Brandon Busteed leads Kaplan’s work serving universities and employers, leveraging the organization’s highly-diversified, global educational offerings and insights. His mission is to help U.S. higher education and employers adapt, grow and thrive. 

Prior to Kaplan, Busteed was Global Head of Public Sector at Gallup – serving higher education, government and foundations.  In that role, Busteed led dozens of ground-breaking studies and consulted with hundreds of higher ed leaders. 

Busteed was the founder and CEO of Outside The Classroom, one of the country’s first successful Ed Tech companies which was acquired by EverFi in 2011. Its flagship online courses on alcohol abuse and sexual assault prevention have been taken by more than 10 million college students.

An internationally known speaker and author on education and workforce development, Busteed has published more than 100 articles and keynoted more than 200 conferences.  He was named a LinkedIn “Top Voice” in education and is a frequent contributor for Forbes.com.  

Busteed received his bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University where he was also a two-sport Division 1 athlete. He received an honorary doctorate from Augustana College. He is a trustee emeritus of Duke and has served on the Board of Visitors of the Sanford School of Public Policy. 

Busteed serves on the board of directors for the Business-Higher Education Forum - the nation’s oldest membership organization of Fortune 500 CEOs, college and university presidents, and other leaders dedicated to the creation of a highly skilled future workforce. He also serves on the board of directors for the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U).   

Kristy Volesky currently serves as the Work-Based Learning Program Consultant for the Iowa Department of Education. In her role she provides leadership, policy guidance and technical assistance to Iowa's postsecondary institutions and K-12 school districts. With a specific focus on work-based learning, she strives to support the state’s educational partners while working to advance programming to all Iowa’s students to support them making informed decisions about courses, programs, educational degrees, postsecondary training and careers. While at the Iowa Department of Education, she has authored dozens of resources, provided direct support to schools and colleges, streamlined data collection processes for work-based learning and led countless collaborative projects with education and industry to improve work-based learning across the state. 

Prior to joining the Department in 2019, Volesky had 16 years of teaching experience in rural, suburban and international schools. The last 11 years of teaching experience included her work as a work-based learning coordinator. In her role as a work-based learning coordinator she worked tirelessly to transform a work experience course into a professional internship program, thus doubling student interest and providing impressive student experience outcomes. Kristy serves on the ACTE Work-Based Learning Division’s Policy Team, Iowa Work-Based Learning Coordinator Board, leads the work-based learning section for the Coalition of Career Development Center and leads midwest work-based learning state consultant collaborative meetings. Kristy earned her bachelor’s degree in business education and her master’s degree in organizational leadership both from St. Ambrose University. Kristy is dedicated to helping students find their dream career, supporting educators and instructors to deliver quality work-based learning experiences and collaborating with industry professionals to address access barriers. Kristy’s experience, education, leadership, creativity and collaboration enable an in-depth approach to problem-solving to continue moving work-based learning forward for students, educators, instructors and industry. 

Kristy Volesky currently serves as the Work-Based Learning Program Consultant for the Iowa Department of Education. In her role she provides leadership, policy guidance and technical assistance to Iowa's postsecondary institutions and K-12 school districts. With a specific focus on work-based learning, she strives to support the state’s educational partners while working to advance programming to all Iowa’s students to support them making informed decisions about courses, programs, educational degrees, postsecondary training and careers. While at the Iowa Department of Education, she has authored dozens of resources, provided direct support to schools and colleges, streamlined data collection processes for work-based learning and led countless collaborative projects with education and industry to improve work-based learning across the state. 

 

Prior to joining the Department in 2019, Volesky had 16 years of teaching experience in rural, suburban and international schools. The last 11 years of teaching experience included her work as a work-based learning coordinator. In her role as a work-based learning coordinator she worked tirelessly to transform a work experience course into a professional internship program, thus doubling student interest and providing impressive student experience outcomes. Kristy serves on the ACTE Work-Based Learning Division’s Policy Team, Iowa Work-Based Learning Coordinator Board, leads the work-based learning section for the Coalition of Career Development Center and leads midwest work-based learning state consultant collaborative meetings. Kristy earned her bachelor’s degree in business education and her master’s degree in organizational leadership both from St. Ambrose University. Kristy is dedicated to helping students find their dream career, supporting educators and instructors to deliver quality work-based learning experiences and collaborating with industry professionals to address access barriers. Kristy’s experience, education, leadership, creativity and collaboration enable an in-depth approach to problem-solving to continue moving work-based learning forward for students, educators, instructors and industry. 

Vinz is a national expert on US career education and workforce policy and a thought leader in adapting a European dual professional education system for the US.  He has been leading technical assistance initiatives for the US Department of Labor, Education, and Housing and Urban Development on projects related to systems optimization and integration, leadership development, as well as the development of inclusive apprenticeship and career pathway systems in support of equity in the marketplace of training and career development. He is a big believer in solving the current paradox of positions going unfilled while talented people are unable to find viable career path through College without Debt and he has written on ways in which states – like California – can use apprenticeship to Close the Gap while growing their economies.

Dr. Michelle R. Weise (pronounced W-ice) is the author of Long-Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet (Wiley, 2021). Her book was awarded the 2021 Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature by UPCEA (University Professional and Continuing Education Association), recognizing the author and publisher of an outstanding work of continuing higher education literature. Thinkers50 named her one of 30 management and leadership thinkers in the world to watch in 2021.

Dr. Weise leads Rise & Design, an advisory service tailored for organizations seeking to design education and workforce strategies that will prepare working-age adults for the jobs of today and tomorrow. In the past, she has served as Vice Chancellor of Strategy and Innovation at National University System, Senior Advisor at Imaginable Futures, a venture of The Omidyar Group. She was also the Chief Innovation Officer of Strada Education Network as well as of Southern New Hampshire University. With Clayton Christensen, she coauthored Hire Education: Mastery, Modularization, and the Workforce Revolution (2014) while leading the higher education practice at Christensen’s Institute for Disruptive Innovation.

Her service work includes advising BrightHive, a data collaboration platform, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the SkillUp Coalition, Basta, Hitch, Bayes Impact, Clayton Christensen Institute Social Capital R&D Project, and World Education’s Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library. She has also served as a commissioner for Massachusetts Governor Baker’s Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning, Harvard University’s Task Force on Skills and Employability, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education.

Her commentaries on redesigning higher education and developing more innovative workforce and talent pipeline strategies have been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and on PBSNewshour. Michelle is a former Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Harvard and Stanford.

From the Baltimore Opera to QVC shopping channel, executive producer, host, best-selling author,and chart-topping recording artist Mike Rowe has had hundreds of jobs and relished his role as a chronic freelancer. He's best known as the ""dirtiest man on TV,"" a title he earned on the iconic TV series Dirty Jobs.

Today, you can join Mike for a romp through history on the Discovery+ series SixDegrees as he uncovers the surprising connections between two disparate things and shows howeverything in our crazy world is connected. You can also listen to him on The Way I Heard It, wherehe tells short stories you don’t know about people you do know and shares intimate conversationswith fascinating folks from his own life and career; read his New York Times best-selling book The Way I Heard It, a mix of biography and auto-biography based on his popular podcast; or watch himon the show Somebody's Gotta Do It on TBN or Pure Flix.

In what can only be described as anenvelope mix-up, Mike won an Emmy for his work on Facebook's groundbreaking series Returningthe Favor. As the country's leading advocate for skilled labor and the CEO of the mikeroweWORKS

Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity that debunks myths and misperceptions about the trades andhelps close the skills gap, his foundation has granted millions of dollars in work ethic scholarships. Inhis spare time, Mike keeps a lively conversation with more than 8 million friends on social media,where he talks about everything from the musings of his persnickety terrier named Freddy to themerits and pitfalls of blind patriotism.

Christine leads Handshake’s partnerships with the higher education community, which includes 18 million students from 1,250 educational institutions. A nationally recognized change agent and expert on strategies to drive equitable student career success, she is regularly

referenced in media, such as CNBC, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education. Prior to Handshake, Christine was the Associate Provost for Career Education at Wellesley College, where she received the 2017 Career Services Excellence Award from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the 2017 Innovation Award from Eduventures.

She has also held senior level positions and board roles at George MasonUniversity, Georgetown University, The George Washington University,NACE, and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).

Christine leads Handshake’s partnerships with the higher education community, which includes 18 million students from 1,250 educational institutions. A nationally recognized change agent and expert on strategies to drive equitable student career success, she is regularly

referenced in media, such as CNBC, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education. Prior to Handshake, Christine was the Associate Provost for Career Education at Wellesley College, where she received the 2017 Career Services Excellence Award from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the 2017 Innovation Award from Eduventures.

She has also held senior level positions and board roles at George MasonUniversity, Georgetown University, The George Washington University,NACE, and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).