World-Renowned Scientist Ron Mallett to Keynote College of Nursing's “Driving the Future 2013”

Kent State University’s College of Nursing presents “Driving the Future 2013,” an event focused on inspiration and innovation and their roles in the education, science and healthcare of the future. The event will take place on Monday, March 4, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will feature a series of TED TALK-style presentations. The event will take place at the Kent Student Center with morning sessions at the Kiva. Registration is required by Wednesday, Feb. 27.



Driving the Future is a nationally attended conference series created in 2007 to facilitate brainstorming and dialogue addressing the gaps between education and practice for healthcare.



Scientist, inventor and educator Ron Mallett, Ph.D., will serve as keynote speaker at the event. Mallett teaches theoretical physics at the University of Connecticut. He was inspired as a child to challenge the test of time by his father’s untimely passing and by the HG Wells classic novel, “The Time Machine.” He vowed he would develop a theory to travel back in time to help his father, and this goal has been his life’s work for the past 40 years. Today he has a convincing and respected argument for time travel based on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Mallett will talk about how he developed his theory and how he persevered with what many feel is unbelievable or impossible.



Panel speakers at the event, from the fields of education, healthcare, science, medicine and the arts, also will share their inspirations, presenting their innovation expertise in a TED-TALK format. The speakers are:

•    Melody Tankersley, Ph.D., Kent State University Provost Fellow
•    Vincent Hetherington, D.P.M., senior associate dean of the Kent State College of Podiatric Medicine
•    John West, Ph.D., University Trustees Research Professor with the Kent State Liquid Crystal Institute
•    Maria Jukic, J.D., executive director of the Cleveland Clinic Arts and Medicine Institute

Following the morning presentations, the afternoon program is scheduled with breakout sessions for research poster and paper presenters focused on innovation.



In previous years, Driving the Future presentations have focused on ideal skills of graduates, nursing leadership acumen, forward-looking curricula, quality and safety, learning competencies and self-care. The audience has grown over the seven years of programming to now include not only students, faculty and practitioners in nursing, but also bench scientists, administrators, insurance and business executives and educators from a broad range of disciplines.



For more information about attending and to register for the morning session or the entire day of Driving the Future, visit www.kent.edu/nursing/events/driving-the-future.

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Media Contacts
Kathy Donchess, kdonches@kent.edu, 330-672-8747
Bob Burford, rburford@kent.edu, 330-672-8516