Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth is an edtech consultant, presenter, attorney, author, and teacher of Spanish and STEAM: Emerging Technology. Rachelle has a Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University School of Law and a Doctorate in Instructional Technology. Rachelle specializes in Artificial Intelligence, AI and the Law, Cybersecurity, and STEM. She has over 8 years of experience teaching and presenting on AI in her classroom, as well as working with educators worldwide. Rachelle is currently serving as the Grant Coach for an initiative through ISTE+ASCD and Pinterest. Rachelle works with 12 districts in the United States and assists with policy revision, professional development, and the design of resources for each Task Force.
Rachelle is an ISTE-certified educator and recipient of the ISTE Making IT Happen Award and several Presidential Awards for volunteer service to education.

She is also a blogger for Defined Learning, Edtech K12, Edutopia, Getting Smart, and Tech and Learning. She is the host of the ThriveinEDU podcast, ISTE's Learning Unleashed podcast, and The Lift by Amazon on BAM Radio Network.

I am a fourth-year educator who graduated from Montana State University in the spring of 2022 with a minor in creative writing, and I currently teach junior high and high school English in a rural Montana school. My teaching experience includes courses in journalism, creative writing, film and literature, grammar, reading, writing, and literary analysis. I am passionate about creating meaningful learning experiences that help students think critically, communicate clearly, and connect literature, media, and writing to their own lives and the world around them. Much of my professional development has focused on standards-based and project-based grading, helping me design instruction and assessment that better reflect student growth, mastery, and meaningful application of skills. In addition to teaching, I coach athletics, support school communications, contribute to grant writing and community outreach, and help build programs that expand student opportunities in a small-school setting.

Tracy Rassley is the Programs Manager for the Montana Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). After a 24-year paralegal career and nearly seven years as an AFSP volunteer, she has served in her current role for almost four years. Tracy has delivered a wide range of AFSP programs, including Talk Saves Lives, Caring Communities, Finding Hope, It’s Real for teens and middle schoolers, and It’s Real for college students.

Tracy is also a strong advocate for first responders and veterans. As a veteran herself, and the spouse of a man who is a retired veteran, retired law enforcement officer, and retired volunteer firefighter, she understands the unique challenges these communities and their families face. Her work is further driven by a passion for educating teens and college students, rooted in her belief that lasting progress in mental health awareness begins with empowering young people.

A loss survivor, Tracy lost her 19 year old son, Patrick, in 2015. She is a certified support group facilitator and has led the Parents of Suicide Support Group since 2017, dedicating herself to supporting others through grief and healing.

Thai Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling at Utah State University, where she focuses on preparing future educators to support students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism and complex support needs. With over 30 years of experience as a licensed special educator and National Board Certified Teacher, she brings extensive classroom and international teaching experience to her work. Her research centers on access to the general education curriculum and the integration of evidence-based practices, high-leverage practices, and Universal Design for Learning, with a primary focus on writing instruction. She is committed to advancing inclusive practices and improving access to meaningful academic instruction for students with complex support needs.

I have been teaching Earth Science for 13 years in public school and conducted Fulbright teaching research in Vietnam in 2023 on climate change education. BS in GeoSciences and Earth Science Ed, MS in Earth Science and MAT in Earth Science education.

Ms. Richards earned an M.Ed. from Lesley University in instruction and curriculum. She has taught every grade from pre-K to college and has taught in various facilities, including a two-room schoolhouse and an elementary school with over 1,300 students. Additionally, she has taught students with special needs and gifted students. She currently teaches at Pine Hills Correctional Facility in Montana. She has earned many teaching awards, including the Golden Apple and Crystal Apple

Dr. Deborah Rinio is an Associate Teaching Professor and Program Leader for the fully online Library Media Certificate Program at Montana State University. She has over 20 years of experience in K-12 and higher education.

Ken Robison is a chronicler of neglected Montana history, a preservationist, and the historian at the Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton. Ken is a trustee on the Board of the Montana Historical Society and has been honored as a “Montana Heritage Keeper.” In 2026, he was honored with the 17th Annual Paris Gibson Award in Great Falls and inducted as a Distinguished Alumni at Great Falls High School. Captain Ken Robison served 29 years in Naval Intelligence during the Cold War.

Andy Rowse is a Bozeman-based designer, engineer, entrepreneur, AI-enthusiast, and father of three voracious readers. He was inspired to work on education software after witnessing the learning
challenges his own kids faced during COVID and afterwards. When not working on software, he enjoys skiing, 3d design/printing, games of all sorts, and volunteering at Monforton Public School (go Wildcats!).

Denise Rutledge is a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TSVI) at the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind. She has worked at MSDB for over 20 years and has additional certifications in special education, Deafblindness and secondary social studies. She teaches a variety of subjects but has a passion for integrating assistive technology into the daily lives of her students.

Nick Salmon is the founder and president of the Collaborative Learning Network. He is a ninth-generation educator focused on educational facility planning, professional learning for educators, and design support for future-flexible learning environments that cost less to design, build, own, operate, and maintain. He is the world’s first self-certified educational furniture whisperer- capable of coaxing the greatest potential out of the unruliest school furnishings.

Nick’s global practice (6 continents, 38 countries, 42 US states) includes co-facilitating Harvard’s annual Learning Environments For Tomorrow Institute. In addition to working with more than 200 schools on more than 40 educational visioning and master planning efforts, Nick is a co-founder (with Dr. Fran Locker & Gabriel Diago) of the Revolution in Education Congress in Bogota and Cartagena, Colombia. Nick is the four-time host of the online webinar 24Hours of PBL+, an international celebration of Project-Based Learning that includes learners and educators from 75 schools and organizations in 40 countries on 6 continents. As co-founder of USTAWI Global, he is committed to connections, learning & communities coming alive.

He frequently extends his learning through continuous professional learning and short courses, including the Transformative Learning Communities with Antioch University, Let’s Play! From Project Zero’s Power of Play at Harvard University, Hakuba Forum, Master Teacher Endorsement from Inspire Citizens, Deeper Learning at High Tech High, Compass Education Teaching & Learning for a Sustainable World: A Systems Thinking Approach, and Web of Support Integrative Youth Development from Kalos Eidos.

Nick shares insights into the development of exceptional learning environments at the University of Melbourne’s Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC) Transitions 18; Australian Independent Schools Tomorrows Environments for Learning; School Planning & Delivery Conference, Sydney, NSW; Queensland Association of State School Principals (QASSP), Brisbane, Queensland; South By Southwest EDU (SXSWEDU); Montana Conference of Educational Leadership; regional and global conferences of the Association For Learning Environments; webinars and workshops for the Ohio School Facilities Commission, Association for Learning Environments, University of Montana and Montana State University.

Nick developed the online Collaborative Learning Assessment to establish a common understanding of current educational practices and desired future practices. Video resources are typically shared in advance of planning workshops as a foundation for small group discussions about project-based learning and concurrent discussions about time, technology, relationships, school culture, equity and belonging. The energy of the workshop is expanded to include a broad cross-section of the community through the online “How I Learn Best” and “Where I Learn Best” surveys in English and Spanish. Subsequent workshops focused on facility concepts build upon the combination of small group discussions and online surveys to engage the community as the keepers of the vision.

Nick is a trained Professional Affiliate of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an Association For Learning Environments Recognized Educational Facility Planner, a PBLWorks-trained PBL Coach, a guest commentator for the University of Montana Graduate School of Education, a former visiting and adjunct professor at Montana State University School of Architecture, and of the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design.

He is the co-author (with Erin O’Reilly & Mar Cano) of teamED: Building more effective teams for projects, education, and communities. Nick is the author of Almost, tales of failure, recovery & persistence and near brushes with discomfort. Nick has also written a children’s book entitled Pelchers: childhood memories of the village store. A second children’s book Fireflies will be published in 2026.

Megan Sanford has been the archives manager at The History Museum & Research Center since 2014. She has a B.A. in History from the University of Providence. Megan has also attained a Public History Certificate from the University of Montana. She is an active researcher in Montana history and serves on multiple historic preservation committees in the Great Falls community.

Dr. Schertz is a professor in the Teaching and Learning Department at the University of Montana. He is a philosopher of education by training. He teaches many courses for the department, which include our EDU 407: Ethics and Policy Issues and Methods for K-8 Social Studies.

Dax Schieffer is the Executive Director of the Montana Council on Economic Education. The mission of MCEE is to improve economic literacy of Montana's youth and Schieffer draws on nearly 20 years of private sector business including executive level experience.

State Assessment Director - Montana Office of Public Instruction


Dr. Ryan Schrenk is an educational leadership professional with nearly three decades of experience driving educational innovation, technology integration, and statewide program implementation. Currently serving as the State Assessment Director at the Montana Office of Public Instruction, Dr. Schrenk's team leads statewide initiatives aimed at helping Montana schools efficiently fulfill federal assessment requirements while modernizing assessment practices. His work centers on promoting through-year assessment models that empower educators to leverage actionable, timely data to directly impact daily teaching and learning decisions. Prior to joining the OPI, Dr. Schrenk served as the Instructional Program and EdReady Department Director at Montana Digital Academy, scaling statewide learning programs to serve hundreds of school partnerships.

Wendy Schultz, M.Ed. is a bilingual literacy specialist in her eighth year teaching Spanish and ELA at Jefferson High School. She earned a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Masters in Language Education from Rutgers University GSE, New Brunswick, NJ. She coauthored two scholarly publications concerning the methodology in general of comparative phonological reconstruction, of Proto-Chadic in particular. She has been continuously employed for 38 years teaching the English and Spanish languages and linguistics to all ages from preschoolers to postgraduates in the United States and Costa Rica. Her career began in 1988 teaching ESL to inmates at the Boulder (CO) County Jail, and to adult family members of public school students at the Lafayette site of CU's Family English Literacy Program. In Helena, Montana she taught Spanish in preschools, elementary and secondary schools, for Adult Education, and privately. In eight years’ legal full-time residency in Costa Rica, she trained Public School English teachers for the Ministry of Education, taught English and Linguistics for the University of Costa Rica and in K-12 schools, gave invited lectures and workshops (in Spanish & English) on second language acquisition and pedagogy and Columbia School Theory (CST), and taught Spanish privately. Upon return to U.S., she taught Spanish at a public MS/HS in southern VT for six years before her husband begged her to move back to Montana for their - ahem, HIS - golden years. Since 1995 she is a professional member of the Columbia School Linguistics Society (CSLS) and a practitioner of its Theory (CST) which thoroughly informs her pedagogy. Her presentation aims to inspire similar fascination with linguistics and, as a practical matter, demonstrate activities you can try with students that reduce error and hesitation in the production of language, first or second. She currently resides in Whitehall and - when not home reading, talking or thinking about linguistics - is probably playing volleyball, shooting pool, swimming in a river, or soaking in a local hot spring, with or without her husband, grown daughter in Butte, son in Bozeman.