NWEA and Katalysts

I love my job! My favorite part of being a photographer is meeting and working with people. Last week, I had the opportunity to work with an organization called NWEA (Northwest Education Association http://www.nwea.org/). They are involved in various aspects of education and they are based in Portland, OR (hence the Northwest in their name). They sponsored a convention at the Omni Hotel in Charlotte, NC inviting educators and various people from the education world. The keynote speaker was Richard Riley. Richard Riley was President Clinton's Secretary of Education.

Secretary Riley now has a long list of achievements on his resume and had quite a bit to share on the topic of education. I came away impressed with the thinking of the various speakers and satisfied that there are a lot of smart people dealing with the issues of our educational system.

On the first day, we all had the priviledge to hear one of the smartest, inspiration speakers around. Kevin Caroll, Katalyst (http://kevincarrollkatalyst.com/) came from a broken family and the people in his life told him he would never amount to much. He has certainly proved himself. While in the Army, he learned 4 languages. He has been an NBA coach, and worked for Nike. He spoke about the importance of play in children's and adult's lives. He ended with gifts for the audience which included several red balls. Before throwing them, he gave a warning not to put your hands up if you can't catch. Of course, some did not heed his advice, but the damage was minimal.

One of his red balls wanted a tour of Charlotte, but the weather did not permit. So, it came home with me and we are planning a trip very soon. I will be there to document the experience so watch for it!

The logistics for the conference were provided by Jillian Rabe (http://www.jillianrabe.com/). She is a beautiful model in the Portland area and a very accomplished organizer.