George Barcenas a Professional Development Trainer for Viewsonic. A Certified Google Trainer, Educator, Innovator and Apple Certified Teacher. Trained as a PE teacher he has taught High School English, Spanish and coached Basketball from Middle School all the way to College. Technology has always been in his teaching from creating commercials in Spanish class to work on vocabulary, to creating a production of Romeo and Juliet with zombies... . In his current role he works with teachers to find the right tool to help students. His passion for teaching has found a place with Google apps for education and pushing the boundaries of being geeky.
Jessica has been in education for 12 years. She currently works at Centennial Public School in Utica, Nebraska as the PK-12 Media Specialist and Technology Integrationist. Jessica has a passion for helping educators and students find creative ways to use technology in the classroom. Jessica has served on her district Technology Leadership Team for 12 years, been a part of the ESU 6 Technology Leadership Cadre for 3 years, and presented at multiple conferences in Nebraska Outside of educational technology, Jessica loves spending time with her husband, three children and extended family, as well as traveling, reading, swimming, cooking/baking, painting, creating pottery and crafting.
Tom Chapman is a Google Solutions Engineer who started out as a Systems Administrator for a large school district on the east coast. Tom’s school district was an early adopter of Google Workspace and Chromebooks, quickly facilitating a 1:1 learning experience. After 14 years in various roles, Tom has ended up working for Google for Education, specializing in creating technological solutions for large K12 school districts from Chicago down to Texas.
Eric has been in education for 30 years, and currently serves as a Technology Integration Specialist for SPARCC in North Canton, Ohio where he oversees Google for Education implementation, training, and support, as well as other technology integration initiatives. Eric is an authorized Google Education Trainer and Innovator, and provides training to schools, organizations, and conferences throughout Ohio and across the country. He is a co-leader of the Ohio Google Educator Group at bit.ly/gegohio. Eric runs the award-winning blog www.ControlAltAchieve.com where all of his edtech resources can be found, and is the author of the book "Control Alt Achieve: Rebooting Your Classroom with Creative Google Projects".
Elise Hawkins is a Google Solutions Engineer who started out as a 4th grade teacher. After experiencing the immense benefits that using Google tools had on her students’ engagement and achievement, Elise worked in several district level roles in K-12, all centered around enhancing teaching and learning with technology. At Google, Elise focuses on supporting districts in the central US in their Google journey.
Lisa Highfill describes herself as a thinker, philosopher, debater, and geek. She has worked in Pleasanton Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay Area for over twenty eight years, and is currently the district’s technology integration specialist working in the new virtual academy. Lisa is the co-creator and co-author of The HyperDoc Handbook and Teachers Give Teachers.
Stephanie is the CEO of Gold EDU, a founder of Global GEG, and the EdTech Lead for Pickerington Local Schools. She is key to the embedding and implementation of EdTech tools across her schools and organizations. She has a masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
Lisa Johnson (better known as TechChef4u) has devoted over two decades to supporting students and teachers in a variety of capacities including teaching both Math and English in the classroom, developing technology integration curriculum, serving as an Educational Technologist for a 1:1 iPad district, and presenting keynotes and workshops around the world. She holds a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and has been honored as both an Apple Distinguished Educator and PBS Lead Digital Innovator for Texas. Lisa is the author of two books (Cultivating Communication in the Classroom and Creatively Productive) and has contributed content to six other published books. People around the world utilize the resources she creates and curates on a daily basis. She is a respected voice in education and passionate about college and career readiness skills, social emotional learning, executive functioning, instructional design, visual literacy, and professional development for students.
Christina Nuñez has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a Master's Degree in Elementary Education. She has worked at Albuquerque Public Schools for 15 years as a teacher and as well as serving in various leadership roles throughout that time. She is currently a member of the APS Educational Technology Department serving as a Technology Resource Teacher, providing educator training for both Apple, Google and other digital tools. She is a Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2 as well as a Google Certified Trainer and Coach as well as an ISTE Certified educator. She is a member of ISTE (international society for Technology in Education), a secretary of NMSTE, a panelist and presenter for NM ECHO in Education, a share captain of NMGEG and a member of NMASCD. She has previously presented at ISTE, FETC and NMDLC.
Britton Picciolini (peach - o - leenee) is obsessed with all things digital. From coding BASIC in 6th grade to her Nest Thermostat today, nothing is ever too wired. Working at Google for 20 years, she’s completely at home surrounded by the whirring noise of technology’s evolving pace. ​Britton has held prior positions at Google in the advertising business, working with large customers like Target, Best Buy and JC Penney. After being personally moved by volunteer teaching with Chicago Public Schools, ​​6 years ago she did a career 180 and now works with​​ large​ K-12 school​ districts in their​ use of Google tools to transform the classroom​.​ She is on the Executive Board Spark Chicago, a non-profit helping middle school students discover who they can become today and in the future. Britton is married with two adult sons, enjoying her empty nest.
Donnie Piercey is the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and teaches fifth grade in Lexington, Kentucky. After graduating from Asbury College and earning his master’s from Auburn Montgomery, he has been teaching in Kentucky since 2007. Donnie specializes in using technology to promote student inquiry, learning, and engagement. Over the past sixteen years of teaching, these interests have given him the unique chance to represent Kentucky and his students around the world. Donnie was the recipient of a National Geographic Teacher Fellowship to Antarctica, and he also represents Kentucky on the inaugural National Geographic Teacher Advisory Council. He is the North American lead for the Google Earth Education Experts Network, and he was the first teacher in Kentucky to become both a Google Certified Innovator and a Google Certified Trainer. Donnie has been invited to keynote and present at schools in thirty-three states and on four continents. In 2017, he co-authored The Google Cardboard Book: Explore, Engage, and Educate with Virtual Reality based on virtual experiences he created for his students. The Bluegrass always calls him home, however, and he regularly leads professional development at school districts around the state.
Eric lives in Oklahoma and joined the Amplified IT team in 2020 after working 8 years as a Technology Director in public schools. During his time in the public education system he helped move multiple districts to Google for Education both directly and indirectly through consultative support to other districts. Today, he is a Technical Account Manager who works with school districts on understanding all things Google for Education and partner products for K12. Eric received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith in Media Communications and his MBA from Western Governors University in IT Management. When he isn’t working he enjoys kayaking, yelling at the TV when the Sooners are playing, attending OKC Thunder games, and taking road trips with his dog Riley. His favorite food is tacos and his favorite drink is a COOP F5 IPA.
Tony Vincent started out teaching fifth grade in Omaha 23 years ago. Then he took on the role of his school's tech coach. Eventually he left school teaching to be a self-employed consultant, sharing friendly ways for teachers to reach, empower, and inspire their students. Tony is a prolific sharer, approachable, and consistently selects practical tools and strategies that can be implemented right away. Tony went back to teaching for the 2018-2019 school year in Council Bluffs, where his fifth graders became Chromebook superusers. Tony posts lots of handy tech tips on social media, and he hosts a series of digital drawing challenges for kids called Shapegrams. Most importantly, Tony is the father of 9 year old twins.
A Google Cloud Certified Administrator, Certified Deployment Specialist and Amplified Admin with over 26 years in IT and 20 years in K-12 educational technology. Tom brings unique insights into the planning, implementation and support of Google for Education in the K-12 space. CDW Amplified for Education is an education-focused Google technical consultancy. They work throughout North America with schools and districts ranging in size from a few hundred students, to over 500,000 students. Amplified IT works with schools, districts and the Google EDU team to create best practices for the deployment of Google for Education. Amplified IT empowers schools IT staff through tools and services like their GFE Audit, GFE Kickstart and Amplified Labs tools.
The Great Plains Google Summit is a collaboration between ESU 6, ESU 9 and ESU 18. For more information, please contact any member of the planning team.
Lynne Herr, ESU 6
lynne.herr@esu6.org
Jackie Ediger, ESU 9
jackie.ediger@esu9.us
Brian Fitzgerald, ESU 18
bfitz@lps.org
