Colm O'Reilly
Driector of the Irish Centre for Talented Youth, Dublin City University, Ireland

Colm O’Reilly PhD is the Director of the Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI) at Dublin City University. CTYI provides fast paced classes for academically talented students aged 6 – 16 years from all over Ireland and overseas. Currently the Centre caters for over 5000 students per annum and it is the only recognised teaching centre for gifted children in the Republic of Ireland. CTYI run over 120 academic courses annually for gifted students. Colm has worked in the area of gifted and talented education for the last 15 years and has published books, articles and presented papers at numerous conferences around the world. He has experience in teacher training for gifted students around Ireland and is responsible for the implementation of many classes and initiatives for gifted children and teachers in Ireland. Colm has recently been appointed as Secretary of the European Council for High Ability and he is also on the Council of the European Talent Support Network. He also serves on international Advisory Boards for gifted programmes in Virginia, Arizona and Maryland.

Del Siegle
Lynn and Ray Neag Endowed Chair for Talent Development, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, USA

Del Siegle is the Lynn and Ray Neag Endowed Chair for Talent Development in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, where he was honored as a teaching fellow. Prior to earning his PhD, Del worked as a gifted and talented coordinator in Montana. He is past president of the National Association of Gifted Children and has served on the board of directors of The Association for the Gifted. He is also past chair of the AERA Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent SIG. He has been co-editor of the Journal of Advanced Academics and  Gifted Child Quarterly. He writes a technology column for Gifted Child Today. Del’s research interests include web-based instruction, motivation of gifted students, and teacher bias in the identification of students for gifted programs. Along with Gary Davis and Sylvia Rimm, he is an author of the popular textbook, Education of the Gifted and Talented (6th and 7th ed.). He is the Director of the National Center for Research on Gifted Education (NCRGE), which replaces the former National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT).

Franzis Preckel
Professor of Giftedness Research and Education, University of Trier, Germany

Franzis Preckel is a Professor of Giftedness Research and Education at the Department of Psychology, University of Trier. She earned her doctorate from the University of Münster and was Director of the Counselling Center for the Gifted and Talented at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Since 2006, she is full professor of Giftedness Research and Education at the University of Trier. Her research interests encompass psychological assessment, intelligence, giftedness, and talent development. Franzis Preckel has published her research in top ranked journals including Psychological Bulletin or Perspectives on Psychological Science. She is author of the first German textbook about Giftedness and Talent, which was also translated to English. In 2017, she received the path breaker award of the AERA special interest group on Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent. In 2023, she received the International Award for Research of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children.

Amy Shelton
Executive Director, Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Amy Shelton, Ph.D., was appointed CTY’s executive director in October 2022. She leads the center in advancing its vision and brings to the role a thorough understanding of CTY operations, student and family needs and expectations, and a commitment to research and evidence-based teaching and curriculum.

Shelton served as CTY’s senior director for research from 2013-2022. From January 2019 to July 2020, she led CTY in an interim capacity, navigating the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it posed for CTY, its students, and their families. A professor and associate dean for research in the Johns Hopkins School of Education, Shelton holds joint appointments in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

Before joining CTY, Shelton was on the Psychological and Brain Sciences faculty at JHU from 2002-13. Her research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience focuses on spatial skills, individual differences, and mechanisms of learning, couched in the broad context of understanding the characterization and needs of each individual learner. She has a track record of publications in major academic journals and grant support. She has an M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Vanderbilt University.