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Do you need to hire a trusted expert who can connect with your students or faculty?
Here is a list of the best educational motivational speakers to consider for your event that can deliver a memorable speech and presentation that will inspire, educate, and entertain your audience.
These are some of the leading experts who can cover such topics as study habits, positive thinking, hard work, self-discipline, finding your passion, believing in yourself, never giving up hope, and more.
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Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most well-known scientists of our time.
An astrophysicist and a science communicator, Tyson has been actively educating people around the globe about the universe and its mysteries for the majority of his life.
His crown jewel is the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which was an absolute hit and won several Emmys, as well as a Peabody award for educational content.
A Harvard and Columbia alum, Tyson has been involved with some of the most eminent American institutions such as Princeton University and the American Museum of Natural History.
As an educational speaker, he is passionate about inspiring students to push themselves to work hard and get the most from their education.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates is perhaps the most famous business magnate and philanthropist in the world.
Best known as the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates took the company to unprecedented heights and absolutely dominated the PC market.
From 1995 to 2017, Bill Gates was ranked as the richest man in the world eighteen times.
Over the last decade, Gates has been actively conducting charitable work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the world’s largest private charity.
Through his foundation, Gates has worked to enhance global health care, reduce extreme poverty, expand educational programs and improve access to technology.
As an education keynote speaker, he has dedicated many hours to inspiring students to find the discipline and courage they need to expand their mind and think outside the box.
Adam Braun
Adam Braun is an American social entrepreneur and founder of a non-profit organization called Pencils of Promise, which has created educational opportunities for thousands of children around the world.
Braun started this organization with just $25 and developed it through funding from grassroot events, social media, and celebrity endorsements.
His book, The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change, was a New York Times Bestseller.
The book, which has been lauded by the likes of Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey, talks about finding your purpose in life and turning it into a career.
As a public speaker on education, he is passionate about inspiring students to be the change they want to see in the world.
Anant Agarwal
Anant Agarwal is a computer researcher and a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In addition to his contributions to the field of computer architecture, he is known for being the founder and CEO of edX.
EdX is an online learning platform, which started off as a collaboration between MIT and Harvard, but now enjoys the support of around a hundred and forty different institutes.
Agarwal has received several accolades for his contributions to both education and computer architecture.
He is the recipient of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education in higher education and has also received Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India.
As a motivational educational speaker, he has dedicated his life to ensuring that millions of people around the world can gain access to a good education.
Carol Dweck
Carol Dweck is an American psychologist, who is considered one of the leading experts in the word on the topics of mindset and motivation.
Currently, a professor at Stanford, Dweck earned her doctorate from Yale and has held professorships at Columbia and Harvard as well.
She has given talks around the world on the importance of mindset and its role in cultivating success and has over a hundred publications on the subject matter.
She has received countless awards for her contributions, including the prestigious Klingenstein Award for Leadership in Education.
Shawn Achor
Shawn Achor is a motivational speaker, who is regarded as a leading authority on the connection between happiness and success.
A Harvard Alum himself, Achor taught at Harvard for twelve years, where his lectures revolved around positive psychology, which was the most popular class taught at the university.
He is the author of New York Times bestsellers ‘The Happiness Advantage’ and ‘Before Happiness’, which deal with the importance of positive psychology in achieving meaningful success.
Achor has counseled executives at a number of Fortune 100 companies and his research work on the subject matter has been featured in the Harvard Business Review.
David Goggins
David Goggins is a motivational speaker with a rather unorthodox background.
While most educational motivational speakers have their roots in psychology or business, Goggins comes from a military background.
He is a former U.S. Navy seal, who has also served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His endeavors have taken him through some of the most difficult training programs in the world, and he has faced hardships that most people do not experience in their entire lifetime.
Therefore, it would be safe to assume that he knows a thing or two about staying motivated.
Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada is an American educator and social activist, who has spent more than 20 years doing pioneering work in educating the children and families of Harlem.
He is the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, which is a non-profit organization aimed at breaking the generational cycle of poverty. It does so by conducting parenting workshops and managing schooling and health programs.
Canada has received widespread recognition for his work; the New York Times magazine called HCZ “the greatest social experiment of our time”, and he has also received honorary doctorates from around ten different universities, including Princeton and Columbia.
Bill Nye
Famously known as “Bill Nye the Science Guy”, Bill Nye is the leading science educator and communicator of our time. He is best known for his educational program for children ‘Bill Nye The Science Guy’, which aired from 1993 to 1998.
A mechanical engineering graduate from Cornell University, Nye initially worked as an engineer for Boeing, where he invented a hydraulic resonance suppresser tube for the 747 planes.
Having always had a flair for theatrics and entertainment, Nye decided to pursue comedy and managed to combine his passion for science and entertainment.
He also serves as the CEO of the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization aimed at promoting space exploration.
Michelle Rhee
Michelle Rhee is an American educator, avid social activist, and an enthusiastic advocate of educational reforms.
Her zest for educational change led her to form two organizations, The New Teacher Project and StudentsFirst.
The New Teacher Project aims to provide quality instructors to students from underprivileged backgrounds, while StudentsFirst is a political lobbying organization that works for education reforms.
A Columbia and a Harvard graduate, Rhee has also served as the Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools.
Under her leadership, the schools in her district made wonderful improvements both in outreach and performance.
Linda Darling Hammond
Linda Darling Hammond is an American educator, who has written over 25 books and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles on education policy and reforms.
Currently serving as the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University, Hammond also worked as the education advisor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
She also serves as the President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute, which conducts high-quality research on the efficacy of educational policies and their practice.
As if all of the above achievements were not enough, she was also appointed as the President of the California State Board of Education.
Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell is perhaps one of the most famous educators in America, known for her unconventional teaching method, which led to the formation of a group called “Freedom Writers”.
This was a group containing Erin Gruwell herself and a bunch of students from the high school she taught at.
Together, they published The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them, which contained journal entries from Gruwell and her students regarding their experience in her class.
Through her methods, Gruwell transformed a group of “unteachable, at-risk” students into accomplished writers and social activists.
Eric Jensen
Eric Jensen is an American educator, former teacher and founder of Jensen Learning, an organization that helps people improve their learning capabilities using cutting-edge neuroscience research.
Jensen is the pioneer of “Brain-based” learning, which takes a practical, neurological approach to overcome challenges such as student’s lack of interest, improper schooling, and cognitive lags to name a few.
Jensen has extensive experience in teaching, and he has used that experience to make effective workshops training and DVD learning tools. He is also the author of 29 books, some of which have made it onto several bestseller lists.
Dr. Tererai Trent
Dr. Tererai Trent is a Zimbabwean-American scholar, educator and social activist. Her life story is an inspiration to millions and a true testament to the power of will and determination.
Having been born in rural Zimbabwe, she was not allowed to receive a formal education but still managed to learn using her brother’s old school textbooks. Despite countless hardships, she went on to receive multiple degrees from various American institutes and currently serves as the professor for global health at Drexel University.
She also founded Tererai Trent International, an NGO that has made several schools in Zimbabwe, including one in her own village.
Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch is an education historian and a public education expert. A Columbia graduate, she currently serves as a professor of education at New York University.
She was also the Assistant Secretary of Education during the presidency of George Bush Sr. Racitch has written thirteen books, many of whom have achieved bestseller status, and has also edited fourteen books.
She is the recipient of honorary degrees from nine different colleges, including Williams College, Amherst College, and Middlebury College, which are considered the top liberal arts colleges in U.S.
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