Speakers

Associate Professor Haili Hughes is Associate Dean of Professional Experience and Partnerships at La Trobe University. A former teacher with more than 20 years’ experience, she is an internationally recognised expert in teacher development, mentoring, instructional coaching and educational change.

Haili has authored ten books and a national report on teacher retention, translating research into practical approaches that strengthen teaching and learning. Her work focuses on developing teacher expertise, improving professional learning and building effective partnerships between universities, schools and education systems.

Drawing on experience across England and Australia, she is committed to creating the conditions in which teachers—and their students—can thrive.

Zaretta Hammond, M.A., is a U.S. teacher educator and international education consultant who blends learning science, culturally responsive teaching, and improvement science to advance instructional equity for historically underserved student populations. She is the author of the bestselling books Culturally Responsive Teaching (2015) and The Brain and Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power (2025).

Ms. Hammond is a former teacher who exclusively taught expository writing in the classroom, which informed her frameworks and methods for building students’ cognitive capacity for effortful thinking. Since the early 2000s, she has guided teachers in accelerating literacy by applying the science of reading. For the past 25 years, she has supported schools and other institutions in strengthening the instructional core as a lever for moving toward educational equity.

Ms. Hammond has also authored numerous book chapters and articles on these topics for school leaders and instructional coaches. In addition, Ms. Hammond serves as a board member for The Teaching Well, a nonprofit organization that supports teacher well-being, and sits on several advisory committees for various literacy organizations.