DR Avis Glaze, widely known as an international leader in the field of education, will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural Conference of Caribbean School Administrators 2009.

The conference will be held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel between April 7 and April 8.

Glaze’s keynote speech, entitled “Transforming Caribbean School Leaders for the 21st Century”, will focus on the transformation of school managers to achieving leadership excellence.

As one of Canada’s outstanding educators, she has been recognised for her work in leadership development, student achievement, school and system improvement, character development and equity of outcomes for all students. As Ontario’s first chief student achievement officer and founding CEO of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, she played a pivotal role in improving student achievement in Ontario schools.

Glaze, a past student of Hampton High School, taught at St Hilda’s High and Westwood High before migrating to Canada where she completed two master’s of education programmes – one in educational administration and the other in guidance and counselling. She also holds a PhD in Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto and has training in alternative dispute resolution, advanced facilitation, and the assessment of emotional intelligence.

She has taught at all levels of the K-12 education system, in rural and urban areas, in public and Catholic schools, and at the elementary, secondary, community college and university levels. She has been a superintendent of schools in several school districts, an associate director of education with the York Region District School Board, and director of education of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.

She also served as an Education Officer with the Ontario Ministry of Education and as research co-ordinator with the Ontario Women’s Directorate of the Ministry of Labour. In 1994, she served as a commissioner on the Ontario Royal Commission on Learning and had the opportunity to influence the direction of education in Ontario through the recommendations of the Commission.

She has extensive experience in international education and was chosen by the Canadian government to assist with educational reform in South Africa. She represented Canada at the UNESCO conference on Inclusive Education in Riga, Latvia, and knows schools across the globe first-hand, having worked with educators in Australia, England, Finland, Singapore, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, the Caribbean and many parts of the United States.

Glaze is well known as a results-oriented leader, mentor to many educators and has been responsible for several innovations in education in Ontario. She is a recognised author of many publications and has received honorary doctorates from several Canadian universities. The veteran educator has won more than 30 awards for outstanding contribution to education, including Educator of the Year, The Distinguished Educator Award, the 2001 YWCA Women of Distinction Award, the Harry Jerome Award, the Sandford D McDonnell Lifetime Achievement Award for Character Education offered by the Character Education Partnership in the United States, and The Order of Ontario, among others.

After serving as Ontario’s first chief student achievement officer and founding CEO of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, she was appointed as Ontario’s education commissioner and senior advisor to the Minister of Education. Glaze is currently a professor in residence in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa and is principal of her education consulting company, Edu-quest International Inc, which offers a wide range of services internationally.