Speaking Engagements

Dr. Barbara S. S. Hong is an internationally recognized educator, author, researcher, and speaker whose work spans student success and persistence, teaching and learning, disability and inclusive education, college readiness, and educational leadership.

For more than 25 years, she has worked with students, educators, families, colleges and universities, schools, and government and community organizations in the United States and internationally. Her presentations bring together research, practice, and lived experience to challenge assumptions about who can succeed and what educators and institutions can do to make that success possible.

A central theme throughout Dr. Hong’s work is human potential. She speaks about why capable students struggle, why students sometimes leave college even when they have the ability to succeed, how learning differs from studying, how failure can become a catalyst for growth, and how self-awareness, self-regulation, self-advocacy, and self-determination can be deliberately developed.

Her work also examines the responsibility of educators and institutions. Through presentations on high-impact teaching, cognitive science, disability and accessibility, student persistence, early intervention, and data-informed student success, Dr. Hong helps audiences move beyond simply identifying problems toward understanding what they can do differently.

Drawing from her own journey from struggling student to professor, scholar, and educational leader, Dr. Hong brings a deeply personal dimension to her work on Failing Up: the belief that where people begin tells us very little about where they can ultimately go.

Signature Speaking Topics

• Failing Up: Turning Setbacks into Growth, Agency & Persistence

• Learning Is Not Studying: What Students Need to Know About How Learning Works

• High-Impact Teaching: What the Science of Learning Tells Us About How Students Learn

• Using Data to Find Students Before We Lose Them

• From Access to Completion: What Helps Students Persist?

• College Ready Is More Than Academically Ready

• Building Self-Determined Students: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation & Self-Advocacy

• Supporting Students with Disabilities: Access, Accommodations & Accountability

• From IEP and 504 to ADA: Preparing Students for the Transition to College

• Building K–12/Postsecondary Pathways That Lead Somewhere

• Preparing the Next Generation of Educators: Building Teacher Pipelines That Last

Selected Speaking Engagements & Professional Presentations

7 Habits of Equitable Accommodations for College Students with Disabilities. 44th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, 2025.

STOP the Leak: Retention Through the Eyes of Students. 44th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, 2025.

Support At-Risk Students Through Intentional Intervention. National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, 2023.

Support At-Risk Students with Proactive Tutoring Strategies. Oxford Education Research Symposium, University of Oxford, England, 2022.

Mixed Methods Framework for Implementing Best Practices for Supplemental Instruction in STEM Programs at Minority-Serving Institutions. Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference, Washington, DC, 2022.

Myths of Learning. International Conference on Teaching, Learning, Innovation & Educational Technology, Singapore, 2018. Conference Chair.

Making Sense of Your Child’s IEP. PACE Symposium: Parents as Advocates for Change in Education, Brigham Young University–Hawaii, 2017.

College Tutor and Academic Advisor Understanding in Working with Students Identified as Learning Disabled. Oxford Education Research Symposium, University of Oxford, England, 2016.

Faculty Perceptions of College Students with Disabilities. Oxford Education Research Symposium, University of Oxford, England, 2016.

Why American Schools Should Not Be Like Asian Schools. American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies Annual Conference, Acadia University, Canada, 2014.

Have Technology and Multitasking Changed the Way We Learn? World Congress on Education, London, England, 2013. Best Workshop Award.

Impact of Institutional Support Services on the Persistence and Graduation of College Students with Disabilities. 26th International Conference on The First-Year Experience, Waikoloa, Hawaii, 2013.

Qualitative Analysis of the Barriers College Students with Disabilities Experience. Oxford Education Research Symposium, University of Oxford, England, 2013.

Keynotes, Workshops & Professional Learning

Dr. Hong’s presentations can be customized for students, educators, faculty, academic leaders, families, K–12 schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, and community organizations.

Engagements are available as keynotes, conference presentations, half-day and full-day workshops, faculty and staff professional development, leadership retreats, student programs, and multi-session professional learning experiences.