MAGC Fall Conference
Dr. Chandra Floyd
Keynote:
'A' is for Advocate: Championing Change for Gifted Children, from the Classroom to the Capitol
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Dr. Floyd is a professor in the Inclusive Education Department of Bagwell College of Education at Kennesaw State University where she teaches courses and coordinates the gifted education endorsement program. She earned a Ph. D. from William & Mary in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership with a concentration in Gifted Education Administration. Some of her time at William & Mary was spent as a graduate research assistant at the Center for Gifted Education. Her doctoral dissertation examined equity in gifted education in Virginia, for which she was a recipient of the 2021 National Association for Gifted Children Research & Evaluation Network's Dissertation Award.
She learned quite a bit about PreK-12 organizations during her long career at that level, where she served as a secondary English teacher, a gifted education resource teacher, and an administrator for gifted programs. Currently, Dr. Floyd is co-lead for the JAVITS grant at Detroit Public Schools.
Dr. Matt Zakreski
Keynote:
Riding Out the Storm: Managing Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students
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Dr. Matt has shaped his career around his passion for serving this population, starting with being a counselor (and a camper) at the Center for Talented Youth summer program as a teenager. He received BAs in Psychology and Communications at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Matt assisted with research at Harvard Psychophysiology Lab at the Harvard University Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before making his way to graduate school at Widener University, where he earned his Doctorate in Psychology (PsyD) from the Institute of Graduate Clinical Psychology.
In addition to his clinical and consulting work, Dr. Matt has several published articles and was asked to be a reviewer for the American Psychological Association's "Top 20 Principles from Psychology PreK-12 Creative, Talented, and Gifted Students' Teaching and Learning".
He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids, and two cats. He is always thrilled to discuss ultimate frisbee, soccer, and anything related to comics and cartoons.