Marilyn Mosley Gordanier
Founder and Executive Director, Laurel Springs School

Marilyn Mosley Gordanier, Founder and Executive Director of Laurel Springs School, has more than 35 years' experience in the field of alternative education. In her capacity as an educator, Marilyn has helped to found three schools: the New Morning School in Baltimore, Maryland; Laurel Springs Distance Learning Program; and Laurel Springs High School, both in Southern California. Since its founding, Laurel Springs Distance Learning Program has become the premier provider of customized curriculum for students pre-k through grade 12 and online education for students in grades 4-12. Under her directorship, Laurel Springs High School received the United Nations Global 500 Award and the President's Youth Environmental Award. Ms. Mosley Gordanier was nominated for a Nobel Earth Prize and has served as keynote speaker at numerous educational conferences in the U.S., Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, China, Australia, England, Beirut and Kenya. She currently serves as president of the United Nations Global 500 Environmental Forum. Marilyn has been devoted to children and families with the idea that within their homes is an endless source of inspiration, caring and learning. In developing Laurel Springs School she has created the mission, services and curriculum for families to succeed at distance learning. Laurel Springs School considers life and learning to be one and the same.

Nancy Polette
Professor of Education, Lindenwood University

Nancy Polette has been an educator for more than 30 years and is the author of over 150 professional and children's books, including Building Brain Power with Books, Reading Guidance in a Media Age, Three Rs for the Gifted, Exploring Books with Gifted Children, Fact & Fiction of the Famous, Gifted or Goof Off? - winner of the Legacy Award as the best book published for gifted children in 2005, and many more. Nancy Polette is a professor of education at Lindenwood University, Missouri. She is a national consultant and author specializing in reading, gifted education, library media, and children's literature. She has served as Director of Library/Media and Gifted Programs in St. Louis County schools, as the Director of the Laboratory School, Lindenwood University and as an instructor at St. Charles Community College. She is a regular presenter at national and state conferences as well as school districts on gifted children and education for the gifted. School Library Journal describes her as "an educator with imagination, creativity and an appreciation for the intelligence of children."

Raja Almukahhal
Math and Science Chair

Raja has been teaching physics, mathematics and astronomy for over 20 years at several colleges and universities around the country. He currently teaches physics (online) at UC Berkeley and also teach various mathematics and physics courses at Laurel Springs. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics with emphasis in cosmology and relativity. He lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife and three children.