About the Presenters

Dan Hunter is a playwright, songwriter, teacher, and founding partner of Hunter Higgs, LLC. Dan is the inventor of H-IQ, the first assessment of individual imagination and ideation. He is the co-author of A New Measure of Imagination Ability: Anatomical Brain Imaging Correlates, published March 22, 2016, in Frontiers of Psychology, an international, peer-reviewed journal. Dan has 25 years of experience in politics and arts advocacy, serving as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH), a statewide advocacy and education group, and as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, a cabinet appointment requiring Senate confirmation. He has also taught creative writing at Boston University since 2000.

Dr. Rex Jung is a highly respected neuropsychologist and brain imaging researcher. He is a former (2008-2021) Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico, and a clinical neuropsychologist, in private practice, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. Jung’s area of research and expertise is diseases of the brain, along with what is known as “positive neuroscience,” that is, what the brain does well. His research has focused on intelligence, personality, and creativity, as well as brain injury, trauma, lupus, schizophrenia, and awake craniotomy. Dr. Jung has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and served in a range of editorial roles across a number of journals. His work has also been featured many times in mainstream media, in outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Newsweek, and the BBC.

Hathalee Higgs is a founding partner of Hunter Higgs, LLC. She has 20 years of experience working with nonprofit cultural organizations in Vermont and Massachusetts. For two years, she served as Development Director of MAASH (Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences & Humanities). She also formed Emerging Arts Leaders of Massachusetts (EALM), a career development and advocacy group for young arts professionals in the Boston cultural community.

From 1999 to 2007, Hathalee was Producing Director of Kingdom County Productions (KCP), an independent film production company and nonprofit media arts organization in northern Vermont. Hathalee worked with award-winning filmmakers Jay Craven and Bess O’Brien to produce dozens of projects, most notably the feature films Disappearances (Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold) and The Year That Trembled (Fred Willard, Jonathan Brandis), and seven episodes of Windy Acres, an Emmy Award-winning comedy series for Vermont Public Television.

Hathalee was also Administrative Director of Fledgling Films, Kingdom County Productions’ educational division. She produced five years of the Fledgling Films Summer Institute, an intensive writing and production program for teenagers, during which 25 short narrative films and five documentaries were made with young filmmakers.

Hathalee earned a master’s in arts administration from Boston University and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

About the Moderator

Michael Campbell is CEO and Founder of Advancing Global EDU, a strategic consulting firm focused on the education space. With more than 20 years’ experience in marketing management, product marketing, branding, product development, social media, and sales, Mike loves working with passionate clients who are excited about the unique opportunity to innovate in education. His robust network includes start-ups and multi-million-dollar firms working all across the education market, including K-12, early childhood, higher education, e-learning, and corporate training. Mike is a visionary leader with keen marketing, technical, relationship-building, and business strategy skills.