Speakers

Speakers at The 10th Asian Conference on Education & International Development (ACEID2024) will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. This page provides information about presenters. For details of featured presentations, the conference schedule and other programming, please visit the Programme page.


  • Adela Balderas Cejudo
    Adela Balderas Cejudo
    University of Deusto, Spain; University of Oxford, United Kingdom
  • Robert E. Claar
    Robert E. Claar
    HekaBio K.K., Japan
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Brendan Howe
    Brendan Howe
    Ewha Womans University, South Korea
  • Kevin Kester
    Kevin Kester
    Seoul National University, South Korea
  • Keith W. Miller
    Keith W. Miller
    University of Missouri – St. Louis, United States
  • Miriam Sang-Ah Park
    Miriam Sang-Ah Park
    Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
  • Bhanu Ranjan
    Bhanu Ranjan
    SP Jain School of Global Management, Singapore
  • Dexter Da Silva
    Dexter Da Silva
    Keisen University, Japan
  • Merril Silverstein
    Merril Silverstein
    Syracuse University, United States
  • Kiyotaka Takahashi
    Kiyotaka Takahashi
    Keisen University, Japan

Become a Speaker

Excellent plenary speakers are central to our conferences, ensuring that timely, innovative and engaging content is presented to our audiences around the world. If you would like to be considered for a speaking slot at one of our conferences, please apply below.


Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past ACEID conferences via the links below.

Adela Balderas Cejudo
University of Deusto, Spain; University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Biography

Dr Balderas is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at the University of Oxford (UK). She holds a PhD in Business Administration and an Executive MBA from the University of Deusto (Spain). She also has a Master's in Marketing from the University of the Basque Country and a Master's in Professional Coaching. Her academic background includes training in Professional Coaching and Leadership from New York University, Stanford University, and Harvard University (USA). She has also gained expertise in Creativity and Innovation at Saint Martins College in London, UK.

A Professor at Deusto Business School at the University of Deusto and at the Basque Culinary Center, Adela is also a guest lecturer and collaborator at City Science MIT Media Lab and RCC Harvard (USA). She has also been a guest lecturer at several international universities, including the University of Oxford, Northumbria University (UK), Xiamen University (China), the University of Pennsylvania (USA), the University of Regensburg (Germany), the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (Switzerland). On a national level, she collaborates with several Spanish universities, including the University of Salamanca, the University of the Basque Country, and the University of Granada.

In addition to her academic roles, Adela is a consultant and speaker in the fields of management and leadership for both international and national companies. A mentor at the Imagine Creativity Center in Silicon Valley (USA), she is the author of the books Reinvent Your Leadership: 12 Keys to Managing Teams and Senior tourism: determinants, motivations and behaviour in a globalized and evolving market. Her publications and research interests cover leadership as well as tourism and well-being for the silver market.

Keynote Presentation (2024) | On People and Ageing: Opportunities in an Overlooked and Misunderstood Market Segment
Robert E. Claar
HekaBio K.K., Japan

Biography

Rob creates new businesses that address the unmet needs of patients, doctors, innovators, regulators, and payors. He is passionate about developing innovative solutions for access to Japan’s healthcare market.

Over three decades, Rob has founded, managed, and exited a number of healthcare businesses in Japan, Europe, and the United States, including Junicon, a global healthcare marketing research consultancy that developed Japan’s first comprehensive Key Opinion Leader (KOL) physician database and pioneered in-hospital observational research, and Vorpal Technologies, a regulatory consultancy that achieved the leading position in Japan for new category MedTech approvals.

He maintains a worldwide trust network with leading innovators in MedTech and Pharma through optimism, tenacious follow-through, and a spirit of collaboration.

Rob dedicates a part of his time to education and development as a Trustee of Yokohama International School and Board Chair of Hope International Development Agency Japan.

Keynote Presentation (2024) | Japan as a Role Model for Ultra-Aging Societies: Innovation and Sustainability in Universal Access Healthcare
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and is Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA programme, and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education (USA), collaborating on the development of the Global PhD programme.

Dr Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences around the world, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office in collaboration with IAFOR.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

Panel Presentation (2024) | Communication and Education for Peace
Brendan Howe
Ewha Womans University, South Korea

Biography

Brendan Howe is Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, South Korea, where he has also served two terms as Associate Dean and Department Chair. He is also currently the President of the Asian Political and International Studies Association, and an Honorary Ambassador of Public Diplomacy and advisor for the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has held visiting professorships and research fellowships at the East-West Center (where he is currently enjoying a second term as a POSCO Visiting Research Fellow), the Freie Universität Berlin, De La Salle University, the University of Sydney, Korea National Defence University, Georgetown University, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Educated at the University of Oxford, the University of Kent at Canterbury, Trinity College Dublin, and Georgetown University, his ongoing research agendas focus on traditional and non-traditional security in East Asia, human security, middle powers, public diplomacy, post-crisis development, comprehensive peacebuilding and conflict transformation. He has authored, co-authored, or edited around 100 related publications including Society and Democracy in South Korea and Indonesia (Palgrave, 2022), The Niche Diplomacy of Asian Middle Powers (Lexington Books, 2021), UN Governance: Peace and Human Security in Cambodia and Timor-Leste (Springer, 2020), Regional Cooperation for Peace and Development (Routledge, 2018), National Security, State Centricity, and Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2017), Peacekeeping and the Asia-Pacific (Brill, 2016), Democratic Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2015), Post-Conflict Development in East Asia (Ashgate, 2014), and The Protection and Promotion of Human Security in East Asia (Palgrave, 2013).

Panel Presentation (2024) | Communication and Education for Peace

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Internationalisation, Education and Development Cooperation in East Asia
Featured Discussion (2023) | IAFOR’s Collaborative Efforts: AAS and the IAFOR Research Centre
Kevin Kester
Seoul National University, South Korea

Biography

Kevin Kester is Associate Professor of Comparative International Education and Peace/Development Studies at Seoul National University, South Korea. He is cross-appointed to the Interdisciplinary MA/PhD Program in Global Education Cooperation in the Department of Education; Interdisciplinary MA Program in Peace and Unification Studies in the College of Social Sciences; and the MA Program in International Development in the Graduate School of International Studies. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of Hargeisa’s Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies in Somaliland and consultant to UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding in Seoul. He holds a PhD in Education and International Development from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research interests lie in the sociology and politics of education with a focus on the intersectional fields of comparative education, education and conflict, peace education, and global citizenship education. His most recent books are the Common Curriculum Guide for Peace Education in Northeast Asia (2023, UNESCO) and The United Nations and Higher Education: Peacebuilding, Social Justice and Global Cooperation for the 21st Century (2020, IAP). More on his background can be found here: https://kevinkester.weebly.com/

Keynote Presentation (2024) | Healing the Scars of War: Teaching for Peace through Higher Education in Divided and Conflict-Affected Contexts
Keith W. Miller
University of Missouri – St. Louis, United States

Biography

Keith W. Miller is the Orthwein Endowed Professor for Lifelong Learning in the Sciences at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, United States. In that position, he is partnering with the St. Louis Science Center. Dr Miller’s research interests are in computer ethics, online learning, and software testing. He is a past editor-in-chief of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. He was awarded the 2011 Joseph Weizenbaum Award in Information and Computer Ethics by the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT), and is currently the President of that society. He has been a principal investigator of grants from the US National Science Foundation to study the effects of ethics education for computer science students, and to encourage scientists to become teachers.

Keynote Presentation (2024) | Dealing with the New as We Get Old: AI, Aging, and Ethical Issues
Miriam Sang-Ah Park
Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom

Biography

Dr Miriam Sang-Ah Park is a Principal Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. She works as both a psychologist and researcher as well as the international lead for the School of Social Sciences. She obtained her PhD in cross-cultural psychology from Brunel University, United Kingdom, and her research has always had a focus on the significance of culture in shaping the daily lives, beliefs, and behaviours of people and groups around the world. More specifically, she has a keen interest in topics relating to psychological well-being and resilience, and she works closely with a group of ageing researchers establishing the concept and experience of positive ageing. She has taught classes on cultural and cross-cultural psychology, positive psychology, and research methods, and has won numerous awards for excellent teaching and scholarship. She has also served as an associate (and invited) editor for reputable journals, including the British Journal of Social Psychology. She is currently editing a special topic, ‘Improving Wellbeing through Positive Interpersonal and Intergroup Relations’, for Frontiers in Psychology. She has a recognised international research profile and has strong and global research collaborative networks.

Featured Presentation (2024) | Getting Old, Staying Young? Studying Older Adults’ Well-being
Bhanu Ranjan
SP Jain School of Global Management, Singapore

Biography

Dr Ranjan designed and currently leads a soft-skills program for the Master of Business Administration and the Executive-Master of Business Administration candidates at SP Jain School of Global Management, Singapore, crafting global business leaders equipped to lead in the new economy. She holds a PhD in Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness and has over 20 years of experience helping individuals and teams with crisis management, negotiation, conflict resolution, management communication, personal branding, presentation skills, and emotional intelligence in the workplace. She is a highly sought-after speaker and actively volunteers for a variety of community-building initiatives, alongside her service as an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAFVC).

Featured Presentation (2024) | Transforming Mental Healthcare While Harnessing Artificial Intelligence
Dexter Da Silva
Keisen University, Japan

Biography

Dr Dexter Da Silva is currently Professor of Educational Psychology at Keisen University in Tokyo. He has taught EFL at junior high school, language schools, and universities in Sydney, Australia, and for more than two decades has been living, and teaching at the tertiary level, in Japan. Professor Da Silva was educated at the University of Sydney (BA, Dip. Ed., MA), and the University of Western Sydney (PhD). He has presented and co-presented at conferences in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States, co-edited two books on Motivation in Foreign Language Learning, and written or co-written articles and book chapters on education-related topics, such as trust, student motivation, autonomy, and content-based language teaching. He is a past editor of On CUE Journal, past president of the Asian Psychological Association, regular reviewer for conferences, proceedings, journal articles and book chapters, and regularly co-chairs and participates in the Organising Committee of conferences on Motivation, Language Learning and Teaching, and Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences.

Panel Presentation (2024) | Communication and Education for Peace

Previous Presentations:

Featured Panel (2020) | Educating Children in Vulnerable Communities
Merril Silverstein
Syracuse University, United States

Biography

Merril Silverstein, PhD, is inaugural holder of the Marjorie Cantor Chair in Aging Studies at Syracuse University and serves as professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Human Development and Family Science. Professor Silverstein received his doctorate in Sociology from Columbia University, after which he served on the faculty of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. In over 200 research publications, he has focused on ageing in the context of family life, with an emphasis on intergenerational relations over the life course and international-comparative perspectives. Professor Silverstein currently serves as principal investigator for the Longitudinal Study of Generations, which has collected data from the same families for over fifty years, and is co-originator of the Longitudinal Study of Older Adults in Anhui Province, China, now in its 20th year. Professor Silverstein is a Fellow of the Brookdale Foundation, the Fulbright Senior Scholars program, the Gerontological Society of America, and the James Martin School at Oxford University. Between 2010-2014, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. In 2019, he was awarded the Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award from the Section on Aging and the Life Course of the American Sociological Association.

Keynote Presentation (2024) | Filial Piety and its Discontents in Rural China: How Coresidence and Migration of Adult Children Shift Perceptions by Older Parents
Kiyotaka Takahashi
Keisen University, Japan

Biography

Professor Kiyotaka Takahashi graduated from Sophia University with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and the University of Manchester with a Master of Philosophy in Social Anthropology, and subsequently worked as a development consultant in a private company for 5 years. He then served as a research and advocacy officer in a non-profit humanitarian organisation for about 10 years. Professor Takahashi was also a member of the Development Project Accountability Committee of Foreign Affairs in Japan. With these experiences, he moved on to teaching development studies and peace-building in Keisen University in Tokyo. He has published several articles on development cooperation and peace-building, and recently contributed a short article on human security and conflict in the book titled What is Real Globalization? (2023, Rural Culture Association), and another on the current situation of development and environmental refugees in the upcoming Encyclopedia of Peace Studies, edited by the Peace Studies Association of Japan, in June.

Featured Presentation (2024) | Critical Review on Changing Characteristics of Japan’s Development Assistance and Some Responses of Civil Society