Jun Liu, Professor and Head of English Department, University of Arizona
Jun Liu is Professor and Head of the English Department at the University of Arizona. Dr. Liu is concurrently Director of Confucius Institute at the University of Arizona. He is the Past President of TESOL (Teachers of English to the Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.), the largest EFL teacher organization with over 90 local branches around the world. Dr. Liu is also Vice President of International Society of Chinese Language Teaching (2008-2011). Dr. Liu’s research interests include curriculum development and syllabus design, teacher education, classroom-based second language learning and teaching, and second language reading and writing. He has published in TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, Language and Intercultural Communication, and Educational Research Quarterly, among others. Dr. Liu is the author of Asian Students' Classroom Communication Patterns in US Universities (2001), and co-author of Peer Response in Second Language Writing Classrooms (2002). He is also co-editor of Michigan Series on Teaching Multilingual Writers, and editor of the peer-refereed journal Review of Applied Linguistics in China. His most recent book is titled "English Language Teaching in China: New Approaches, Perspectives, and Standards" published by Continuum, Ltd. in 2007.
Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1996, after teaching English at the university level in China for over ten years.
Jesse Schell, Assistant Professor, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University
Jesse Schell has taught Game Design and led research projects at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center since 2002. Jesse is also the CEO of Pittsburgh's largest videogame studio, Schell Games, the author of The Art of Game Design: a book of lenses, and the former chairman of the International Game Developers Association. In 2004, he was named one of the world's Top 100 Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation.
Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, Jesse was the Creative Director of the Disney Virtual Reality Studio, where he spent seven years as designer, programmer and manager on several projects such as DisneyQuest and Toontown Online for Disney theme parks and Disney Online. Before that, he was a software engineer at IBM and Bell Communications Research, and a writer, director, performer, juggler, comedian, and circus artist for both Freihofer's Mime Circus and the Juggler's Guild.
Dr. Kunil Ahn, The President of the Meeduck Educational Foundation (MEF)
Dr. Ahn is the President of the Meeduck Educational Foundation (MEF), an education-based holding company which owns and operates schools and institutions in South Korea. Dr. Ahn oversees the operation of MEF’s schools, including among others, the Meeduck Middle School, Joongsan Foreign Language High School and Choongju Commercial High School.
Prior to MEF, Dr. Ahn was Principal of Joongsan Foreign Language High School in Korea for 17 years, before his retirement in 2008. He served as President of the Korean Association of Secondary School Principals (KASSP) and President of the International Confederation of Principals (ICP), a global organization of primary and secondary school principals. Dr. Ahn has been a key member on a number of committees for the Korean Ministry of Education and Korean Prime Minister. Earlier in his career, Dr. Ahn served as a faculty member of the Public Administration Department at the University of Maine for 17 years.
