Education and Social Sciences Section
Keynote speaker
Safary Wa-Mbaleka
Dr. Safary is an American educator and researcher. He specializes in the fields of curriculum and instruction, applied linguistics, online education, and qualitative research. He is currently a research associate professor at Bethel University, in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He has taught at several universities in the USA, Puerto Rico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, and Kenya.
He has authored and co-authored about 50 journal articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals, and more than 30 books and book chapters. Some of his major recent lead editing publications include The SAGE Handbook of Online Higher Education (2024), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (2022), Quantitative Research for Practical Theology (2023), and Qualitative Research for Practical Theology (2020). He is expecting next The Handbook of Integration of Faith and Learning, which is currently in press. He has delivered several conference presentations and research seminars in about 20 countries, mainly on research, education, and applied linguistics.
Dr. Safary holds 2 doctorates and 3 master’s degrees mainly from the USA and currently completing a PhD in qualitative research in Cyprus. He has been a chief editor of 2 other journals, an associate editor of a couple, and a peer reviewer of more than 20 national and international journals in the Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, Europe, and the USA. He was the founding president of the Asian Qualitative Research Association, the leading active qualitative research association in the whole Asia today.
Plenary speaker
Maria Vallejos-Cornejo
Dr. Maria Vallejos-Cornejo is the General Director of the Peruvian Union University, Tarapoto campus. She was the Academic Vice-President, Dean of the Engineer and Architecture Faculty, and the Research Center Director at the Peruvian Union University. In addition, she was the Asia Pacific Research Center Director in AIIAS, Philippines. Her bachelor’s degree is in statistics, her master’s degree is in the methodology of behavioral science and health, and her doctorate is in psychology with an emphasis on psychological intervention and biological and social determinants, awarded by Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. She has led market research, data processing, and information management studies. She has taught courses in statistics for 30 years at different universities and has published several articles. Her interests are quantitative research, self-regulated learning, and designing and constructing research instruments.
Theology Section
Keynote speaker
Denis Kaiser
Denis Kaiser, PhD, is associate professor of church history at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan (USA). His specialty lies in the history of Adventist theology and Ellen White Studies. He is the author of Trust and Doubt: Perceptions of the Divine Inspiration in Seventh-day Adventist History (2019), and a coeditor of the Oxford Handbook of Seventh-day Adventism (2024). He and his wife Angelika have two daughters that are to them a source of amazement and joy.