Chief Membership & Marketing Officer, Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)
Kari M. Arfstrom, Ph.D., is the Chief Membership & Marketing Officer of CoSN. She has over 16 years of experience with membership organizations: the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA), the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), and the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC). She also worked on Capitol Hill for a Representative from Minnesota and served as his liaison to the Science Committee, which reauthorized the Telecommunications Act of 1984 and the E-Rate program.
She is a former board member for the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET), the Education and Libraries Network Coalition (EdLiNC), and the Organizations Concerned with Rural Education (OCRE). She also consulted for the Rural School and Community Trust and the National Rural Education Association (NREA).
Dr. Arfstrom has a degree and licensure in secondary education from Augsburg College and is a former language arts teacher in Minnesota. Her Master's degree is in Library and Information Science from the Catholic University in Washington, DC. Her Ph.D., from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, is in Educational Leadership and Policy. Her dissertation research was a mixed methodology national study on the characteristics of emerging and established entrepreneurial ESA superintendents. She is an adjunct professor and has taught both traditional and online classes.
Associate Professor in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, Arizona State University (ASU)
Co-Founder, SMALLab Learning
Dr. David Birchfield is a co-founder of SMALLab Learning, an ASU spin-off company with the mission of advancing embodied learning in schools, museums, and learning centers. At ASU, he leads the K-12 Learning Group with a focus on designing technology-based learning environments. In this role, David coordinates the research and outreach activities for a team of interdisciplinary collaborators that spans eight ASU departments and includes a national network of university, school, and community partners. This effort has reached tens of thousands of students and educators in museums and schools across the country.
David has served as PI on grants from the MacArthur Foundation (2008-10), Intel Research (2008-11), and the National Science Foundation (2010-15). With a background in music, his personal research is focused on interaction and media system design as applied to creative and educational spaces. David’s research is published across multiple disciplines and his creative work has been presented in galleries and performances throughout North America, Australia, Europe, and China.
Founder and Executive Director, Campus Outreach Services
Katie Koestner is a national expert on technology issues, student safety, and teen relationship culture. She has appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine, as well as on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC Talk Live, CNN, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Later Today, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight, and other national television programs. She is the subject of an HBO movie and has lectured at over 1500 schools in North America.
Katie has assisted the U.S. Department of Education in developing and providing programs to women in high-risk communities. Her testimony on Capitol Hill was instrumental in the passage of federal student safety legislation. In 2007, Coe College awarded her an honorary doctorate for her extensive work on student safety and public service.