Speaker Biographies

Michael Arnold first became interested in rural education when he started kindergarten at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. This interest continues in spite of his best efforts to divert his attention to more profitable pursuits. He currently manages the rural education portfolio at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning in Aurora, Colorado and develops instructional materials for NASA missions and ABC News in the Classroom. He is chair of the National Rural Education Association's Research Committee.

Ruth E. Baker is the Managing Director of the Business, Economic and Community Outreach Network (BEACON), in the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, at Salisbury University. She earned a B.A. in History at Yale University and a Master's degree in Public Policy at Harvard University.

Memo Diriker, Associate Professor of Marketing at Salisbury University , is the Director of the Business, Economic, and Community Outreach Network (BEACON). BEACON is an outreach service organization operating under the auspices of the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at SU.

Robert Gibbs is a senior regional economist and leader of the rural labor, income, and education research group at the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, in Washington, DC . During his 13 years of federal service, his research has focused on topics such as rural-urban migration and the economic well-being of racial minorities. More recently he has led agency projects on the rural low-wage workforce and rural education. In addition to his duties at ERS, he has served as an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, as a visiting scholar at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, and in 2002 as president of the Southern Regional Science Association.

Nancy E. Jennings, B.A. (Macalester College), M.S. (University of Illinois , Urbana-Champaign), Ph.D. (Michigan State University), is associate professor and chair of the Department of Education at Bowdoin College in Brunswick , ME. She teaches courses in educational policy, current issues in education, and curriculum and instruction. She has over 10 years' experience teaching in public schools. Her work has appeared in numerous education journals including Journal of Education Policy, Teachers College Record, and Journal of Research in Rural Education. Her most recent work has focused on issues in rural education. She is the author of the book Interpreting Policy in Real Classrooms (Teachers College Press, 1995).

Daniel S. Kuennen is Director of the Rural Development Center, and Special Assistant to the President for University Outreach and Community Engagement at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He has received over $12 million in development grants for economic development on the Delmarva Peninsula.

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