1976 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Betty Williams, Authors Brian Greene and Clifford Stoll to Highlight NSU's Summer Institutes This Week.

Business & Education Editors/City Desks

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 2000

Former Nobel Peace Prize winner and Palm Beach County resident Betty Williams, along with authors Brian Greene and Clifford Stoll, highlight this week's activities, as more than 800 students head to Fort Lauderdale for Summer Institute sessions, hosted by Nova Southeastern University.

Williams will be the keynote speaker at The Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services' Ed.D. Program in Child and Youth Studies Summer Institute. She will speak at the Grand Opening Session at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, July 15), following a welcome from FGSEHS provost and dean H. Wells Singleton, and an introduction from FGSEHS executive dean Bill Alvarez. The institute, held at The Wyndham Resort and Spa (250 Racquet Club Road, Fort Lauderdale, 389-3300) runs from Saturday, July 15 through Friday, July 22.

In 1976, Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work against violence in her native Northern Ireland. Together, she and Mairead Corrigan-Maguire founded the Community of Peace People, an organization that is still involved in the betterment of life in Northern Ireland.

Greene is a physicist at Columbia University who has been working on the unified theory of superstrings for more than a decade. He is widely recognized for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in the field (with popular accounts being reported in such publications as Science and The Los Angeles Times) and also for his expository skills for explaining cutting-edge research to both members of the physics communities and the general public. His latest book, The Elegant Universe, has received worldwide critical acclaim. Greene's lecture, "The Quest for the Theory of Everything," will be Sunday, July 16, at 2 p.m. as part of the FGSEHS's National Ed.D. Program for Educational Leaders Summer Institute at The Marriott Harbor Beach Resort (3030 Holiday Drive, Fort Lauderdale, 525-4000).

Stoll, widely known as an astronomer, computer security expert, and network maven, has been involved with computer networks since their inception. While at the University of California at Berkeley, Stoll broke a spy ring operating over the Internet. His best-selling book, The Cuckoo's Egg, chronicled his hacker chase. He has spoken to Senate committees, the FBI, the CIA, and NSA. His discussion on Thursday, July 20, at 1 p.m., "Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian," will look--as his book with the same name does--at how computers have encroached on our lives.

Another keynote speaker for the Educational Leaders Institute is Gerald Bracey (Sunday, July 16, at 10:45 a.m.). The nationally-known policy analyst, researcher, and author will speak of "The Greatly Exaggerated Death of American Schools."

Virginia B. Edwards, president of Editorial Projects in Education (which oversees the corporation that publishes Education Week, Teacher Magazine, and annual reports Quality Counts and Technology Counts) will speak on "Special Student Needs and School Violence" this Monday, July 17, at 11 a.m.

Other speakers this upcoming week at the National Ed.D. Program for Educational Leaders Summer Institute at The Marriott include: Seymour Sarason, professor emeritus, Department of Psychology and Institution for Social Policy Studies, Yale University; Michael Usdan, president, Institute for Educational Leadership; Deborah Wasserman-Schultz, representative, Florida House of Representatives; and William Smith, director, Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community Task Force, U.S. Department of Education.

NSU's Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services has also teamed up with The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for both of its Summer Institutes this upcoming week. A six-hour, two-evening workshop on how best to use today's new technologies flowing into schools and universities will be presented by Steven A. Schwab (dean of education for The Art Institute) and Jon Doranz (multimedia and web design instructor for The Art Institute) on Tuesday and Wednesday at both hotels.

The Ed.D. Program in Child and Youth Studies and the National Ed.D. Program for Educational Leaders are just two of five Summer Institutes for students being offered by Nova Southeastern University. Others include: doctoral programs from The Wayne Huizenga Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship, July 18-28, at the Doubletree Oceanfront Hotel; Programs for Higher Education, July 23-29, at the Westin La Paloma In Tucson, Arizona; and Programs in Instructional Technology and Distance Education, July 29-August 5, at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort. More than 1,500 students from across the country will be attending all of NSU's Summer Institutes over the next three weeks.

For more information on the Ed.D. Program in Child and Youth Studies Summer Institute, phone Dr. Noreen Webber of the university's Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services at 954/262-8564. For more information on the National Ed.D. Program for Educational Leaders Summer Institute, phone Nedra Borders of the FGSEHS at 954/262-8580.