UACTE 2018

Dr. David WW Jones grew up on a wheat and barley farm in Washington State. David earned his B.S. & M.S. in Agricultural Education at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo. He taught agriculture for eight years at Atascadero High School and then returned to Cal Poly to teach Agricultural Education. He attended the University of Florida and graduated in May, 2006 with a Ph.D. in Agricultural Education with an emphasis in leadership development. In 2006, he was hired at North Carolina State University where he developed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership and leadership development. He led the development of the Agriculture Science Degree focusing on leadership development which has earned national recognition. Dr. Jones has presented to over 100,000 people and in 2013, received one of two USDA Excellence in Teaching Awards for a New Teacher. He has been recognized as a Fellow by both the National Association for Career and Technical Education and American Association of Agricultural Educators. Dr. Jones is most proud of his 2009 “Most Inspiring NCSU Professor” student nominated award. In July of this year, Dr. Jones left NC State to pursue his own leadership consulting business, Split Second Leadership, and to assist his wife in her business as a literacy consultant for her own company, Hello Literacy Inc. David is married to his college sweetheart, Jennifer and they have two daughters. David enjoys spending time with his family, flying kites and hosting friends.

Nate Ball is an Emmy-winning TV host, author, and mechanical engineer who became insatiably hooked on science and engineering at an early age. His childhood projects, which included a 1,000,000 volt Tesla coil and a kitchen-engulfing rocket fuel experiment gone awry, paved his way to MIT where he earned two degrees in mechanical engineering and two All-American honors in the pole vault. While in graduate school Nate became the youngest winner of the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for his inventive work.
Nate is passionate about outreach to kids, as his own childhood enthusiasm for hands-on learning led him to an exciting and multifaceted engineering career. He has hosted the three-time Emmy and Peabody award winning PBS Kids TV series Design Squad and Design Squad Global since 2007, and has made appearances on the History Channel, MythBusters, various news networks and across the TED sphere. Nate’s latest endeavor is his newly launched illustrated science series for 1st through 3rd graders called Let’s Investigate with Nate, published by HarperCollins Children’s.
Nate is also the co-founder and CEO of Atlas Devices, a company that develops advanced access and rescue equipment for the military and first responders worldwide, including the Atlas Powered Ascender: a real-life version of Batman’s grappling hook setup. He is based near Boston where he lives with his amazing wife Cat and their two young sons, whose love of discovery is a constant inspiration.