Featured Keynote Speakers & Special Guests
Dr. Renée Spencer is Associate Professor at Boston University School of Social Work. Her research focuses on youth mentoring, specifically relational processes in more and less successful relationships. She is currently conducting a mixed-methods longitudinal study of the development of youth mentoring relationships in community-based programs. Dr. Spencer has published widely on youth mentoring and serves as a member of several boards and committees, including MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership Research and Policy Council, The Center for the Advancement of Mentoring (TCAM) National Cadre of Mentoring Researchers, and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Research Advisory Council. On-Site Keynote
Dr. Jean Rhodes is the MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is the newly appointed endowed chair for the UMass Boston/MENTOR Research Alliance, a first-of-its-kind institute that will support the advancement of youth mentoring efforts. Dr. Rhodes is a globally recognized expert on youth mentoring and has devoted her career to understanding the role of intergenerational relationships in the lives of disadvantaged youth. She has published three books, four edited volumes, and more than 100 chapters and peer-reviewed articles on topics related to positive youth development, the transition to adulthood, and mentoring. She is author of the book, Stand by Me: The risks and rewards of mentoring today's youth (Harvard University Press). Dr. Rhodes is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research and Community Action, and a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation. She is also a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and Chair of the Research and Policy Council of the National Mentoring Partnership. Dr. Rhodes sits on the Board of Directors of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, the advisory boards of several mentoring and policy organizations, and the editorial board of several journals in community and adolescent psychology. Interactive Keynote Speaker via Skype
Dr. Larry Wright is the President & CEO of MENTOR, the National Mentoring Partnership. MENTOR supports a network of 25 state mentoring partnerships that serve approximately 5000 mentoring programs nationwide for 3 million youth.
Before joining MENTOR, Dr. Wright was the Executive Director of Washington State Mentors in Seattle, Washington. During that time, the organization grew to become one of the largest and most successful mentoring partnerships in the country. While at Washington State Mentors, Dr. Wright helped quadruple the organization's membership. He also helped secure a multi-million dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and saw the number of youth with a mentor nearly double in four years.
Prior to his work at Washington State Mentors, Dr. Wright conducted research on nonprofits in the United States and Europe. He started his career as an editor at CBS radio in Seattle and later taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin and Seattle University. He has also worked as the Marketing Director for the College Success Foundation in Washington State. Dr. Wright has a Ph.D. in communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is an adjunct faculty member at Seattle University. Committed to community service, he has served as an elected official on his local county council and as a commissioner on the Washington State Commission on Homelessness.