IAFOR > IICEHawaii > IICEHawaii2019 > Speakers

Speakers

The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii (IICEHawaii) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The IAFOR International Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment – Hawaii (IICSEEHawaii). Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for either of these conferences permits attendance in both.

This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

  • Dr Christina M. Kishimoto
    Dr Christina M. Kishimoto
    Hawaii State Department of Education, USA
  • Dr David Lassner
    Dr David Lassner
    University of Hawai‘i, USA
  • Dr Richard R. Vuylsteke
    Dr Richard R. Vuylsteke
    East-West Center, USA

Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past IICEHawaii conferences via the links below.

Dr Christina M. Kishimoto
Hawaii State Department of Education, USA

Dr Christina M. Kishimoto began a three-year contract as superintendent on August 1, 2017. She is responsible for efficiently and effectively administering the Hawaii public school system in accordance with law and educational policies adopted by the Board of Education. On October 3, 2017, Dr Kishimoto presented an Implementation Plan to advance the goals of the DOE/BOE Strategic Plan. Her plan is targeted around three high impact strategies: School Design, Student Voice, and Teacher Collaboration.

Dr Kishimoto is a former Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer for Gilbert Public Schools in Gilbert, Arizona, a district with an enrollment of 36,500 students and an annual budget of $305 million. She also served as Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of School Design at Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut, was the Founder and Director of The Center for School Improvement & Leadership Development at Area Cooperative Education Services, and Assistant Dean of Student Services for Wesleyan University. She earned a Doctorate in Education Administration from Columbia University Teachers College, a Master of Public Administration in Public Affairs and Policy from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Barnard College.

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Presentation information will be added here shortly
Dr David Lassner
University of Hawai‘i, USA

Biography

David Lassner is the 15th president of the University of Hawai‘i and concurrently serves as the Chancellor of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He has worked at the university since 1977, and was most recently its vice president for information technology and chief information officer. Lassner is also a member of the university’s cooperating graduate faculty and has taught both online and in-person in computer science, communications, business and education.

In his prior positions Lassner played an active leadership role in a variety of local, national and international information and communications technology organizations. He served on the boards of Hawai‘i’s High Technology Development Corporation and Public Broadcasting Service affiliate and he chaired the state’s Broadband Task Force. Lassner also served on the board of Internet2 and was a co-founder and board member of the Kuali Foundation, a founding steering committee member and past-chair of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) cooperative and past chair of the boards of the Pacific Telecommunications Council and of EDUCAUSE, the major professional association for information technology in higher education.

He is currently a WICHE commissioner, a board member for the National Association of System Heads (NASH), and on Board of Governors of the East-West Center. He also serves on the boards of the Aloha United Way and the Blood Bank of Hawai‘i.

Lassner led Hawai‘i’s major statewide federally funded project that interconnected all public schools, libraries and campuses on six islands with fiber optics and is an active principal investigator with the National Science Foundation, from which he has received multiple grants over the past 20 years focused on research and education networking and cyberinfrastructure. He is principal investigator for the Maui High Performance Computing Center and for the Pacific Disaster Center, major Department of Defense programs on Maui.

Lassner earned an AB in economics summa cum laude and MS in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in communication and information sciences from the University of Hawai‘i. He has been recognized with Internet2’s Richard Rose Award, WCET’s Richard Jonsen Award and as a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Hawai‘i.

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Presentation information will be added shortly
Dr Richard R. Vuylsteke
East-West Center, USA

Biography

Dr Richard R. Vuylsteke (pronounced VUL-stek) took office as the East-West Center’s 11th Chief Executive on January 1, 2017. A former EWC grantee and staff member, he rejoined the Center after several decades living in Asia and serving most recently as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Previously he served as President of the American Chamber in Taipei, Editor-in-Chief of the Taiwan Review, and Area Studies Coordinator for the US Department of State Foreign Service Institute in Taipei. Earlier in his career, he was a research fellow in East Asian Legal Studies at Harvard Law School as well as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Rajasthan, India.

Originally from Illinois, and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Illinois College, Dr Vuylsteke was an East-West Center grantee in the 1970s while he earned MA and PhD degrees from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, specializing in Western and Chinese political philosophy. While still a graduate student he joined the Center’s staff as a research assistant to the Director of the Culture Learning Institute, and later worked as a special assistant to the EWC president with focus on Pacific Community topics. In addition, he taught courses at the University of Hawai'i and Chaminade University in Asian history and social, political and legal philosophy. He also worked at the Pacific Forum (now Pacific Forum/CSIS).

Prior to graduate school, he served three years in the US Army, leaving active duty as a 1st Lieutenant. While in the service, he was stationed in Hawai’i at the US Army Pacific Command (USARPAC) as Chief of the China Desk and later seconded to CINCPAC (now PACOM) as Chief of the Soviet Far East Desk.

His areas of expertise include strategic and operational leadership of multicultural organisations; Asia Pacific business and trade, and Asian and Western history and philosophy.

Dr Vuylsteke is married to Josephine Wu Vuylsteke, a former broadcast journalist; they have three sons.

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Presentation information will be added here shortly

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2018) | The East-West Center “Spin” on Education