Humans First: Adolescent Education in the Age of AI Conference

Rick Clark serves as vice provost for enrollment management at Georgia Institute of Technology. In this role, he oversees undergraduate admission, scholarships and financial aid, scholar programs, enrollment marketing and communications, the Bill Moore Student Success Center, and enrollment management administration. Together, these areas support students from initial interest through enrollment and success on campus.

Previously, Clark served as Georgia Tech’s inaugural executive director for strategic student access, where he led efforts to build partnerships with schools, systems, and community organizations to expand access, affordability, and opportunity. He is co-author of "The Truth About College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together" and a companion workbook published by Johns Hopkins University Press, and creator of the Georgia Tech Admission Blog. A native of Atlanta, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from Georgia State University.

Samantha St. Lawrence Collins is an English educator, researcher, and speaker focused on reimagining humanities education in the age of artificial intelligence. She teaches at Lexington High School in Massachusetts and 2025 a fellow of the AI & Digital Literacy Institute at the University of Kansas, as well as an associate member of The Generator, an interdisciplinary AI lab at Babson College.

Her work explores how educators can design learning experiences that center identity, reflection, and authentic human thinking in response to emerging technologies. In her AI-focused work, she collaborates with educators across disciplines and secondary and postsecondary contexts to align approaches to the rise of AI in humanities instruction. She is the author of “Prove to Me You Aren’t a Robot: Humanities as a CAPTCHA Test in the Age of AI” and has presented on student engagement and literacy instruction at the National Council of Teachers of English.

Katie Conrad is a professor of English at the University of Kansas whose work focuses on technology, culture, and critical AI literacy. She is the author of "A Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights for Education" and co-author of works including "Teaching Critical AI Literacies," "Building Critical AI Literacy: An Approach to Generative AI," and "The Emergence of Critical AI Literacy."

She serves as an associate editor for the journal Critical AI (Duke University Press), sits on the advisory board for Harvard’s AI Pedagogy Project, and is a moderator for the technocritical education collective The Library of Babel Group. Conrad has spoken widely on AI literacy, ethics, and risk, and in 2024 advised the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education on the use of AI in education. She co-directed the AI and Digital Literacy initiative in partnership with the National Humanities Center and serves on the University of Kansas AI Privacy and Risk Council.

Anne-Elizabeth Courrier is a global education leader specializing in ethical innovation, artificial intelligence, and data governance. She serves as director of learning and ethical innovation and leads initiatives that integrate emerging technologies with responsible, human-centered practices.

Courrier was named TAG Innovator of the Year for Education in 2026 and was recognized as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2022.

Matt Hicks is an English teacher with more than 20 years of experience across four institutions nationwide. He currently teaches literature and composition at St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, where his work centers on elevating marginalized and global voices, fostering cultural empathy, and developing students’ critical AI literacy.

His research on questioning strategies to strengthen student thinking and writing earned the Magis Leadership Award from Rockhurst University in 2020. Hicks has contributed to AI literacy initiatives through the University of Kansas and the National Humanities Center and serves on multiple advisory groups. His essay, "Understanding the Humanity in the Humanities," reflects on the tension between adopting AI tools and preserving authentic student learning. He is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Catholic Educational Association, and The Library of Babel Group.

Sean Kamperman is an assistant professor of English at the University of Kansas specializing in professional and technical writing, disability studies, and digital rhetorics. His research explores how educators approach artificial intelligence, particularly in relation to accessibility and student learning.

His writing has appeared in "Thresholds in Education," "Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning," "Against the Current," and "Pedagogy." He co-directed the AI and Digital Literacy institute at the University of Kansas and promotes historically grounded approaches to AI literacy. Kamperman was recently named a Conger-Gabel Teaching Professor.

Marcus Luther is a high school English teacher in his second decade in the classroom and co-founder of "The Broken Copier," a newsletter and podcast that centers teacher voices in education. His writing and interviews have been featured in Edutopia and "The Cult of Pedagogy." Through his work, Luther shares strategies and reflections grounded in his experience as a full-time teacher and advocates for elevating practitioner perspectives in education conversations along with making sure to uplift the good stories already happening in classrooms and schools.

Cassondra “Cassie” Owens Moore is a nationally recognized educator, instructional leader, and Ph.D. candidate in communication and information sciences at the University of Alabama, where she teaches "Fundamentals of Information Literacy in Society." She also serves as a school librarian at Seneca Middle School in South Carolina.

With more than 20 years of experience, Moore leads student-centered approaches to literacy, inquiry, and emerging technologies. Her work focuses on critical information literacy, intellectual freedom, and the ethical integration of artificial intelligence in education. She is an AI Edu Trailblazer Fellow and a member of the Leaders for Just Schools cohort (2023–2026). Her honors include South Carolina School Librarian of the Year (2026) and the National Education Association’s Travelers Award for Teaching Excellence (2025). She remains committed to advancing equitable, forward-thinking education.

John Slattery is the Executive Director of the Carl G. Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law at Duquesne University. An ethicist, theologian, and historian of science, he holds a B.S. in computer science from Georgetown University, a master’s in theology from Saint Paul School of Theology, and an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Notre Dame in systematic theology and the history and philosophy of science. His written work includes the award-winning book Faith and Science at Notre Dame (2019), an award-winning book on the history of the evolution controversy in the Catholic Church. He is the editor of T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Theology and the Modern Sciences (2020), and a producer of many short films, including "Humans and Race: Exploring the Intersections of Science and Racism." Slattery currently advises a wide range of AI organizations, and serves on the AI Research Group at the Vatican Dicastery on Culture and Education, through which he a co-author for the 2024 volume Encountering Artificial Intelligence as well as upcoming volumes on education (forthcoming, 2026) and labor (est. 2027). You can find his most recent writings online at Commonweal Magazine and America Magazine.

Marc Watkins directs the AI Institute for Teachers and serves as assistant director of academic innovation at the University of Mississippi, where he is also a lecturer in writing and rhetoric. His work examines the impact of generative AI on student learning and faculty practice.

He has led faculty training initiatives and institutional AI programs and advocates for a balanced approach to AI integration that supports both adoption and thoughtful restraint. His work has been featured in "The Washington Post," and he writes regularly on his Substack, "Rhetorica." Watkins has presented at institutions including Stanford, Brigham Young University, and the Southeastern Conference. His writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and has been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize.

Audrey Watters is an independent scholar whose work focuses on the history and politics of education technology. After beginning doctoral studies in comparative literature, she left academia to pursue independent research and writing.

She has written for "The Baffler," "The Atlantic," "Vice," "Hybrid Pedagogy," "Inside Higher Ed," and "School Library Journal," and is best known for her work on her website Hack Education. She is also the author of the "Second Breakfast" newsletter.

Watters is the author of several books, including "The Monsters of Education Technology," "The Revenge of the Monsters of Education Technology," "The Curse of the Monsters of Education Technology," "The Monsters of Education Technology 4," and "Claim Your Domain." Her most recent book, "Teaching Machines" (MIT Press), examines the prehistory of "personalized learning."

A frequent keynote speaker, she has presented on education technology worldwide. She was a recipient of the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship at Columbia University for the 2017–2018 academic year.

Scott Tuffiash has been following AI and LLMs since 2015 through teaching Journalism, advising student media, and teaching AP Language and Comp at a public high school in Western Pennsylvania.  Since 2023, he has been teaching an AI and Ethics course that he created and continues to refine to keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution. He frequently collaborates with Duquesne University, University of Pittsburgh, and Point Park University professors and staff, and he grounds his work in continual conversations across for-profit, non-profit, and government entities working with generative AI services and tools.  He has been a speaker on technological opportunities and subsequent obstacles for HS ELA and Journalism students at Western PA, regional, and national workshops and conferences since 2017.