Pioneer Academics 5th Annual Co-Curricular Summit

Dr. Francis S. Collins is a physician and geneticist known for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, for leading the Human Genome Project, and for his 12 years as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dedicated to public service, ethical leadership, and advancing scientific research, Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and received the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in 2026. His most recent book is The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.

Megan earned her BA and MA in English from Bradley University and spent nearly a decade teaching writing and humanities at the college level before joining the Davidson Institute in 2019 as a Family Consultant. In that role, she supported students and families more holistically, later advancing to Manager of Family Services, where she developed resources like the Advocate Together newsletter and improved accessibility to the Young Scholar application process. In 2023, she became Director of Outreach, where she continues to connect families with resources, collaborates with organizations such as Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, and represents Davidson at national and regional conferences. Her work focuses on expanding access to services and opportunities for profoundly gifted and twice-exceptional students and their families.

Shane McGuire works at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He has been in admissions for over 17 years and is currently in his 12th year at Vanderbilt. He oversees all domestic and international recruitment efforts and has had the privilege of working with students from all over the world.

Jann Lacoss is the Assistant Director of College Counseling at the Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena, CA. She has worked in college admissions for 20 years and prior to Westridge served as Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Caltech. Her classroom and student insights stem from over a decade of teaching Russian language, literature, and folklore at the university level.

Todd Kettler, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Baylor University and Executive Director of the Baylor Center for Talent Identification Programs (Baylor TIP). Dr. Kettler studies the science of exceptional performance, and more specifically, the talent development process by which high academic potential transforms over time into exceptional academic performance. Baylor TIP applies the talent search process to identify high academic potential and connect those students to appropriate learning opportunities.

Journalist and author Daniel Golden has been instrumental in three Pulitzer Prizes, one as a reporter and two as an editor. He won a Pulitzer as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in 2004 for a series of articles on preferences for children and donors in college admissions. He expanded that series into a critically acclaimed national bestseller, The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges — and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates published in 2006 by Crown, which released an updated edition in October 2019 with new reporting. The Washington Post selected The Price of Admission as one of the best non-fiction books of the year, while the Economist called it a “classic” and the New York Times praised it as “a delicious account of gross iniquities in high places.”

Golden’s book, Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America’s Universities, was published by Henry Holt in 2017. Spy novelist John Le Carre praised it as “timely and shocking,” and former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called it a “must-read.” He is the co-author, with ProPublica reporter Renee Dudley, of The Ransomware Hunting Team, which was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2022. Amazon made it an “editor’s pick” for best nonfiction of the year, and the New York Times described it as “brilliant.” The audio edition narrated by BD Wong won the Audie for nonfiction book of the year.

As a senior editor at ProPublica from 2016-2024, Golden guided a series on Latin American asylum-seekers caught between the U.S. government and the MS-13 gang, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. Before joining ProPublica, as managing editor at Bloomberg News, he edited a series about tax inversions — companies moving headquarters overseas to avoid taxes — that earned Bloomberg’s first Pulitzer Prize in 2015.

Golden spent 17 years as a staff reporter at the Boston Globe, including a stint on its Spotlight team, and served as senior editor for investigations at Conde Nast Portfolio. His Portfolio cover story, “Some Friend” revealed Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad, several former Cabinet members, and many other notables enjoyed favorable mortgages from Countrywide chief executive Angelo Mozilo. The story prompted a Senate Ethics Committee investigation and contributed to Dodd's decision not to seek re-election.
 

Besides the Pulitzer, Golden has won three George Polk awards, three National Headliner awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award, the Gerald Loeb Award, the Overseas Press Club award, the New York Press Club Gold Keyboard award and two Education Writers Association Grand Prizes. He was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for public service for a series exposing recruiting abuses by for-profit colleges. A Harvard College graduate, was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford in 1998-99. He lives in Belmont, Massachusetts. 

Brian Cooper, Director of Research & Development at Pioneer Academics, has extensive experience in gifted education. He spent 25 years at Duke University’s Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP), creating programs for talented students worldwide. He’s also an award-winning AP English teacher with a focus on engaging students in meaningful learning experiences. Cooper holds degrees in English and Secondary English Education and enjoys reading, theology, and disc golf in his spare time.

Anita meets with students, parents, and school counselors nationally and globally, introducing them to Columbia’s Pre-College programs and discussing the benefits of academic extracurricular programs. Before joining Columbia, she ran a private college consultation service for over 15 years.

Denise Mytko serves as Associate Director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University, where she leads pathway design. Her research explores non-traditional pathways, labor markets, and adult learning. Drawing from experience consulting with academic institutions, governments, and industry leaders, she is excited to meet the Pioneer Academics community.

Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt is the inaugural Dean of William & Mary’s School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics, where he leads interdisciplinary initiatives at the intersection of computing, data science, physics, and bioengineering. Prior to his Deanship, Dr. Schmidt held multiple leadership and research roles at Vanderbilt University, including Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering in Computer Science, Associate Provost for Research, Co-Director of the Data Science Institute, Associate Chair of Computer Science, and Senior Researcher at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems. He has also maintained a long-standing affiliation with Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, contributing to research initiatives over more than two decades.

Over a research career spanning four decades, Dr. Schmidt has made foundational contributions to software engineering, including work on patterns, optimization techniques, quality assurance, and model-driven engineering tools for mission-critical middleware and cyber-physical systems. His recent work focuses on prompt engineering and design patterns that improve the accuracy and expressiveness of large language models and generative AI platforms. Dr. Schmidt holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sociology from William & Mary and a Master of Science and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.

Michael Parkin is the Erwin N. Griswold Professor of Politics and former Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences at Oberlin College. As Associate Dean, Parkin focuses primarily on divisional administration and research compliance. His academic research explores the relationship between political candidates, the media, and voters in the United States. He is particularly interested in how candidates use ‘‘new media’’ and the effect this has on voters. Parkin’s research has appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and Political Communication. He teaches courses in American politics that deal with political psychology, media and mass political behavior, campaigns and elections, and quantitative research methods.