs, GoPro and IDEO.

In 2015, after forming his own production company, 3StoryFilms, Jeremy directed, co- produced and edited his first feature length documentary, Class Dismissed.

Class Dismissed has gone to screen in more than 60 countries worldwide and has been translated into 5 languages.

 

Matt Kirby

Apples to Apples Game Creator


Matt Kirby has been involved in creative pursuits from an early age. After a B.S Degree in Engineering Science he started his Greeting Card Company Kirby Kardz. While still employed as a Mechanical Engineer Kirby conceived and created the hit party game Apples to Apples with to-dates sales of over 20 million units. Future game titles invented include Shipwrecked and Picaroon. Kirby has also made a feature length documentary of the bay area artist Fred Holle. Other pursuits include the websites Entropynation and the history learning site decadesmatrix. Kirby (along with his wife Karen) is the home-school dad of three children and has been speaking on the the importance of the role that creativity plays in children’s and adults lives through his seminars to schools. Kirby has now joined MoxieBox Art heading up product development. MoxieBox makes K-12 complete art box projects who’s goal is the nurturing of creativity in all children.

 

 

2021 CHN Expo Board Kick-Off Presentation

Coffee with the Board

Join the CHN board of trustees for morning coffee and learn what a board member job entails, discover CHN volunteer opportunities, legislative updates and Q&A.

 

But that’s not all, we also have:

  Roya Dedeaux

Roya Dedeaux is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a focus on parenting and play. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Recreation and a Master’s degree in Counseling from California State University, Long Beach where she now teaches in the Recreation and Leisure Studies department. This experience has led her to both a private practice and career in business training. She believes strongly in the importance and power of play for all ages, and has spent the majority of her personal and professional life inspiring others to become more playful. She has been a featured or keynote speaker at over 60 conferences, speaking about the importance of supporting kids interests and using play with purpose to improve relationships, learning, mental health, and overall well-being. Her debut book, Connect with Courage: practical ways to work through fear and find joy in the places your kids take you will be released in the Spring of 2020. Roya specializes in using art in her therapy practice, and as her own creative outlet, she creates handmade jewelry out of clay and crochet at Royaboya Handmade. She also loves to play with her two wonderful children, husband, and animals where they live in Southern California.

 

  Laura Kazan

Laura Kazan was once a believer in standardized education then she had a son who turned everything upside down. Homeschooling forced her to question everything she knew about education and as a former higher education researcher she had a lot to unlearn. After seeing success study after success story she is now an avid proponent of alternative forms of both k-12 and postsecondary education. After leaving her job to homeschooler her son Laura started College Seekers, a non profit and set about to ensure that California homeschoolers had accurate information about homeschooling to college. This summer she joined the team of a homeschool charter as their college advisor. She typically be found hanging out in her Facebook group California Homeschool College Seekers.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CollegeSeekers/

 

  Chari Lewis

I’m a former Fortune 100 executive, who traded my Blackberry and frequent flier miles to become Grant’s stay-at-home parent and homeschool mom. Most days, I think this was a brilliant decision.

 

  Greg Baran

Hi. I’m Greg Baran. I taught college and secondary English studies for over ten years. Now, I teach parents and teachers how to teach writing. Thousands of students have learned to write effectively through my book, The Baran Method: Writing for Success.
We all know every child can and deserves to learn how to write clearly and effectively. We also know every child has wonderful and amazing ideas, but when it comes to writing, they get stuck because they don’t know where to put those ideas on the paper. My book shows students and teachers where to put each idea on the paper. Then the ideas can flow freely.
I’m blessed to be married to my wonderful wife Heather and my amazing six-year old son, Nate. Please visit my website to get my book, online courses, workshop information, and other helpful resources: Teachingwritingtohomeschoolers.com.

 

  Jean Hong

Jean Hong lives with her husband Johnny, her 3 children Katie, Ellie, and Noah, and her 2 dogs Sonic & Lola in Northridge where she has been homeschooling for 13 years. She has worked as a tutor for PH Educational Consultants in La Canada-Flintridge for 10 years and for Kumon in Ranch Cucamonga. She enjoys listening and dancing to KPOP songs with her 15 year old Ellie who has taught her the ins and outs of KPOP culture.

 

  Heidi Christianson

Heidi Christianson has a diverse background in education.   She has taught in the university, community college, private school, and charter school environments.   She has also been homeschooling her five sons for 19 years.  Her quest to personalize her own children’s education has led her on a journey that has included helping found her local commonwealth school (a homeschool community), writing her own curriculum, public speaking (CHN Family Expo, Great Homeschool Convention, Back to Basics Forum), and putting on several conferences (Transformational Education).  She currently is the principal mentor for her commonwealth, a teacher with a charter school that works with homeschooling families, a Leadership Education Mentoring Institute trainer and the founder of The Genius Paradigm. (geniusparadigm.com)

 

  Julie Schiffman

Julie has over 25 years of experience working with children and families throughout her career from public school teacher to homeschool advocate. An active member of her community, she is passionate about sharing the joy of living life without school and has helped hundreds of families make their transition into homeschooling as president/founder of Marin Homeschoolers (501c7), as a Local Contact for CHN, and as a Regional Representative for AERO.

 

  Alex Tan

Alex Tan is a homeschooled teen artist with an interest in technology. She serves as the Chapter Lead for creAIte, a national non-profit organization founded by AI4ALL alumni, that hosts Artificial Intelligence + Art workshops for middle and high school students. She is also an Outreach Ambassador for AI4ALL (http://ai-4-all.org/summer-programs/), a program designed to promote diversity in AI and computer science. Alex looks forward to sharing AI with the homeschool community!

 

  Greg Mullen

Greg Mullen is a credentialed educator that has spent the past few years developing an approach toward standards-based education through a lens of social-emotional learning. Inspired by his years as a classroom teacher in California public, private, and charter schools, his focus now is helping schools, teachers, and families troubleshoot obstacles in personalizing education. He enjoys spending his spare time researching across academic disciplines and occasionally performing as a rock musician. Having released his first book, Creating a Self Directed Learning Environment, he continues to write and speak on topics of personalizing education across the country. Learn more about his work at www.ExploringTheCore.com

 

  Maria Davis-Perkins

Dr. Maria Davis-Perkins has authored and presented on subjects including: tapping student cognitive linguistic skills to improve written expression and confidence in writing skills, development of attention, selecting books appropriate to developmental age, etc. Her professional experiences have included: educational consultant to high school staff; speech-language pathologist in schools as well as hospitals; co-creator of Kaiser cognitive-computer lab; and speech-language pathologist in the private sector. Her research interests include: academic literacy and language skills, the neurological basis of reading and writing development, research methods appropriate to assessing intervention effectiveness.

 

  Shauna Anderson

Shauna Anderson is a homeschooling mom of 6 and FT administrator at a personalized learning charter school. She is a Certified Google Educator and has learned to adapt classroom tools to homeschool situations!

 

Christine Echeverri

Christine Echeverri is the author of California Out of the Box and soon to be released Earth Party! unit study. A native Angeleno, she grew up steeped in experience that gave her a deep appreciation for cultural diversity. As a child, her education covered a wide spectrum of options, from private school to public arts magnets. She later went on to receive a B.A. in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA and an M.A. in Economics from Cal State L.A. She credits her mother and grandmother for exposing her as a child to the richness of California’s cultures and environment through private art lessons, museum trips, and countless other explorations. Her grandmother imparted to her a sense of wonder and enchantment about the world, and provided a living example of putting one’s passion into action as, driven solely by curiosity, she tirelessly explored the culture, history and geology of southern California. Christine Echeverri is the mother of three children, whom she homeschooled for several years. The experience of integrating educational topics to guide learning in a way that was organic, holistic, and eclectic set her on a course to developing her own curriculum for an interdisciplinary study of California history.

 

  Elizabeth Porter

Elizabeth Porter is a National Board Certified French teacher (EAYA/WLOE) with a master’s degree in Elementary Education and a Bachelor’s in French and Linguistics. Elizabeth also holds a French Degree in called a DEUG Français Langue Étrangère (FLE) from the Université de Caen in Normandy, France.
Elizabeth began her career teaching elementary and middle school English in Normandy France, then returned to the United States in 2002 where she taught for three years at the French Immersion School of Washington. Elizabeth then taught high school French and was the World Languages Curriculum Specialist in Central Kitsap School District. She opened Bon Voyage World Languages Academy in 2016. Elizabeth also travels extensively with students and offers multiple travel programs at Bon Voyage.
Elizabeth is the author of Pathways to Language Fluency: Changing How We Think About Language in the United States, which is an explanation of her unique method- Language with the Five Senses and her journey to create the method. She has also written a series of French workbooks and is currently working on a book about travel with students and Global Citizenship Education.
Elizabeth is a dynamic teacher who is passionate about language, how the brain naturally acquires language, and language advocacy.

 

  Aaron Holbrook

Aaron Holbrook is a veteran educator who has taught in public schools, charter schools, and worked with his wife to homeschool their seven children for the last 12 years. He has experienced first hand what happens when children love to learn. He, along with his wife, Annette, are the authors of The Love of Learning.

 

  Jess Arce

Jess Arce started her tutoring business, Lexia Learners and coaching business, Homeschooling with Coach Jess because she learned the hard way how to homeschool her Dyslexic children and wants to make the journey just a little bit easier for other families with children who learn differently. Jess said, “We didn’t realize my husband and I were Dyslexic until we had children…I am the mom of four kids: they are currently 18 to 26 years old, so not so young anymore. And three of the four learn differently. My oldest is the only one without Learning Differences, however he is on the spectrum. My second oldest, has profound Dyslexia and it took me years to discover what it was. She also has Dysphoria and ADHD. My third child, has Dyspraxia, profound Dysgraphia, and deals with anxiety and depression. And my youngest won the lottery with profound Sensory Processing Disorder, severe Dyslexia and Dyscalculia, vision processing delay, auditory processing delay and is on the spectrum.”

 

Dr. Ellis Crasnow

Dr. Ellis Crasnow is a frequent international speaker on the importance of STEM education and its benefit to those with social and learning differences. This session will speak on the integration of STEM content and social emotional leaning.

 

Nicolas Viveros

As a learning coach, Nicolas helps students become lifelong learners through subject matter tutoring, study skills instruction and growth mindset coaching. He works 1-on-1 with K-12 and adult students of all ages. Nicolas holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the USC Rossier School of Education, a CA Teaching Credential from UC Berkeley and a B.S in Biology from Tufts University and brings a decade of professional experience as a learning coach. He meets with students in their home, at a local library or online. He uses hands- and minds-on learning activities that help all learners, including students with learning differences such as dyslexia and ADHD. As a result, his students become successful, independent, lifelong learners.

 

  Reka Kaponay

Reka Kaponay is an 18-year-old passionate writer and blogger, turning her dream of becoming a professional writer and published author into reality at the age of 14. Homeschooled from when she was 8, at 12 years of age, Reka was inspired by a trip to Andalusia, Spain, to write her first full-length fantasy-adventure novel⦠Dawn of the Guardian, published in 2016 and also published in Hungarian, in 2017. Reka began writing at a very early age creating short stories and entering local writing competitions. Her love for relating stories intensified when, in 2012, her family started out on a continuous world-traveling journey of learning and exploration. She has since traveled to 52 countries on six continents and now has a readership of over 15,000 people to her blog Dreamtime Traveler. Reka’s journey has been one of learning and listening to people’s stories, immersing herself in their mindset, viewpoint and understanding of the world. This is translated in her book, through the telling of the adventure-mystery tale of FÅ«ko, the unlikely Patterdale Terrier, who has been chosen as ‘The Guardian’, all of which is told through entertaining rich allegory, intended to engage and inspire young people to get out there and realize their dreams.

 

  George Kaponay

George is now in the ninth continuous year of traveling the world with his wife Bobi and their twin – boy/girl children Lalika and Reka (18). This journey has brought them closer together as a cohesive and loving family and they value this as one of the greatest rewards they could have in life. The Kaponays have visited and lived in more than 50 countries on six continents. Learning, fostering greater understanding and empathy between people, is key to their ongoing development as a family. George feels a strong passion for helping families realize their greatest strengths and in facilitating the means by which families can find their direction and build and live their own family stories of success. Together with his wife and their children, over the course of their travels and learnings, they Co-Founded  At Home In The World Family Retreats (https://athomeintheworldretreat.com/ ). They created The Intuition Game (http://theintuitiongame.com/)  and  Labour of Love (https://labouroflove.us/), a process to help families/groups find their true direction and see their family’s, group’s or business ventures come to fruition. They are currently in the process of launching Museley (https://museley.com/) a community based monthly subscription membership site, intended to explore the most vital and relevant topics for living a fully intentional family life. Museley is intending to engage and inspire your entire family to live, learn, work, and grow together in creating a life lived to its fullest through living your collectively owned family story. The Kaponays continue to travel the world with a keen desire to be of service, to learn together and to foster a spirit of deepening human connections.

 

  Siri Lorece Hirth

Siri has spent her career as a singer and educator – performing and teaching internationally in 7 countries, as well as throughout the United States. She has enjoyed performing at major music fests like River Roots Live in the Midwest, to B.B. Kings Blues Club in Memphis, TN – but nothing brings her joy like advocating for Los Angeles urban agriculture & sustainability, and sharing the practice of Yoga & Meditation. Siri is the host of “The Kinda Hippie, Kinda Hood Podcast” and serves on the CHN Board of Trustees.

 

  Pam Dowling

When I’m not busy with CHN, dabbling in bookkeeping, I’m teaching beginning sewing to homeschoolers! I find it very rewarding and at times very entertaining. The things kids say!I started my homeschooling journey in 2002 and now my son will be graduating college this June, has a driver’s license and is employed! They do make it. Homeschooling, like parenting isn’t something you do, it’s something you experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.I’m grateful to have the opportunity to stay connected to this wonderful community through my teaching and serving on the CHN board of Trustees. CHN provides me with speaking opportunities that I never thought would be something I would immensely enjoy. Given that public speaking is supposed to be people’s number one fear. But, after I spoke for over two hours at the 2014 Expo and had a dad come up to me after and tell me that he didn’t think they could homeschool their child. They were afraid since they lived across the street from the school but, now they knew what their rights were and they knew they could do it! Then he asked if he could hug me. I’m hooked. It’s the most rewarding part of volunteering for me. Helping to produce Expo is also very rewarding. Expo brings so much to homeschooling families, new and experienced.

 

  Caroline Forte

Carolyn Forte is a session speaker; and you can visit her Excellence in Education booth in the Vendor Hall on Friday and Saturday. Carolyn Forte is Principal of EIE Academy and owner with her husband, Martin of Excellence In Education Resource Center in Monrovia, California. She earned a B.A. in Music History from Whittier College. From 1982-1994, she directed elementary Sunday school music at the Crystal Cathedral. For five of those years, she was also co-director of the elementary Sunday school. She holds a life teaching credential for California and has taught grades K, 1, 2 and 6 in public and private day schools. For 14 years, she homeschooled her two daughters, Tenaya (38) and Tylene (36), both of whom are college graduates and now married with three kids each. Developer and author of the The Game Curriculum as well as a certified Learning Style Coach.

 

  Martin Forte

Martin Forte is a session speaker and vendor, you can visit his Excellence in Education booth in the Vendor Hall on Friday and Saturday. Martin Forte, along with his wife Carolyn, own and operate EIE Academy and Excellence In Education Resource Center in Monrovia, California. EIE Academy is a private satellite program designed to provide an umbrella of protection and participation in the private sector of homeschooling. Through EiE Academy families enjoy the freedom of educational choice. He assists families from any style ranging from school at home to unschooling. EIE’s specialty is to be able to customize a curriculum to meet a family’s needs and circumstance. Since we are not a public charter or school we are able to provide many more options and freedoms. EIE is an inclusive organization and does not have mandatory meetings or testing allowing them to work on an individual basis with families. Through the Excellence in Education resource center families are able to participate in field trips, classes, seminars and learning style assessments. Martin and his wife successfully homeschooled their two daughters for 14 years. Both girls are college graduates and married with children. Martin has been a homeschool spokesman and advocate for more than 20 years, appearing on numerous radio and television programs and speaking at homeshool conventions as well as one of the co-founders of the California Homeschool Network. He is also a certified Learning Style Coach with his wife Carolyn.