School of Education
Lecture Series

Richard Culatta

Reimagining Education Together: Innovative Partnerships Between ISTE and Higher Education

Fall 2025 Lecture Series

Richard Culatta is an internationally recognized innovator and learning designer. His work centers on using artificial intelligence to empower people and accelerate problem-solving. As the CEO of ASCD/ISTE, Culatta is focused on preparing education changemakers to create amazing learning experiences for all students around the world. 

Prior to joining ASCD/ISTE, Culatta served as the chief innovation officer for the state of Rhode Island. In this role, he designed a program to make Rhode Island the first state to offer computer science in every K-12 school and created a state vision for personalized learning.

Culatta was appointed by President Obama as the executive director of the Office of Educational Technology for the U.S. Department of Education. In that capacity, he led efforts to expand connectivity to schools across the country, promote personalized learning, and develop the National Education Technology Plan, focusing on increasing equity and effectiveness of learning.

He also pioneered new opportunities for engagement between the department and educators and tech developers, including bringing top game designers from around the world to the White House to help redesign testing and learning materials. Prior to his role with the Department of Education, Culatta served as an education policy adviser to U.S. Senator Patty Murray.

Culatta’s book “Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World” (Harvard Business Publishing) uncovers the challenges with our current approaches to preparing young people to be effective humans in virtual spaces and presents a path to a healthier and more civil future digital world.

Culatta began his career in the classroom as a high school teacher and has coached educators and national leaders around the world on making learning more effective and equitable. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish teaching and a master's in educational psychology and technology from Brigham Young University.

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Tim Needles

Emergent Media in Education

Fall 2025 Lecture Series

Tim Needles is an artist, educator, performer, and author of “STEAM Power: Infusing Art Into Your STEM Curriculum.” He is a TEDx Talk speaker, a technology integration specialist, and teaches art, film, and emerging media at Smithtown School District and Five Towns College. His work has been featured on NPR, in the New York Times, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Alexandria Museum of Art, the Katonah Museum of Art, and the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

Needles is the recipient of ISTE’s Technology in Action Award and Creativity Award, NAEA’s Eastern Region Art Educator Award & ArtEdTech Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Rauschenberg Power of Art Award. He’s also a board member of NYSCATE and NYSATA, a National Geographic-Certified Teacher, a Kami Hero, a Formative Champion, a PBS Digital Innovator, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, an ISTE Community leader, an NAEA ArtEdTech interest Group chair, a teacher leader for the National Connected Arts Network PLN, and an Adobe Creative Educator.

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First Lady Abby Cox

Empowering Educators, Supporting Students: Utah’s Vision for Inclusive and Innovative Education

Fall 2025 Lecture Series

As Utah’s first lady, Abby Palmer Cox hopes to inspire Utahns to break down the barriers that separate people from treating one another as equals. She is an outspoken advocate for “getting proximate,” connecting through our differences, and combating the empathy crisis our country is facing.

Born and raised in the small rural town of Mt. Pleasant, Utah, Abby grew up on the Palmer family ranch, where the values of hard work and grit were a way of life. She enjoyed a close-knit family with loving parents, two brothers, and seven sisters. Both she and Utah Governor Spencer Cox graduated from North Sanpete High School and Snow College. He followed her to Utah State University, where she earned her degree in special education with a dual emphasis in early childhood and severe disabilities.

After law school in Virginia, Abby and Spencer returned to Utah to raise their family in Fairview, a town of about 1,200 residents, located two hours south of Utah’s capital. Throughout the seven years Spencer served as lieutenant governor, the family lived in and commuted from Fairview. They now primarily reside in Salt Lake City at the Utah Governor’s Mansion, but connections to their rural community remain strong and a priority for the family.

Abby has always been active in her community through PTA involvement, church youth groups, and service to the homeless. Abby enjoys riding horses, reading great books, music, hiking, running, and family outdoor activities. She and Governor Cox, her high school sweetheart, are the proud parents of four children — Gavin, Kaleb, Adam, and Emma Kate.

Abby’s initiative as first lady is called “Show Up,” because you can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up! She uses this platform to champion projects related to educator wellness, foster care awareness and support, expanded access to Special Olympics Unified Sports programs in schools across Utah, and statewide service.

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