Keynote Speaker
DR. YONG ZHAO, Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, University of Oregon, College of Education
Dr. Yong Zhao is an internationally known scholar, author, and speaker.
His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has designed schools that cultivate global competence, developed computer games for language learning, and founded research
and development institutions to explore innovative education models. He
has published over 100 articles and 20 books, including Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization and
World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students.
He is a recipient of the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association and was named one of the 2012 10 most influential people in educational technology by Tech & Learning magazine. He is an elected fellow of the International Academy for Education.
Zhao currently serves as the presidential chair and associate dean for global education at the University of Oregon, where he is also Weinman Professor of Technology and a professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Until December, 2010, he was a University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. Born in China’s Sichuan Province, Zhao received his B.A. in English Language Education from Sichuan Institute and taught English in China for six years before coming to the United States as a visiting scholar in 1992 and then going on to earn an A.M. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
