Keynote Speaker

Our Nationally Prominent Keynote Speaker:  Leonard Geddes

Transition Gaps and Traps

Leonard Geddes
Founder of The LearnWell Projects
YouTube: http://bit.ly/LearnWell_youtube
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-geddes/
Twitter: @learnwelledu
Hickory, NC

New students start college with 16,000+ hours of academic work hours under their belts. Yet, many are unable to capitalize on their years of experience. Educators have tried numerous approaches to boost retention, completion and graduation rates, yet those numbers still sag far behind expectations. Why aren’t students benefiting from their past academic labor? And what can educators and higher education institutions do to ensure more students thrive in school and beyond?

In his forthcoming book, Transition Gaps and Traps, Leonard Geddes identifies undetected obstacles that have normalized underperformance. Drawing upon cutting-edge research, Mr. Geddes will show us how to identify and rescue trapped students and unleash their — and our — full potential.

About Leonard Geddes

Leonard Geddes is the founder of The LearnWell Projects, an academic success organization that is devoted to making learning more visible, manageable, and effective. Mr. Geddes' work includes several years of conducting ethnographic observations on how students do academic work. His work leverages metacognition research to optimize student learning, enhance faculty instruction, and improve institutional outcomes.

Mr. Geddes is the former Association Dean of Students and Director of the Learning Commons at Lenoir-Rhyne University. During his 15-year term at the university, he served in various leadership capacities and developed a range of metacognitive-based programs that significantly increased overall student performance, including raising the performance of nursing students, first-year students, and student-athletes.

Mr. Geddes provides metacognitive-based workshops and trainings for colleges and universities throughout North America. He is a frequent invited speaker for several national student success, pedagogy, and research conferences. Educators, researchers, students, parents, and policymakers frequently access The LearnWell Projects' website to access research-based, practical solutions to academic challenges. Mr. Geddes’ forthcoming book will focus on how to effectively transition undergraduate students into college will be published with Stylus Publishing in 2022.