Commencement Speaker | Benjamin Powers, DBA

Commencement Speaker

Benjamin Powers, DBA

Benjamin Powers is an educator, researcher, and thought-leader who believes that people with language-based learning differences, like dyslexia and ADHD, should be embraced for their strengths and potential. Throughout his career, he has championed evidence-based approaches that recognize individual strengths, promote independent thinking, develop self-esteem and self-advocacy, and fuel academic achievement.

Since 2012, he has served as headmaster of The Southport School in Southport, Connecticut, a leading day school for students with dyslexia and ADHD. There, he works collaboratively with faculty to deliver a leading-edge program for students in kindergarten through 8th grade. Beyond the classroom, the school’s Southport CoLAB furthers understanding of dyslexia and ADHD with parents, educators, and the broader community through research partnerships, seminars, and trainings.

Powers himself is committed to advancing research and understanding of learning differences. He is an affiliated research scientist at Haskins Laboratories, an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers working to enhance understanding of speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication. He is also is a research affiliate at Grenoble Ecole de Management, co-director of the Academic Center of Excellence for The Dyslexia Foundation, and a technical assistance provider for the National Center on Improving Literacy.

As an advocate, Powers has spoken at conferences around the world on topics including dyslexia and ADHD, building collaborative community partnerships to close the literacy gap and support the needs of diverse learners, and the importance of developing sustainable platforms of opportunity through entrepreneurship. He is the co-author of “Great Expectations: A Current Perspective on Education, Disability, and Society,” a chapter in the forthcoming book All About Language: Science, Theory, and Practice (Brookes Publishing, 2019).

Powers serves on the advisory boards of SXSW EDU, the Jemicy School, and Camp Spring Creek; he is an honorary board member of Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities. Fusing his interests in education and entrepreneurship, Powers is also a mentor for an engineering entrepreneurship program at the University of New Haven.

Powers holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Grenoble Ecole de Management, an Executive MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts from La Salle University. He is a Certified Dyslexia Practitioner and member of the International Dyslexia Association and an associate member of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators.