Meet the keynotes! Welcome to the Open Education Global (OEGlobal) Conference 2026.
We are thrilled to present the impressive lineup of keynote speakers who will share their expertise and insights at this year’s event. Each of these distinguished individuals brings a unique perspective and approach to open education, and we are excited to have them join us in shaping the conversation around this critical field. Join us as we explore the latest trends and innovations and discover how we can work together to make education accessible to all.
The Traveling Archive: On Creativity, Community, and Classrooms Without Walls
October 7
Dr. Joshua Bennett
Distinguished Chair of the Humanities and Professor of Literature at MIT
Whose stories are considered precious? This is a question that has animated Dr. Joshua Bennett’s work as a poet, scholar, and arts educator for the past two decades. In this talk, he will tell the story of his ongoing collaborations with teachers, families, and archivists around the country to help students create archives, craft original works of art, and preserve the memories that matter most to them.
In a cultural moment marked by a widespread sense of disillusionment and isolation, attacks on our attention spans, and siloed sources of information that divide by design, “The Traveling Archive” paints a picture of communities of educators devoted to the preservation of stories that remind us of who and what we are, and all we have the potential to become. This talk will incorporate poetry, visual art, and an open conversation with the moderator and attendees about how we can support creativity and innovation in open education.
Speaker
Dr. Joshua Bennett is the Distinguished Chair of the Humanities and a Professor of Literature at MIT. He is the author of eight books, including The Sobbing School (Penguin, 2016), winner of the National Poetry Series and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award; Being Property Once Myself (Harvard University Press, 2020), winner of the MLA’s William Sanders Scarborough Prize; The Study of Human Life (Penguin, 2022), which was adapted for television in partnership with Warner Brothers Studios; and Spoken Word: A Cultural History (Knopf, 2023), which was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2023 and a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker.
Joshua earned his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He has recited his original works at venues such as the Sundance Film Festival, Madison Square Garden, the NAACP Image Awards, and President Obama’s Evening of Poetry and Music at the White House. He has also been invited to speak and teach writing workshops at hundreds of middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities across the United States, as well as in the U.K. and South Africa.
For his creative writing and scholarship, Joshua has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. His writing has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and elsewhere.
Alongside his work as an author and educator, Joshua is the founder of Brontosaurus, a digital platform devoted to helping students create archives in collaboration with their teachers and loved ones. He is also the founder and principal of Solon: a design studio specializing in the art of adaptation. He lives in Massachusetts with his family.
Moderator
Assistant Director
Open Education Innovation
MIT Open Learning
Sarah Hansen holds a PhD in Education, Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Minnesota. She is the Assistant Director of Open Education Innovation at MIT Open Learning, where she leads initiatives to harness the power of open praxis to democratize knowledge.
Talk with Us About Us: The Student Perspective
October 7
Panelists
Ashley Chamu Charco
Student Trustee, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Malcolm Mann
Student Community Government Inc. President, Rhode Island College
Lillian Sharpe
Education & Sociology Major, Eastern Connecticut State University
Nate Woodard
VP of the Student Senate & Student Trustee, Greenfield Community College
Hear directly from students about why open education matters to their lives and learning. This panel will explore the financial tradeoffs students navigate, the impact of open educational resources on their success, and the critical role that student voices play in shaping open education practices. Panelists will discuss how open education fosters meaningful engagement between students and faculty while advocating for continued commitment to expanding access to affordable, quality learning materials.
Speakers
Ashley Chamu Charco is a fourth-year student at UMass Amherst studying Political Science and Legal Studies. She is very passionate about advocating for underserved communities, especially when it comes to accessing education. She works closely with administration and organizations to promote and provide accessibility and inclusivity across campus.
Malcolm Mann is a third-year student at Rhode Island College studying Political Science, Public Administration, and Philosophy. He is passionate about student advocacy and student engagement, working to ensure student voices are represented in shaping education and institutional decision-making.
Lillian Sharpe is a senior at Eastern Connecticut State University majoring in early childhood education and sociology. She has a passion for learning and education across all ages.
Nate Woodard is a student leader, community advocate, and passionate voice for equity and inclusion in Greenfield, Massachusetts. At Greenfield Community College, he has served as Vice President of the Student Senate, Student Trustee, and the Community Colleges representative on the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Student Advisory Council. In 2025, he received GCC’s Dr. Martin Luther King Bright Lights Award for his community contributions. Beyond GCC, Nate is the Chair of the Greenfield Human Rights Commission and has advocated for racial equity, youth leadership, and greater representation in the community. He has also helped lead the Greenfield High School Students of Color Club and organize community events that bring people together.
Moderator
Professor of Business Administration
Middlesex Community College
Dr. Robert J. Awkward, Ph.D., is a professor of business administration at Middlesex Community College. Formerly, he served as the Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.
In that role, Bob was responsible for leading the advancement of a culture of assessment and the increasing the utilization of open educational resources for public institutions through convening, professional development, and statewide program coordination including the Mass. Open & Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (OLERAC). Bob possesses a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts Boston; a M.Ed. in Human Resources Development from Boston University; and both a M.S. in Economic Policy & Planning and a B.A. in Political Science from Northeastern University.
Catalyzing Open Synergies
October 8
Panelists
Prof. Rebecca Saxe
John W Jarve (1978) Professor in Brain & Cognitive Science; Associate Dean of Science at MIT
Nick Lindsay
Director of Journals and Institutional Partnerships at The MIT Press
Paola Corti
Project Manager and Instructional Designer at Politecnico di Milano; Open Education Community Manager of SPARC Europe
While open movements – including open education, open science, open publishing, and open data – have evolved along distinct paths, greater impact depends on stronger alignment and collaboration across domains. This panel brings together leaders from different open communities to explore where these movements intersect, how they can learn from one another, and what collective momentum might look like in advancing knowledge as a public good.
Speakers
Prof. Rebecca Saxe is the John W. Jarve Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Associate Dean of Science at MIT, a Fellow of the American Academy of Science, and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her research investigates the neural and cognitive foundations of how humans understand one another, and her work has been cited over 50,000 times.
She is also a dedicated mentor and a leading advocate for open science, serving as Vice Chair of the Center for Open Science and leading MIT’s STIRR initiative to embed rigorous, transparent research practices across her field. Her 2009 TED talk has been viewed over 3.5 million times and translated into 32 languages.
Paola Corti is Senior Open Education Expert at SPARC Europe, where she coordinates the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL), supports libraries in implementing the UNESCO OER Recommendation, and contributes to Connecting the Opens initiatives.
She also works at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) as a project manager and instructional designer, contributing to international projects, MOOCs design and development, and professional development programmes for faculty and researchers on Open Education and innovative pedagogies.
With a background in distance and digital learning dating back to 1998, Paola has been engaged in Open Education since 2015, contributing through projects, partnerships, and involvement in international communities. She has served on the Board of Directors of Open Education Global since 2023.
Moderator
Director of MIT Libraries and Founding Director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship
Chris Bourg is the Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the founding director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS). Prior to assuming her role at MIT, Chris worked for 12 years in the Stanford University Libraries.
Before Stanford, she spent 10 years as an active-duty U.S. Army officer, including three years on the faculty at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She received her BA from Duke University, her MA from the University of Maryland, and her MA and Ph.D. in sociology from Stanford.
Chris has extensive experience promoting equitable and open scholarship and is an advocate for the role of libraries in promoting social justice and democracy. Chris co-chaired the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries, the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to MIT’s Research, and the MIT Working Group on Scholarly Content and Generative AI. She is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Science, as well as the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship.
Chris is a member of several advisory boards and steering committees, including Annual Reviews, Center for Open Science, and the Stanford Data Science Institute’s Center for Open and Reproducible Science (DSI-CORES).
Future Thinking: Sustaining the Field
October 9
Panelists
Nicole Allen
Director of Open Education, SPARC; Executive Director, Open Education Association
Dr. TJ Bliss
Associate Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, Utah System of Higher Education (USHE)
Prof. Jackeline Bucio-García
Associate Professor,
Open University and Digital Education, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Luc Massou
Scientific Advisor, Ministry of Higher Education and Research (France); Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at University of Lorraine (France)
As open education matures, this panel explores what it will take to sustain not only the work itself, but also the people, institutions, and communities behind it. Panelists will discuss evolving funding models, the role of policy and partnerships, supporting the next generation of open leaders, and building long-term resilience for the field – offering practical ideas for strengthening sustainability at all levels.
Speakers
Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC. In this role she leads SPARC’s work to advance open resources and practices in education, which includes a robust state and federal policy program, a broad librarian community of practice, and national coordination across the open education field. She also serves as executive director of the Open Education Association.
Dr. TJ Bliss is the Associate Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer for the Utah System of Higher Education. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in education leadership at the University of Idaho. Previously, he served as the Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education and has held several other executive leadership positions in governmental, philanthropic, and non-profit sectors, primarily focused on open education. Bliss received a Ph.D. in education research and B.S. in microbiology from Brigham Young University and an M.S. in biology from the University of Nebraska.
Jackeline Bucio-García is a full-time Associate Professor at the Open University and Digital Education Area at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and a B.A. in Hispanic Language and Literatures from UNAM, as well as an M.A. in Asian and African Studies from El Colegio de México. Her work focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of AI-supported educational interfaces for open, distance, and blended learning modalities, the integration of Open Educational Resources (OER), and learning processes in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). She serves as the Latin America and the Caribbean Representative for the Resource Curation and Development Working Group within the Wikipedia & Education User Group (EduWiki Hub). You can find some of her professional activities at https://bit.ly/m/JackelineBucio.
Luc Massou is full professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Lorraine (France) and serves as scientific advisor to the General Direction for Higher Education and Professional Integration at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space since 2020.He coordinates 2 measures of the 2023–2027 ministerial roadmap for digital technology in higher education and research in France, focusing on improving visibility and interoperability of open educational resources and on building an open education national strategy for higher education. His research focuses on digital technologies’ appropriation and uses by academics.
Moderator
Cailyn Nagle is the Senior Program Manager for the Open Educational Resources initiative at Michelson 20MM Foundation. Her work aims to create a world where the cost of course materials is no longer a barrier to student success and shift the textbooks ecosystem to prioritize open as the default.
By collaborating with students, educators, administrators, and advocates on the ground, Cailyn combines programmatic and organizing strategies with traditional philanthropy to create systems of change. Before joining Michelson 20MM, Cailyn was a campaign director and student organizer on textbook affordability, civic engagement, and environmental campaigns. Outside of her work at 20MM, Cailyn is an active political organizer in the Los Angeles community and an avid fiber artist. She is passionate about revitalizing the commons as a means to create a freer and more equitable world.